So, how are you doing in school? How do you like the teacher training college?
‘It’s going very well. I’m really enjoying myself. I’m doing an internship at Islamic high school Avicenna and I’m teaching first, second, and fourth-year students in lower secondary professional education. I feel very much at home there.’

You are dressed traditionally with a mid-length headscarf and long black clothes. Did that make it hard to find an internship post?
‘Yes. I did get invited based on my letter, but I never got hired once they’d seen me. On the one hand, it’s a shame, but I’m enjoying myself so much that I don’t find it regrettable at all anymore. A discussion on whether I could do an internship at Avicenna did take place at the university – the school was not an official internship school – but fortunately, I got permission.’

When did you start dressing traditionally?
‘At thirteen I started wearing a headscarf, and at fifteen I decided to dress in a traditional Islamic way. My parents really had to get used to it. Actually, I even wanted to go one step further and wear an ankle-length headscarf. No, I will not veil my face in the Netherlands, but if I ever attend a university in an Islamic country, I probably will.’

Is that something you’d like to do: attend a university in an Islamic country?
‘Yes! I would love to take up an Islamic course of study in Saudi Arabia – I’m really craving knowledge – but after that, I do want to return to the Netherlands. I don’t feel the need to emigrate permanently.’

Do you go to a mosque?
‘Yes, I go to small, cozy mosques where the sermon or reading is, in any case, translated into Dutch or Berber, as I don’t speak Arabic.’

What does your circle of friends look like? Are you friends with non-Muslims?
‘My circle of friends varies from sisters with burkas to non-Muslim women who go out. I consider myself a social person and get along with everyone. I love conversations with substance.’

Why do you want to write for Profielen?
‘There are a lot of Muslim students at the university, but they are not always getting heard. I believe that we, Muslim students, can also say more than we actually do. That’s important to me. That is why I want to write for you.’

Dorine van Namen

This article was originally published in Dutch on March 24, 2015

Read Siham’s first contribution here.