Anisah
Okay. My name is Anisah, I am 20 years old. I’m from Indianapolis, Indiana. I lived there my whole life until I came here.
My major is mechanical engineering. On campus I’m mainly involved in the Muslim Student Association. I’m the Islamic Education Chair, or Director, for the MSA. I volunteered with Habitat for Humanity a few times and a few different engineering programs, but that’s mainly what I’m involved in. My parents names are Ismail and Nashia. They’ve been married for, I think, 21 years, recently. Their anniversary was not that long ago, but I think 21 years. My dad, he converted to Islam 40-something years ago. My mom converted 20-something years ago, not too long before they got married. So my sister and I were born Muslim. I have a younger sister she’s seventeen, still a junior in high school. Then I have my little cousin that my parents are adopting who also lives with us. She’s not Muslim, but my immediate family is. Like, my parents and I are Muslim, and the rest of my family, for the most part, is Christian or not really religious. |
A Day in the Life
I guess now being in college is kind of cool because I have more space in my schedule. When I need to go pray I can go, and I have time. I don’t do it as often this semester, but I could go and stop in the mosque, especially since it’s on campus, I would stop there and pray. It’s nice being able to do that. That’s one thing that’s cool about being in college, whereas in high school I never got to go to Jummah because it’s on Fridays and it’s like 1-1:30 so it would be right during the school day. I never got to go during school, whereas now I can fit it in my schedule pretty much every week. I would say a typical day… I guess I get up earlier. The first prayer is pretty early in the morning. I have an alarm set pretty early. Explaining this to some of my friends, they think it’s weird that I have an alarm set and then I just go back to sleep after that. Other than that, I go to class, I pray when it’s time to pray, I do my homework. There’s a place in [Mechanical Engineering] in the Gatewood wing. It’s right up the stairs and there’s these two couches. I like to nap there sometimes, if I’m going to read sometimes I’ll go there and read. I love the URSC in Shreve. That’s one of my favorite places to study on campus. I’ve recently realized that you can check out books for fun in Stewart. That’s one of my favorite places now. 
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When I was younger, I never went to Islamic school, I would go to Weekend School, which is basically like Sunday school. I would go to that when I was younger, but I just wasn’t that interested, like a lot of little kids. Me and my sister’s best Muslim friends, our bonding moment, like when we really became friends, was us lying to our Sunday school teacher and telling her we were sick so she left. No one was really paying attention to us in the mosque because she was supposed to be with us. We were playing, and anytime someone would walk past, we would sit and pretend like we were talking about something we were supposed to be talking about. That’s like the first time we became friends.
A lot of people in America that I know, that are American-Muslims, have converted. Then there are also a lot of people who their parents moved here or they’ve lived here for a long time, but their family has just been Muslim for a long time. I guess it’s just kind of a split.
I grew up in Indianapolis. I grew up in sort of the center of Indianapolis, sort of east but not far east. That’s where I lived for most of my life. Then when I turned 15, we moved to the northeast side. I went to Indianapolis public schools my whole life. I’m black, both my parents are black. I guess most of the schools I went to my whole life were mainly black or mainly black and Hispanic. It’s quite a bit different form here. The schools I was at, we’d pretty much be the only Muslim family there. There might be, like, one or two other families, tops.
My dad was a large part of building the Muslim community in Indianapolis before it was as big as it is now. Him and some of his friends, and they were all black Muslims, they started this mosque called Al-Fajur, it was in a house and that was them.
I’ve always been close to my mom. We’ve always spent a lot of time together. When I was younger what she would always tell us was like whenever we’d go somewhere or go do something, instead of saying “be good,” or “be on your best behavior,” she’d always tell us to behave in a way that’s pleasing to Allah, and I thought it was, like, thinking about it now it’s really cool. If you’re really on your best behavior, you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do. Now it’s just kind of expected that that’s what we do.
Just watching my mom and how she is is really where the most influence came from, I guess. She’s always, she’s been someone who’s— both of my parents really— they’re really involved in the community. They’re both really busy people. Me and my sister growing up, that was just normal for us to be super busy. She’s really involved in PTA, and she runs a couple of food pantries, and she’s really involved in the Mosque, and they do summer camp in the summer. I think just being involved in the community and showing that, doing something more than how the media portrays Muslims, and Muslim women, and showing that we do a whole lot more than that. That’s just not an accurate way to represent us.
There was a time where I really didn’t like my middle name, because it’s not a typical middle name. It’s Bint Ismail, which means “daughter of Ismail”. When I was younger people would say things about my name. That would make me uncomfortable. In middle school there was times when people would make terrorist jokes and that kind of thing. I guess they never really got to me though. I don’t know, I just never really cared that much. I just knew they were stupid kids. It never really— I don’t remember it ever really hurting my feelings. I don’t really look back and feel bad about it, I guess.
Whereas, now that I’ve gotten older, I feel like social media really has influenced that. Just the things people say. If you look at posts on Facebook and you just look through the comments, and there’s so many things that people say. I feel like that’s been more hurtful and… that’s made me feel like… not that I didn’t belong, but just that I wasn’t welcome by some people. I always feel like I belong here, because I’ve never lived anywhere else. I think just reading negative comments and reading that people literally want to kill all the Muslims and, “they got to go back to wherever they came from,” even if it was from here.
I remember my mom talking about it when she was at work, and she’s always worn hijab, she’d worn hijab forever; but then after [9/11] happened, so many people started treating her differently. Some people [treated her] like she was a different person almost, and a lot of people were encouraging her to take it off and that kind of thing.
After that, my dad considered changing all of our names back to his. His name was Hicks before, so he changed it when he converted. He actually considered changing all of our names back just to avoid the trouble.
I started playing volleyball and I actually didn’t start wearing hijab until I came to Purdue. I started playing volleyball in seventh grade. When you play volleyball you wear the little tank top and spandex, and when I was in seventh grade that’s what I wore. By the time I had got to high school I had been wearing it all the time. That’s just what I continued to wear. My parents weren’t super strict on that. I feel like I kind of used that as an excuse not to wear hijab because I thought “it’s weird if my sophomore year I’m wearing spandex and a tank top, and then I come back the next year fully covered.” I didn’t want to be as modest then. That’s one thing.
In high school, I wouldn’t say I was a part of any religious [student organizations] or any that really influenced [my religion]. I was part of the… Youth Chapter of the NAACP.
I saw a video of a guy, he was at the school board meeting and he was upset because they were making allowances for students to make prayer on Friday because of course, they’re in school and they miss the Friday prayer every week. Basically he was saying it like we’re trying to force Islam on everyone. He took a Quran and was tearing it up at the school board meeting.
It’s just really annoying because people don’t understand the privilege. It’s just we miss out on [praying] just because of how the school week is set up.
I guess here [at Purdue] it doesn’t seem like the Muslim community is as diverse as it is at home. I grew up knowing a lot of black Muslims because my parents are black Muslims...but here I don’t see it as much, especially on campus. That’s something I would really like to work on with MSA, is getting more black Muslims involved so it will be a greater representation of the Muslim community.
There’s a time last year and it was during Islamic Awareness Week. I was volunteering with the MSA, and one of the things we were doing was passing out roses and they had little flyers about things that were going on for Islamic Awareness Week. We met another Muslim on campus, he was asking where the mosque was. He was asking the other girl was with about that, and then he looks at me and he goes, “Convert?” like, asking. I’m like, no.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a convert. Both of my parents are converts and I think it’s great. Hearing my dad talk about it is really great because he always talks about how when you convert you have to go out and find it. Whereas, me and my sister, we take it for granted because this is something that we’ve grown up with our whole life, but he had to go out and seek it out and find it, but yeah I’ve always thought that’s really cool.
I would say at the beginning of the semester I felt like I had to prove myself more to get them to listen to my input and that kind of thing. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a girl or if it’s because I’m Muslim, or if it’s because I’m black, or just a combination of the three, or if it’s something else completely.
Last semester I was in the Artisan Fabrication Lab and I was working on a project and it was me and another guy and then the TA, he just literally did not talk to me. It was like I was completely not there, but again I don’t know the reasoning behind it for sure.
There was a time when I wanted to be a nuclear engineer. My dad was kind of joking around about it like, “Are you sure you want to do that? They’re going to see your name and be like uh…?” I actually ended up changing my mind for other reasons. I’m just not good at chemistry.
There’s been times when I’ve been worried, like going to interviews. If I know who’s interviewing me I can kind of stalk them so I can learn as much about them before I start. Then there’s been times when I’ve been kind of worried, what if they have an issue with Muslims? Not everyone thinks about that when they’re going into an interview.
So many people focus on the things that separate us instead of the things that bring us together. I think [that] as a Muslim community, we should work on being more united versus the things that [make us different]. I guess it’s definitely important to focus on the differences, but it’s just a lot of people, when they say that, it just feels like they’re... like there’s a difference between being a convert. There is a difference of course, you have a different background and everything, but it doesn’t make you any less of a Muslim.
I guess now being in college is kind of cool, because I have more space in my schedule. When I need to go pray I can go, and I have time. I don’t do it as often this semester, but I could go and stop in the mosque, especially since it’s on campus, I would stop there and pray. It’s nice being able to do that. That’s one thing that’s cool about being in college, whereas in high school I never got to go to Jummah because it’s on Fridays and it’s like 1-1:30 so it would be right during the school day. I never got to go during school, whereas now I can fit it in my schedule pretty much every week.
I would say a typical day… I guess I get up earlier. The first prayer is pretty early in the morning. I have an alarm set pretty early. Explaining this to some of my friends, they think it’s weird that I have an alarm set and then I just go back to sleep after that. Other than that, I go to class, I pray when it’s time to pray, I do my homework.
There’s a place in [Mechanical Engineering] in the Gatewood wing. It’s right up the stairs and there’s these two couches. I like to nap there sometimes, if I’m going to read sometimes I’ll go there and read. I love the URSC in Shreve. That’s one of my favorite places to study on campus. I’ve recently realized that you can check out books for fun in Stewart. That’s one of my favorite places now.
A lot of people in America that I know, that are American-Muslims, have converted. Then there are also a lot of people who their parents moved here or they’ve lived here for a long time, but their family has just been Muslim for a long time. I guess it’s just kind of a split.
I grew up in Indianapolis. I grew up in sort of the center of Indianapolis, sort of east but not far east. That’s where I lived for most of my life. Then when I turned 15, we moved to the northeast side. I went to Indianapolis public schools my whole life. I’m black, both my parents are black. I guess most of the schools I went to my whole life were mainly black or mainly black and Hispanic. It’s quite a bit different form here. The schools I was at, we’d pretty much be the only Muslim family there. There might be, like, one or two other families, tops.
My dad was a large part of building the Muslim community in Indianapolis before it was as big as it is now. Him and some of his friends, and they were all black Muslims, they started this mosque called Al-Fajur, it was in a house and that was them.
I’ve always been close to my mom. We’ve always spent a lot of time together. When I was younger what she would always tell us was like whenever we’d go somewhere or go do something, instead of saying “be good,” or “be on your best behavior,” she’d always tell us to behave in a way that’s pleasing to Allah, and I thought it was, like, thinking about it now it’s really cool. If you’re really on your best behavior, you’re doing everything you’re supposed to do. Now it’s just kind of expected that that’s what we do.
Just watching my mom and how she is is really where the most influence came from, I guess. She’s always, she’s been someone who’s— both of my parents really— they’re really involved in the community. They’re both really busy people. Me and my sister growing up, that was just normal for us to be super busy. She’s really involved in PTA, and she runs a couple of food pantries, and she’s really involved in the Mosque, and they do summer camp in the summer. I think just being involved in the community and showing that, doing something more than how the media portrays Muslims, and Muslim women, and showing that we do a whole lot more than that. That’s just not an accurate way to represent us.
There was a time where I really didn’t like my middle name, because it’s not a typical middle name. It’s Bint Ismail, which means “daughter of Ismail”. When I was younger people would say things about my name. That would make me uncomfortable. In middle school there was times when people would make terrorist jokes and that kind of thing. I guess they never really got to me though. I don’t know, I just never really cared that much. I just knew they were stupid kids. It never really— I don’t remember it ever really hurting my feelings. I don’t really look back and feel bad about it, I guess.
Whereas, now that I’ve gotten older, I feel like social media really has influenced that. Just the things people say. If you look at posts on Facebook and you just look through the comments, and there’s so many things that people say. I feel like that’s been more hurtful and… that’s made me feel like… not that I didn’t belong, but just that I wasn’t welcome by some people. I always feel like I belong here, because I’ve never lived anywhere else. I think just reading negative comments and reading that people literally want to kill all the Muslims and, “they got to go back to wherever they came from,” even if it was from here.
I remember my mom talking about it when she was at work, and she’s always worn hijab, she’d worn hijab forever; but then after [9/11] happened, so many people started treating her differently. Some people [treated her] like she was a different person almost, and a lot of people were encouraging her to take it off and that kind of thing.
After that, my dad considered changing all of our names back to his. His name was Hicks before, so he changed it when he converted. He actually considered changing all of our names back just to avoid the trouble.
I started playing volleyball and I actually didn’t start wearing hijab until I came to Purdue. I started playing volleyball in seventh grade. When you play volleyball you wear the little tank top and spandex, and when I was in seventh grade that’s what I wore. By the time I had got to high school I had been wearing it all the time. That’s just what I continued to wear. My parents weren’t super strict on that. I feel like I kind of used that as an excuse not to wear hijab because I thought “it’s weird if my sophomore year I’m wearing spandex and a tank top, and then I come back the next year fully covered.” I didn’t want to be as modest then. That’s one thing.
In high school, I wouldn’t say I was a part of any religious [student organizations] or any that really influenced [my religion]. I was part of the… Youth Chapter of the NAACP.
I saw a video of a guy, he was at the school board meeting and he was upset because they were making allowances for students to make prayer on Friday because of course, they’re in school and they miss the Friday prayer every week. Basically he was saying it like we’re trying to force Islam on everyone. He took a Quran and was tearing it up at the school board meeting.
It’s just really annoying because people don’t understand the privilege. It’s just we miss out on [praying] just because of how the school week is set up.
I guess here [at Purdue] it doesn’t seem like the Muslim community is as diverse as it is at home. I grew up knowing a lot of black Muslims because my parents are black Muslims...but here I don’t see it as much, especially on campus. That’s something I would really like to work on with MSA, is getting more black Muslims involved so it will be a greater representation of the Muslim community.
There’s a time last year and it was during Islamic Awareness Week. I was volunteering with the MSA, and one of the things we were doing was passing out roses and they had little flyers about things that were going on for Islamic Awareness Week. We met another Muslim on campus, he was asking where the mosque was. He was asking the other girl was with about that, and then he looks at me and he goes, “Convert?” like, asking. I’m like, no.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being a convert. Both of my parents are converts and I think it’s great. Hearing my dad talk about it is really great because he always talks about how when you convert you have to go out and find it. Whereas, me and my sister, we take it for granted because this is something that we’ve grown up with our whole life, but he had to go out and seek it out and find it, but yeah I’ve always thought that’s really cool.
I would say at the beginning of the semester I felt like I had to prove myself more to get them to listen to my input and that kind of thing. I don’t know if it’s because I’m a girl or if it’s because I’m Muslim, or if it’s because I’m black, or just a combination of the three, or if it’s something else completely.
Last semester I was in the Artisan Fabrication Lab and I was working on a project and it was me and another guy and then the TA, he just literally did not talk to me. It was like I was completely not there, but again I don’t know the reasoning behind it for sure.
There was a time when I wanted to be a nuclear engineer. My dad was kind of joking around about it like, “Are you sure you want to do that? They’re going to see your name and be like uh…?” I actually ended up changing my mind for other reasons. I’m just not good at chemistry.
There’s been times when I’ve been worried, like going to interviews. If I know who’s interviewing me I can kind of stalk them so I can learn as much about them before I start. Then there’s been times when I’ve been kind of worried, what if they have an issue with Muslims? Not everyone thinks about that when they’re going into an interview.
So many people focus on the things that separate us instead of the things that bring us together. I think [that] as a Muslim community, we should work on being more united versus the things that [make us different]. I guess it’s definitely important to focus on the differences, but it’s just a lot of people, when they say that, it just feels like they’re... like there’s a difference between being a convert. There is a difference of course, you have a different background and everything, but it doesn’t make you any less of a Muslim.
I guess now being in college is kind of cool, because I have more space in my schedule. When I need to go pray I can go, and I have time. I don’t do it as often this semester, but I could go and stop in the mosque, especially since it’s on campus, I would stop there and pray. It’s nice being able to do that. That’s one thing that’s cool about being in college, whereas in high school I never got to go to Jummah because it’s on Fridays and it’s like 1-1:30 so it would be right during the school day. I never got to go during school, whereas now I can fit it in my schedule pretty much every week.
I would say a typical day… I guess I get up earlier. The first prayer is pretty early in the morning. I have an alarm set pretty early. Explaining this to some of my friends, they think it’s weird that I have an alarm set and then I just go back to sleep after that. Other than that, I go to class, I pray when it’s time to pray, I do my homework.
There’s a place in [Mechanical Engineering] in the Gatewood wing. It’s right up the stairs and there’s these two couches. I like to nap there sometimes, if I’m going to read sometimes I’ll go there and read. I love the URSC in Shreve. That’s one of my favorite places to study on campus. I’ve recently realized that you can check out books for fun in Stewart. That’s one of my favorite places now.
