“All Hijab-Clad Muslim Girls Look The Same To Non-Muslims — But We Are Different Personalities!”

This is how one of the facilitators of the roundtable “I Am What I Am!”, Ms. Samar Al-Bekhesi, explained her active participation. The event attended by about 40 women of different religions took place at Kyiv Islamic Cultural Centre on May 17, and it all resulted from a Muslim Girls’ initiative. These members of Female social organisation “Maryam” at their young aage were already tired of the attitude mentioned above.

The ladies raised the most topical issues of those they shortlisted at the briefing earlier. Those were: individuality (on the importance of not going with the flow but rather having a spacious mind and a point of view based on it), Internet (no Muslim should waste their time on useless browsing, however, discussing only religious topics in the web is another extremity, as one should be aware of the latest news in politics, science, etc.). joint worshiping and striving to the Lord’s satisfaction (as the means of self-discipline for every member of the group).

The problem of “People who pull us back” was to be discussed separately: people form their first judgement of you and consider this as frames they should always try to push you in, detaining you from changing and self-improvement.

The guests didn’t remain passive spectators: they asked questions and took part in a quizz after the roundtable was over.