If there is one story that captures all the courage and magic that this world has to offer, it could be this one:<\/p>\n
In the early morning hours, on the day of January 1st<\/sup> 1997, a peaceful new years\u2019 darkness hovered over the city of Ceelbuur in Eastern Somalia. \u00a0It was about 1a.m. when time stood still for a moment in Ceelbuur to honor the birth of a shiny new Muslim girl. Her name was Hibak Hussein.<\/p>\n At this time life in Somalia was anything but normal in many localities due to the war. However, the area Hibak grew-up in was relatively free of violence, and she spent the early years of her life as a normal Sunni Muslim girl growing up in a normal Sunni Muslim family. \u00a0She attended public school. \u00a0Family was the main tenet of life. \u00a0Her dad ran a business in which he sold imported products. \u00a0Her mom was a clothing designer. She had two sisters, three brothers and a grandfather. Life was pretty good.<\/p>\n Then in 2005 her younger brother contracted meningitis and was rendered virtually paralyzed. \u00a0Life became a little more difficult. \u00a0Following medical advice, Hibak\u2019s father, sisters, and two other brothers started to sleep on the other side of their house in order to ensure that they would not contract meningitis. \u00a0Hibak spent the nights with her mom taking care of her younger brother.<\/p>\n Then in 2006 the war came to the area where Hibak lived. \u00a0Before long a full scale government crackdown was launched in her neighborhood. \u00a0One night a bomb hit the family\u2019s house. \u00a0Her grandfather, who also lived with the family, was killed. \u00a0\u00a0In the chaos the family was separated. \u00a0Hibak and her mother, younger sister, and ill brother, had no idea where their father and other siblings were. \u00a0Without them they had no choice but to flee the land they called home. \u00a0With other Somalis they headed towards the neighboring country of Kenya.<\/p>\n From Kenya they went to Uganda. \u00a0They ended up in one of the oldest and largest refugee camps in Africa. \u00a0The Nakivalie Refugee Camp is located in Southwestern Uganda. Unfortunately, despite efforts by the family and the United Nations High Commission of Refugees at Nakivalie, there was no luck in discovering any information about what may have happened to the other half of their family. \u00a0Suddenly almost four years had passed since Hibak had seen her father or her two other brothers and sister. Life continued.<\/p>\n In 2010 her mom took Hibak, along with her younger brother and younger sister to the US. \u00a0They lived in Lynn, Massachusetts when they first arrived. \u00a0Then one day in 2011, at the Lynn Community Health Center, something miraculous happened. \u00a0They met a man from Ethiopia who thought Hibak\u2019s little sister looked like a man he had met back in Ethiopia. \u00a0That man was Hibak\u2019s father! \u00a0The family was elated. \u00a0A virtual reunification never thought possible was achieved. \u00a0Her brother\u2019s medical condition requires Hibak, her mom, and brother to stay in the US. \u00a0Paperwork has been filed for Hibak\u2019s father, sister, and two brothers to come to Boston. Recent developments suggest that a physical reunification will hopefully be achieved soon.<\/p>\n Hibak in the meantime has become an extremely successful student in Boston. \u00a0She recently achieved High Honors at Urban Science Academy, where she attends Secondary School. \u00a0English is her third language, but it is hard to tell. \u00a0She writes poetry as a hobby, but with the heart and skill of an occupational poet.<\/p>\n Hibak is grateful for everything she has in the U.S., but as a young Muslim woman who wears a hijab in a Western society, she strives to have her religion, culture, and identity understood and respected. \u00a0Having endured the extraordinary struggle for all of her basic human rights in life, she writes about the struggle for her identity:<\/p>\n You see, anybody can tell you to be yourself even when they don’t mean it.<\/em><\/p>\n And even when by any chance they mean it, there is no way you can ever be yourself in public.<\/em><\/p>\n Not when you are different because you are considered weird by others.<\/em><\/p>\n Not when you don\u2019t share the same language.<\/em><\/p>\n Not when you are silent to a conversation that you really want to be a part of because you might scare them off.<\/em><\/p>\n And not when you, a young woman, covered from head to toe by a Jilbab, might be perceived as if Osama bin Laden could be your uncle.<\/em><\/p>\n They say that discrimination is over, but I personally see no change:<\/em><\/p>\n Racist incidents spreading all over the news where the only story you learn about Arabs is war and violence.<\/em><\/p>\n The people screaming harshly in a foreign language.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI am not like that!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Just because of our looks we are getting abused.<\/em><\/p>\n If we believe in our faiths, we are suddenly bad.<\/em><\/p>\n At schools, the same stares looking at me as if I don\u2019t belong. <\/em><\/p>\n I face the questions like\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cUmm you take shower with it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWhy you wearing it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cHow you wear it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYou get hot with that in the summer?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cDoes your brother wear it?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n WELL GOOGLE IT!!!!<\/em><\/p>\n But in the meantime if I tell you that the entire universe wears the hijab\u2026would you understand?<\/em><\/p>\n Or would you smile under your breath and send a little thank you note to the All Mighty that you are not me.<\/em><\/p>\n That you are NOT oppressed by \u201cit\u201d, the scarf, the head wrap.<\/em><\/p>\n Which is actually called the hijab, and I proudly call \u2018my freedom\u2019. \u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n Earth is protected by the Ozone layer.<\/em><\/p>\n Swords are protected by their sheaths.<\/em><\/p>\n Ink dries up without being covered.<\/em><\/p>\n Apples without skin get rotten.<\/em><\/p>\n Cell phones are protected by colorful cases.<\/em><\/p>\n Women are beautiful gems desired by admiring eyes.<\/em><\/p>\n I hope you can comprehend this\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Hijab protects me, and my beauty.<\/em><\/p>\n In life you either get defeated or defined,<\/em><\/p>\n and I proudly choose to be defined by my hijab.<\/em><\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t shield me from writing this poem,<\/em><\/p>\n or walking for hunger, or even hitting a volleyball over the net.<\/em><\/p>\n You get it!?<\/em><\/p>\n The hijab\u2026. It isolates you from me if you think it isolates me from your society.<\/em><\/p>\n There are 42.5 million forcibly displaced people in the world today. \u00a0There is one Hibak Hussein.<\/p>\n ______________________<\/p>\n Hikab Hussein and Daniel Horgan work together at Urban Science Academy on Geometry, Writing, and Performing Arts. \u00a0When they met, they talked about Uganda, and a land far away instantly united them as friends.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hibak is grateful for everything she has in the U.S., but as a young Muslim woman who wears a hijab in a Western society, she strives to have her religion, culture, and identity understood and respected.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anglo-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43950\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}