NDP2

Title: NDP2
Type: Interview
Date: March 31st, 2021
Description: The respondent is a Bangladeshi-American woman in her mid-50s who was born in Bangladesh and has worked as a physician for years in the United States. She lives in the mid-West with her husband and has two children, one of whom is an adult in college. In the interview, the respondent shared about her experience with COVID-19 as causing a lot of change, both positive and negative. One of the biggest positives was the virtual Zoom and FaceTime platforms, which empowered the respondent to create an online Bangladeshi language learning class for children across the nation. The face-to-face contact virtually was important to respondent, but even though she could attend funerals and other significant events over virtual platforms, it wasn’t a full substitute for personal contact, especially during times of grief and healing. This lack of social contact was one of the biggest negatives for respondent, along with her and her husband’s high risk as physicians, and the anxiety that came with their frontline work. Between increased work hours and her online initiative, community religious events were not as salient in this respondent’s life, but individual spirituality and faith still remained important for her.
Language: English
Subject: COVID-19, pandemic, Muslim, physician, frontline worker, family, virtual conferencing, virtual language learning.