Ameerah's Point of View
I ran all the way home and was relieved to find no one was back from work early. I dumped my bag near the door and locked myself in my room.
Megan was my best friend, how could she do this? And why? It didn't make any sense at all.
After an hour of talking to myself -not out loud, so don't think I'm weird- I heard the door open downstairs, I dried my eyes and made sure they didn't look red then went downstairs.
"Baba?" I said, "You're early!"
"I know Ameerah," He laughed "It's Friday, I always come home early on Fridays!"
"Oh.. right," I said clicking in back to reality.
My dad loosened his tie and than sat on the couch switching on the TV and flipping through the channels.
"Anything good on?" I asked.
"Nope," He shook his head.
"Can we get ice cream?" I blurted out randomly.
He smiled at me, the corners of his olive green eyes wrinkling, "Of course."
"So baba," I said poking my spoon into my 'Death by Chocolate' falvoured ice cream. "How's life?"
"Life is living," My dad joked.
"..Baba?" I asked after a while.
"Mhmmmm?"
"What was Lebanon like?" I asked
"Well Ameerah, it was different, it was very different.. We had seperate schools for boys and seperate schools for girls. I remember the girl's school always had the better food so we used to make one of the short guys wear a hijab and go get food for the whole group," He smiled remembering the last bit. "And my dad owned a baklava (kind of arabic sweet, pic of it is on the side) bakery, I could never get enough of that place.. Why you asking?"
"Just wondering," I said randomly.
"My parents agreed for me to come here to the west because I got a scholarship from my school, you're mom and I went to the same university, that's how we met. At first my parents didn't want me to marry a western chic, but when I took her with me back to Lebanon, my parents saw how modest and simple she was, they planned the marraige straight away!" My dad told me.
"Awwwww," I joked, "cute story."
"Don't worry Ameerah, we'll find you a Lebanese who's some where near as good looking as me," He joked.
"Is that even possible?!" I gasped and my dad and I doubled over with laugher.
YOU ARE READING
I Can Wear My Hijab
Teen FictionGrowing up in the west is anything but easy for the teenage Muslim Ameerah Hasaan where she is constantly questioned and bullied because of her hijab (headscarf) by her peers and neighborhood acquaintances. And if that is not enough, Ameerah is conf...
