From The New York Times
by Sharon Otterman
Somewhere between stepping off the school bus and climbing into the go-kart, Sandra Ibrahim, 14, took off her pink hijab. She was on a trip to an indoor amusement park in New Rochelle, N.Y., with her Islamic weekend school, surrounded by other Muslim children, parents and teachers. She knew the adults would like her to keep the head scarf on. But there she was, zooming along the track, her dark brown ponytail swinging freely behind her.
Sandra wants to wear the hijab when she is ready, because she wants to follow the guidelines of her religion. She thought she was ready in fifth grade, when her parents rewarded her with a Barbie video game and other prizes for each week she kept it on. But there was teasing and bullying, her family said. Students at her public school yanked it from her head at least twice. So she took it off. She tried again in the middle of sixth grade, and again in seventh. This year, in eighth grade, she had not even tried.
Sandra lives in a religiously tolerant place, by almost any standard. New York is a cosmopolitan city, and her family’s home is in a heavily Arab enclave in Astoria, Queens, just a block away from the fragrant sweet shops, Middle Eastern restaurants and hookah cafes along Steinway Street. On Wednesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that New York would become the nation’s largest city to close public schools for the two most important Muslim holidays, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, a move that officials hope will help increase tolerance in the schools. Still, Sandra’s life as a young Muslim has not been smooth.
It is much the same for many of the dozens of young teenagers with whom she attends Islamic school each weekend at the Muslim American Society community center, on the top floor of a three-story office building on Steinway Street. Most of the children, like Sandra, attend public school during the week, and live in two worlds. The broader American culture confronts them with a drumbeat of news about Islamist terrorism, movies like “American Sniper” that depict Muslims as enemies, and video games in which the villains have beards and turbans. Then there are their families and religious institutions, where the Islam they learn, they say, stresses personal responsibility, being good and turning the other cheek. It is a religion that encourages praying, resisting temptations like gambling or having a girlfriend or boyfriend, and respecting family.
