Muslim Women Voice Their Concerns in Aftermath of Sept. 11 Tragedy

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Just about every American has been traumatized by the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, DC. Muslim-American women, however, face particular challenges. They must reason with their children as to why the terrorists were Muslims, and talk to students they teach, patients they treat, or neighbors and co-workers who may now regard Islam as a threat to their lives.

In the aftermath of the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil, the Washington Report discussed the aftereffect of Sept. 11 with Muslim women leaders of Southern California, where more than half a million Muslims live.

All the women prefaced their comments with gratitude for the outpouring of good will and sympathy extended by the general public.

The Muslim community steeled itself for a wave of hate crimes such as occurred at the onset of the Gulf war, the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center and the attack on the USS Cole in Yemen. This time, however, there were only isolated incidents, in large part because of appeals to the public by President George W. Bush not to target Muslim Americans. In addition to it being the right thing to do, the president had both domestic and foreign policy reasons for his repeated calls for tolerance: he would not have been elected to office without the Muslim-American vote, and he had to convince potential coalition partners that the U.S. is not at war with Islam.

Dr. Halima al-Shaikley, who left her dental practice to found the City of Knowledge School in Pomona, said she was overwhelmed when strangers appeared at the entrance to her Muslim school on the morning of Sept. 12.

“I did not know any of these people,” she said. “Most identified themselves as concerned neighbors, but every day since, 10 to 12 of these angels come to the school and make sure our students arrive safely in the morning and leave without incident in the afternoon.”

Psychologist Dr. Ilham Sarraf found herself in the midst of the tragedy when the Red Cross called her and asked her to provide counseling to airline crews and passengers stranded in Los Angeles after the government grounded all commercial flights in the U.S.

“As soon as the flights were canceled,” Dr. Sarraf explained, “the Red Cross stepped up to the plate and arranged for teams of psychologists and social workers to debrief crews and passengers who were put up in hotels and Los Angeles International Airport.”

“It was a ripple effect,” she continued, “in that many of the crews and passengers were doubly stressed by being stranded in Los Angeles and separated from their families during the crisis. Many crew members knew airline personnel who had died in the four hijacked planes.

When Dr. Sarraf appeared at a hotel just hours after the catastrophe, she asked a Red Cross director about the general mood of crew members and passengers. At that point, the Red Cross executive remarked: “Oh my, this could be a problem. I completely forgot you are Muslim. Many are voicing hostility toward Middle Eastern people.”

“Never fear,” Dr. Sarraf responded. “I won’t preach to them.”

The blonde psychologist listened to her emotional subjects vent their anger toward the “Arab hijackers,” for a good half-hour before she calmly told them she was born in Iraq and is Muslim.

“Poof, just like that, my identity as an Iraqi Arab was no longer an issue,” she said. “I became an element of education and healing to the victims.”

Messages of Support

Educator Semeen Issa, president of the Southern California Muslim Women’s League and founder of the first Muslim Girls Sports Camp, commented: “We’ve received hate messages on our MWL Web site e-mail, but I would say we’ve received far more messages of support from people who say they are ashamed when they hear that so-called Americans have been harassing Muslims, particularly women.

“My kids, who are 9,10 and 13 years of age, were confused at first as to why terrorists professing to be Muslims had done this horrible thing,” she added. “We explained that even though the attackers might say they are Muslim, what they did has absolutely no place in Islam.”

However, said Issa, who was born in Tanzania to Indian Muslim parents, “This has changed my life. I check the car before I get into it, I make sure that even when I go to the Islamic Center, my husband is with me. I stress to my children that it is a privilege to be an American, that it is their duty to become participating citizens, but first, they must be safe.”

For filmmaker Nicole Ballivian, the movie industry ground to a stop when gated entrances to Hollywood studios became virtual “Israeli checkpoints.” Ballavian, who works as a production assistant at a major studio, said guards with bomb-sniffing dogs examined incoming cars after the FBI warned that studios were likely to become targets of terrorists.

Although Ballavian does not wear hijab, she has made it known at the studio that she is a Muslim. This did not deter two producers in her office from loudly announcing in front of her two days after the attacks that the U.S. was too kind to Middle Easterners who “come here and take our money and then blow us up.”

Another loudly exclaimed: “And those [expletive] Arabs try to tell us that Israel is a racist country.”

“The sickest part of their remarks is that both men knew I was within earshot, that I am Muslim and I am married to a Palestinian,” Ballavian protested.

The devoted Muslim woman still may have the last word, however, if she succeeds in raising funds for her film, “Sleeping on Stones,” which tells the story of Palestinian cousins, one Muslim, one Christian, who come of age during the first intifada.

The Sept. 11 tragedy was especially frustrating for Dr. Laila al-Marayati. Her husband, Salam, was scheduled along with other American Muslim leaders to meet with President George Bush at the White House on that fateful day. For the subsequent five days, Salam, who is director of the Southern California Muslim Public Affairs Committee, was stranded in the nation’s capital.

As a result, it was up to Dr. Laila to discuss the tragedy with her children, aged 7 and 9. A practicing gynecologist, she served until last May as the only Muslim on the nine-member U.S. Commission on International Freedom.

“As the president builds his coalition,” she commented, “I am afraid our anti-terrorism policy and concern over religious freedom are going to collide in places like Uzbekistan, where the government is cracking down on Islamic movements, or in Chechnya or Western China where Muslims live.

“Sept. 11 was a major disaster for Islam,” she continued. “It makes our struggle much harder. Perhaps it can be a wake-up call. The major question is if this can result in a major shift in our foreign policy. If people don’t ask questions, nothing will change. Our legislators have no incentive to change. It is encouraging to see many Americans taking an interest in what’s happening in their name all over the world and seeking answers as to why we are hated so.”

Despite the good will of the Pomona community, Dr. al-Shaikley fears for the survival of the school she co-founded in 1994.

“It has taken years to build our school from 19 pupils in kindergarten through grade seven to 230 students from preschool through grade 12,” stated the Iraqi-born Kurd. “Overnight, we suffered a 40 percent drop in attendance. Now we only have 140 students. We already were on a tight budget, and we gave scholarships to students whose parents couldn’t pay the tuition.”

Teenage students, she noted, overruled their parents’ concerns for safety and insisted on remaining at the Muslim school.

“It’s the younger children, who have no say, who are now being sent to public school,” Dr. al-Shaikley said. “We had 32 pupils enrolled in first grade on Sept. 10. Now we have 16.”

It’s been a different story at New Horizon School in Pasadena, whose students primarily come from second- and third-generation American families. Principal Necva Ozgur says that everyone from the mayor to public school principals have phoned to offer suggestions on outreach programs to learn about Islam.

“We have had daily assemblies asking students to voice any anxieties and we have had day and evening sessions with parents,” commented the Istanbul-born educator, who only began wearing hijab after she immigrated to the U.S.

A New Edginess

Artist and founder of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Alhambra Hanaa al-Wardi says that in the 24 years since she came to the U.S. from Baghdad with her physician husband she never felt edgy—that is, until Sept. 11.

“Maybe I am super-sensitive, but I feel a certain hostility in the air,” she confessed.

Fear is one thing Dr. al-Shaikley will not succumb to. She and her daughters, Zaynab, 18, and Layla, 15, wear hijab. Zaynab, who graduated with honors from her mother’s City of Knowledge School, drives 60 miles on California freeways to her classes at UCLA.

“My husband and I were concerned for Zaynab’s safety, not at UCLA but on the road,” Dr. al-Shaikley confided. “What if some hot-headed redneck took offense at her head scarf and shot at her on the freeway?”

When her parents asked Zaynab if she would consider not wearing hijab while driving, however, she replied that she was not going to abandon her convictions because of a terrorist act.

Younger children have not fared as well, said Dr. Sarraf.

In her private family practice, she has noticed a high incidence of anxiety among children of immigrant parents who have been traumatized by their parents’ conversations. Children fear for their mother’s safety if she wears hijab or, they tell Dr. Sarraf, they wish they were like their (non-Muslim) neighbors.

Even she, a psychologist, Dr. Sarraf says, has suffered flashbacks, a symptom of post-traumatic stress.

“When I saw the Twin Towers collapse into a cloud of smoke,” she told the Washington Report, “I experienced a flashback to the Amariyah bomb shelter in Baghdad, where 343 Iraqis were killed by a U.S. missile. All of us,” she concluded, “will be suffering from this tragedy for a long time.”

Pat McDonnell Twair is a free-lance writer based in Los Angeles.