[Music]
Alum um I'm not a speaker I'm going to
be the first to tell you that I'm
extremely nervous but inshallah I'll be
okay
um well I I come from Michigan I'm 31
years old married um but I come from a
Christian family but like most of us
converts um my father's side is Catholic
and my mother's side is very
conservative Christian
Baptist um so me converting was a very
big deal for my entire family however my
mother did come from a very large family
and um she was the one child out of the
six children that uh maybe rebelled and
didn't Embrace Christianity and um so my
mother did raise me quite differently um
she raised me to be very open-minded uh
very liberal politically and religiously
I guess you could say but I embraced all
of her values and morals of thinking but
I never really embrac the way she
thought about
religion from a very young age I
actually was very attached to
Christianity on my own nobody pushed me
because my grandparents weren't really
around pushing me into Christianity I
just willingly entered into that
religion so I started going to young
life and Christian camps and um really
trying to get involved in the religion
as much as I could and um I believe I
was about 15 years old I went to
Minnesota went to Young Life Camp um not
sure if any of you are aware of it but
to Christian Camp is amazing great time
but they have you stand up and in front
of about a crowd about this size and
then they have you claim Jesus as your
lord and savior and that's exactly what
I did um I did it but I did it kind of
blindly I was 15 years old you're you
don't really in you're not really
researching as much as you should be
you're kind of just following what
people are telling you to believe you
don't really question and so I went
ahead and did that um went about my life
and and always hide in my mind um just
kind of what my mother would always be
putting in my mind you know how can all
the children who haven't heard of The
Gospel aren't aren't they going to hell
is that what they teach you and so I
would be battling this like argument
Within Myself and be like no I believe
in Jesus but yet my own mom is telling
me that um you know how can anybody just
tell a random person that they're going
to hell and so I never really fa that
question well then going um into college
I um I was
but I never questioned anything they did
I never because they spoke Arabic I
spoke English like and so I started
learning a little bit of Moroccan Arabic
but you can't communicate so awesome
experience came home went about you know
my life I graduate college I then worked
at a bank um here's where the irony
comes in is I still even though I lived
in a Muslim country I still had no idea
about Islam like I had no idea but yeah
I worked at a bank and I was dealing
with interest on a day-to-day basis and
something told me to quit something
within me was like this is not right I'm
not supposed to be doing this I
obviously now I know what it was but at
the time I could not explain it and I
just knew I was not doing what I was
supposed to be doing I was on the wrong
path so I've always wanted to be a
photographer I needed to be in a
creative field so I quit everything
dropped everything and I moved to
Florida and went to photography School
at the same time I uh decided to uh join
project downtown
and this year I met n year over there
from Orlando um he's an a convert mashah
um so I met tons of Muslim friends one
of them being naen she runs Nuna and
actually zanab is the vice president of
Nuna so masah um nen's an awesome friend
and um I approached her at this the same
time I started photography school um at
that time uh they asked me to do a an
assignment and I would be able to do a
documentary on my choice I I decided to
do it on hijab so I'm like I lived in
Morocco I wore this for three months but
yeah I still have no clue why they wear
it and um so I asked NeNe I was like can
I please interview you and um she's like
absolutely so we went ahead I did an
interview I asked to these questions
that I was like just generic questions
that I get all the time you know like
why do you wear it do people judge you
is it hot you know like whatever and
like I got that question in Georgia a
couple weeks ago um so like obviously
like ignorant questions you know CU I
had no idea what I was talking about and
so when she started speaking to me she
opened up my eyes and she was like
you're Christian right I'm like yeah
she's like well you know it's in the
Bible that says it's in Corinthians 11:
6 that you were supposed to wear the
hijab I was like really so then she just
kept opening up my eyes and this is you
know the thing is about Islam the reason
why I the beauty of it why I love it so
much is it's such a feminist religion
and then and I grew up as like the
biggest feminist and I was like you know
always like fighting like for women's
rights and everything but like what you
end up learning is like that's what
Islam did Islam gave rights to women
women and so that's what I loved about
it and so I started listening to her and
you get this other point of view that
you never thought of you think that you
know um Muslim women that they don't
really have a career and maybe they're
they just all they're there for their
husbands and all these stereotypes that
are out there they really are there and
she opened up my eyes and she's like
just look around and look at the
magazine aisle nothing is sold without a
woman's body being put next to it and I
remember her saying she's like you can't
even sell a bag of chips without having
a naked woman next to it and I'm like
yeah like that's not feminism that's
that's oppression like I've been living
in an oppressed society and yet I don't
even know it like why do we have to feel
so self-conscious about our bodies all
the time and so I really started
thinking about it I went home I looked
up her verse the verse in the Bible I
was like wow this is really there and
and then from there I got so interested
and I decided to look in the Quran and
what the Quran said about the hijab and
then
surprisingly when I read the Bible's
verse about hijab it was actually very
demeaning for women I don't know if many
of you have read it but it actually says
that if you don't wear the hijab you're
supposed to shave your head in shame and
that seemed to me a very demeaning way
but yet the Quran talks how beautiful
the woman is that I should be covered
and so that's what I started just
looking at things differently so then I
just was so interested every I couldn't
I couldn't like get my hands off of
learning about Islam so then I would
read it you know books and read the
Quran I'd watch YouTube videos like
Yousef essis was one of my favorites so
I would just like look at all his
YouTube videos and and um I did this for
about like three months but then I knew
I was going to become Muslim so then I'm
like I'm not ready to take my shahada
but I'm ready to put my hijab on
so I actually put the hijab on before I
took my shahada and I didn't put it on
fulltime traveled to New York and I
decided to put it on just cuz I felt
comfortable I felt like I would blend in
like I wouldn't stand out then I
remember flying back and I remember
going to class and I remember just being
so nervous
and alhamdulillah like I got through it
and everybody you have to answer to
everybody why why are you wearing that
because you come in and you're not
wearing it and I know it's minuscule now
but alhamdulillah I'm so proud to wear
my hijab now but at the time it's so
hard you know you have to explain to
everybody and I did it but it took so
much
strength um and then 3 months later IE I
just kept researching and
researching and I'm like yes this is the
religion for me I'm ready to do this and
I remember being
alone and um it was was July 29th 2011
it was the Friday before Ramadan at Juma
I was going to Juma and everything but
yet I still was at Muslim but I remember
sitting this uh next to this lady and
she said think you should convert before
Ramadan starts there'll be so many
blessings and so I thought about it and
thought about it and then got in my car
and then I was like yes this is what I
want to do I'm ready so I went and
grabbed the first woman I could find and
I was like I want to take my shahada up
and um so she went and grabbed the first
brother and we went and I took it and
just this sense of Peace just came over
me when I took my
shb um and since then it's been it's
been a journey it's definitely been a
journey
um I believe I was really on the wrong
path right away I was not really praying
you know no one's there to guide you
like you're trying to do things on your
own you're like I don't know how to pray
I'm going to watch a YouTube video and
try so then you just like do the best
you can and then like I'm living I'm
supporting myself living in an apartment
alone so I'm like okay well K says too
fast from Sunrise so I'm going on the
chart and I start like at the sunrise
time not the fure so it's like you do
things wrong but you like do the best
you can you know and um alhamdulillah
like my family uh my mom took it pretty
hard um she which was actually kind of
the irony of it she had taught me my
whole life to be open minded and accept
everybody and it was so hard for her to
accept this
um and I believe I had it very easy
compared to a lot of converts some
converts they are disowned by their
families and
but um my mother alhamdulillah after a
while she accepted it but she would
always say you know why do you have to
wear the hijab can't you just take that
off and so I would and you go through
this struggle even though this is kind
of what led me to Islam the
hijab is I would take it off for my mom
I'd go home to Michigan and I take it
off and so you feel like this battle
you're like I'm trying to be Muslim but
I'm trying to please my family and so
it's just this struggle um but
alhamdulillah like my family now accepts
everything and I believe I'm on the
right path I'm praying five times a day
now so I'm still learning butul it's my
story
so