Article Response 3

Rachel Lorenzo

10/01/11

LAE 4530.001

Tara Payor & Nina Graham

Article Response 3

            Curious to hear a Muslim woman’s perspective on post 9/11 attacks, I read “Student Teaching at Ground Zero: One Muslim Woman’s Challenge.” I was able to relate to this woman and further understand the Muslim culture, one I have had the opportunity to interact with on a personal level many times.

            Spanish being my first language and having been born outside of the States, I can empathize with this woman feeling a “wave of nervous anticipation” before starting as an intern in New York City. I have often experienced this when thinking about my students and their parents learning that I English was not my first language, that I was once and ESOL student with an accent. Will I be less credible in their eyes? Will my students feel ashamed that someone like me is teaching them their own language?

When I begin to think like this I steady myself with knowing that my own AP Literature teacher was a Puerto Rican, Spanish speaking woman herself. She went through the same trials and her employers certainly thought her eligible enough to teach at the AP level. This Muslim woman feels out of place in a world dominated by white women, women that more closely represent the American culture. But just as time changes the human face, so it changes the face of a country. This country’s face is rapidly losing its ability to fit into a specific category.

To truly learn about this ever-evolving country, we must learn about the people that make it up. This includes those of the Muslim religion. For the past year, I have had the privilege to get to know many people for different parts of the world through my job as a “Conversation Leader” in INTO USF. The majority of this student population was Muslim, specifically from Saudi Arabia. I got to know this community, this culture, this religion not from an outsider’s perspective, but as a friend and mentor. For many of the women, depending on their home country, wearing a hijaab is a personal choice. Some women wore western clothes with their hijaab, some were fully covered in the traditional jilbaad like the author of the article. What I learned from both men and women of this religion is that they have great respect for the people around them but also know how to have fun. They are very family oriented and friendly towards their friends and neighbors. Most importantly for us, they greatly respect their teachers.

As a teacher I want to teach my students about this now taboo culture. This culture and religion our nation has hushed up about in its tense coexistence with it. So many personal reflections can be heard about 9/11by many different people but one has to dig to hear one from a Muslim. The two sources provided in this article were great because one is a story of a great historical American writer that can be related to Muslim women’s coverings while the other is directly from a Muslim woman.

If people were more educated about the religion and the fact that it was one very small group out of over a billion who follow the religion who were responsible for the attacks, healing and harmony could take place.