I took a World Religions class in college last year and for our final project we needed to sit down and speak with a person of a faith other than our own (it was a little more complex than that, but to give you a basic idea anyway). Not a single person in the class chose Islam (the majority chose Buddhism......not surprising, it IS an art school after all) except me. My proposal was to speak with a number of Muslim women of varying ages to get a feel for the differences in how women in different age groups view their roles in their religion. Unfortunately, I had a tough time finding someone to speak with me (it was later that I discovered that the reluctance was due to another student who had been very disrespectful.....sad thing). I did manage to arrange to meet with a group in the end, but my plan needed to be changed as the women were all between the ages of 18 and 28 (not quite the range of ages I was hoping for). However, these women were from a number of different backgrounds. Two from Algeria, one was originally from France but was an American citizen, one was from Dubai, but spent her middle-school and high-school years as the only muslim student in a Catholic school in the US, two were from Brunei, one was a 4th generation African-American and a handful were from Pakistan.

The meeting was very interesting and all the women were very comfortable speaking with me. They were all very well spoken and highly educated.

The issue of the hijab was one that they brought up first because it was a discussion they'd been having amongst themselves for some time. Several girls come from families where the hijab is not worn and yet they have decided to wear the hijab despite the wishes of their families otherwise. Most of these girls made the decision to cover because they wanted to be visually identifiable as Muslim in an attempt to prove that all Muslims are NOT the terrorist types Americans read about in the newspaper. There were a few others whose female relatives wear the hijab but these girls chose not to cover. Their families are fine with the decision they made, because in their families the decision to wear or not wear a hijab is entirely that of each individual woman. None of the girls who wore the hijab felt they were forced in any way and some have decided that for now they would prefer to use it but did not expect they would always wear it in the future. I got the impression that as young people the majority of them were trying to reclaim a symbol of their religion as so many young people tend to do.

All of the girls were very close with their families and family is extremely important in Muslim life. Very few Muslim girls will marry before earning their Masters or Doctorate because education is so important in finding a marriage partner. It was explained, that they needed to be independent and not solely reliant on a husband and education provides that ability.

There were SO many more subjects we covered, but sorry.....I'm not in the mood to sit here typing all night....LOL!

Several of the women regularly attended church services or synagogue with friends of other faiths not only in their former countries but also in the US. Most saw very little difference between the Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths. The bible is considered a holy book to them (as it is to many Muslims). They were not at all offended even that when asked I professed to them that I am Atheist and certainly don't hold that against me as I spent several hours with them that day and have since met with them a few times more (just as friends).

"Oh, we are but soft and squishy bags of mortality rolling in a bin of sharp circumstance, leaking life until we collapse, flaccid, into our own despair." --"Fool" by Christopher Moore