In the wake of her traumatic ordeal in Gujarat, India, the interviewee felt compelled to flee to England. She will be referred to as Zara for the purpose of this interview, as the rest of her family still reside in Gujarat.
AM: Thank you for agreeing to speak to us. Could you tell us what your experiences were like growing up as a Muslim in India.
ZARA: I was born during the 2002 Gujarat riots in India. My parents describe this as one the most difficult times that they have seen. They were happy when I was born but say they were constantly surrounded by threats for at least one year. They wanted to make sure I wasn’t harmed but our home was attacked. Luckily none of us were harmed.
I’ll tell you one thing that happened that is simply difficult for me to forget. In one of my math classes at school, my class fellow, a Hindu boy, asked me for a pen but because I only had one for myself I told him I couldn’t give it to him. He said why do you need a pen anyway, “You’re a Pakistani terrorist who is going to be an ISIS bride one day.” My teacher heard this and laughed like it was the funniest joke she had heard in her life. I was just a kid and it was very humiliating. It does something to your confidence you know. It makes you feel that you are less than other people. As a kid this is a horrible feeling. I don’t want my children to feel like this ever. Some people might say why didn’t you speak back but it’s very difficult when your teacher is also laughing with the Hindu kid’s friends.
I’ll tell you another thing that happened. A few years back, some Hindu boys attacked my older brother at university. They saw him speaking to a Hindu girl who was very pretty. They accused him of trying to make her his girlfriend but he was just asking her for directions to his class because it was his first day at the university. There were 8 of them who beat him with metal rods outside the university. He was in a critical condition in hospital- I was very worried like all my family. We were not sure if he was going to survive but Alhumdulillah he made it through.
AM: That must’ve been incredibly difficult for your family. What do you think was the catalyst to ultimately make you leave India and reside in England today?
ZARA: There is nothing left for Muslims in India. They (the ruling party) have taken everything from us. I love India, it’s a great nation and it’s my country but we’re constantly being targeted and discriminated against and we can’t even dare to speak up, you can’t understand this unless you are actually from there: we don’t have any rights.
My dad is a highly educated Engineer and they didn’t employ him for at least 7 years. We were struggling financially and he had to do small jobs here and there to feed us. One day he got a job and one of the recruiters told him, “You know we weren’t supposed to hire you because the managers told us we are not allowed to hire Muslims but we needed to fill the position quickly, so if you want to keep your job make sure you don’t talk about your religion at all and don’t let anybody see you read your namaz. Remember you are very lucky we hired you.”
My dad got sacked from this job last year for no reason and without any explanation. It was at this point he told me, “Beta, go and make your life somewhere else.”
AM: How do you feel about relocating from India?
ZARA: Firstly, I come from a religious family. I know in Islam a girl can’t live in another country without her mahram but it was becoming very hard in India for my family. I am a masters student here in England. My dad tells me all the time to get married quickly because he feels bad that I am on my own and he knows this isn’t right because I’m a girl. He feels responsible. It’s very lonely sometimes. Last year I spent Eid alone, I cried in my room alone after Face Timing my mom, and then I just went to sleep and that was my Eid. Eid with my family in India used to be a lot of fun.
But I know in shaa Allah, I know I will be okay. At least there are more career opportunities for Muslims here. I am safe and I can raise my future children in an environment that is safe.
