jennifer bryan
14
was horrible. Then I heard people were volunteering downtown. So I said I have
to do this. I was so determined. I got dressed, went downstairs, and told my
father I was going to volunteer. For some reason, I wasn’t even thinking about
the hijab or being Muslim or anything. But when I saw my father’s face, I
realized what he already knew. He said: ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea right
now.’ I felt so hurt. I really, really wanted to go. But I couldn’t go. And that
really hurt. I’m an American. I was raised in Jersey City. I went to Catholic
school. But I couldn’t go.
While it may seem unusual for a Pakistani Muslim woman to attend Catholic school, in
Jersey City many students who attend Catholic schools are not, in fact, Catholic. Their parents
see Catholic schools as offering a better education than public schools and as places where their
children can learn good behavior and avoid “bad” influences. In the case of Muslims, sending
children to Catholic schools is a way of demonstrating that they place such a high value on
education and social standing that they are willing to sacrifice money and some degree of
religious autonomy to ensure the best opportunities for their children. Thus, for the woman
quoted above, her realization that she, a Jersey City-raised Catholic school-girl, would not, as a
Muslim, be welcome in local volunteer efforts was particularly hurtful. After 9/11, she said, she
no longer knew how to act with her non-Muslim friends and often felt uncomfortable. As a
result, she began to associate more with Muslims and to gain a new sense of herself as a Muslim.
Humiliation in the Bank
Since 9/11, Muslim women and men have had a difficult time trying to make transactions
at local banks. In part, harassment at local banks stems from rumors that terrorists were planning
to target banks for anthrax and bomb attacks. At least one local bank was evacuated due to one
of the seventeen hundred anthrax scares responded to by the Jersey City Police Department
(Lieutenant Louf 2002). Harassment at banks also stems from the new bank guidelines for
monitoring “suspicious” monetary transactions that may be linked to terrorist activity. An
Egyptian American business man, who is not a practicing Muslim, told me:
It’s very hard to move money around now because you have to show an ID. For
me, my business is cars. I buy cars and sell them; that’s my business. Now,
whenever you buy cars you have to deal in money orders or certified checks. But
if it’s anything over $3,000, it has to be a certified check. Now, I don’t need to be
harassed. So instead of getting a certified check, I get multiple smaller money
orders. It’s a pain but there’s a lot of flagging that goes on, a lot of profiling. I
could get picked up easily. You can be arrested for selling fertilizer—fertilizer!
Convention