Following the Fast: Local Muslim Teen Aims to Foster Unity from Diversity

There are many things that define Suhair Said. She is a leader, president of Andrew High School’s diversity club. She is a student, a rising senior at Andrew. She is a sister and cousin to a huge extended family with many little cousins that she helps care for in the summer. And she is an American Muslim.

Having grown up in the wake of 9-11 and the war in the Middle East, Said knows that some people might have different views on Islam, but as Andrew’s diversity club president and just as a very determined individual, Said seeks to help others better understand what Islam is all about.

“It’s a religion that is very kind and welcoming,” Said says, “And we don’t hate on other religions at all the way people seem to think we do. It’s very welcoming and kind, and we try to stay good-hearted and make the best out of every situation.”

The ways in which Said strives to be kind and welcoming are evident with the way she often answers questions from her peers about her religion. People have a lot of questions, she says, particularly about her scarf.

“Silly questions, sometimes,” she says. “Like who would you wear it in front of? Who can you take it off in front of? Do you sleep with it?”

She explains she can’t take it off in front of any man she could potentially marry, she is able to take it off in front of family, and she doesn’t sleep in it. And, she says, at all-girls parties, she can take it off without a worry.

“It just restricts men from seeing the beauty that should be hidden for one certain person only,” she says. “You’re supposed to look pure and modest for God. I mean, it’s the least you could do for Him for everything He does for us.”

While honoring God is an important part of every day for Muslims, it is especially important during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends this upcoming week. Said loves Ramadan – and really doesn’t mind fasting all that much – because of how much unity Ramadan brings to her family and community.

“I usually don’t eat in the a.m.,” she says about the meal before sunrise, around 3 a.m., “But today, my aunt’s going to take us to IHOP, and the whole family’s going go and we’re going to have fun and eat and then have a break and go to sleep.”

In the summer months, it’s very interesting to experience Ramadan, she says, because her cousins love to go swimming but they have to keep their heads above water so that they don’t swallow any water by accident. And while she says it’s sometimes funny to see some of her younger cousins try to sneak food throughout the day, once they grow up enough to learn the importance of this month-long purification, it becomes a very special month for them too.

“It’s a month where people make a connection with God and they carry it on,” she says, “And throughout the year they keep adding on and adding on to become a better Muslim.”

Said says that while her religion and her school life sometimes conflict in little ways, like prayer times or not being able to go to school dances, her life as a Muslim student is relatively normal. People are not judgmental as they may have been in the past but instead inquisitive about her faith.

“I feel like people are more accepting now,” Said says. “They’re not as judgmental as they were when my mom went to high school. I feel like, I don’t know, we fit in pretty well. There are some times when we get discriminated against or people just don’t understand, are uneducated on certain issues.

“I come across people every once in a while that do, but I mean, I’ve just realized that every person’s different.”

People have become more accepting throughout the years and Said hopes that her work with the diversity club will continue to foster friendship and unity even in the face of differences and adversity.