The Story of a Student with a Social Science Degree - Dissertation Example

She enjoyed school and performed well academically – she feels privileged to be one of the first family members to attend a university. She is also the first woman to attend university, ever, in her family. The pressure she feels is from the desire not to disappoint her family or community – she says that they have sacrificed a lot to give her the opportunity she is now enjoying. She has a few close friends, divided into her community friends – other Muslim young women, female cousins and young aunts – and her friends at university – again, mostly other young women (Muslim) studying at the same institution.

She has a good friend at university who is not Muslim – a Catholic – and she says that this is the first time she has had a close friend outside her faith. Sajdah was quite keen to be interviewed and spoke freely. She seems to be developing a political sense of Islam and did, on occasion, refer to her understanding of her religion as having a political aspect. The women in my family have chosen to veil in this way. It’s something we do, and I think that the more extreme forms of veiling are not necessary according to the Qur’an.

(some hesitation). It is enough that I hide my hair and don’t think it’s something that I’d be comfortable with – the complete coverage. If I was living in Saudi or somewhere like that, I might veil more completely. It really is up to me, but I didn’t even think about it for a long time. From when I was 12 or 13, I’ve just done it. It’s only been recently that I started thinking of it as a choice and decided that I would keep wearing hijab at university because I’m comfortable with it.

I have never doubted that Islam is the only religion I could follow. I believe with my whole heart. So, if my religion asks me to do something as easy as this, I do it. If I thought that I had to veil completely, according to Islam, I would. Sajdah was very thoughtful in this comment – she seems to have thought this through quite fully. Part of her conversation with the interviewer before the formal recording revealed that she was involved on the periphery with some of the more radical [politically