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Item

Title

HH 1.00

Type

Interview

Date

November 9th, 2016

Description

Hedaya Hassan is a 27 year-old Muslim Palestinian woman who teaches second grade at Salam Elementary, an Islamic school in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Married with one daughter who is 4, Hassan speaks about what it was like to spend the majority in war-torn Palestine with an enormous family of over 100 cousins. She recalls incidents of late night intrusions from Israeli soldiers who would bang on the door in the middle of the night/early morning hours to make sure the residents were legal and if there was any evidence of participation/involvement in the war. She also recalls the severe anxiety attacks she suffered when she would see any police in uniform regardless of the Palestinian/Israeli origin. However, she believes growing up surrounded by this has contributed to strengthening her as person. After moving back to the United States one year after 9/11, she explains how scared her family members were to leave the house following the attacks. Being a second-grade teacher, Hassan shares what it is like to be able to help her students who have come from countries with war and she likes being able support her students that are struggling with the transition to The States or whose families have been separated while coming to the US. Coming from a well-educated family and having two brothers working as doctors, she believes strongly in the importance of education. She says that both she and her husband’s family support discourse and debate challenging different ideas and traditions. She hopes to instill this quality in her daughter by surrounding her with diversity and encouraging her to ask questions so that she will grow up to be a well-rounded and open-minded person. She has hopes that her daughter will grow up to be a good Muslim woman, but she also realizes that a child is like a seed and a parent’s job is to nurture/aid in healthy growth but after that, the rest is out of her control. In light of Donald Trump’s recent election, she worries for her daughter’s future because of the xenophobic rhetoric surrounding his campaign pared with the enormous numbers of supporters.

Language

English

Subject

Palestine, 9/11, family, marriage, identity, parenting, education, OralHistory

Item sets

Interviews

Media

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