By Tony Press
Nothing much happened in class today except when the girl from Pakistan walked in, just beating the tardy bell. She’s been here for three months but for the first time she had no head-cover. No hijab. We all stared, even the teacher, breathless and silent. She bypassed her second row desk to sit next to the tall boy from Peru who always sits by himself against the back wall. She took the chair tucked in the far corner between the file cabinets and the teacher’s desk. She took the chair and she took his hand. Oh, yes, his name is Jesus.
The story’s good. I had to read it twice. (If only assimilation was really this painless.)
“Nothing much happened . . .” except for a total change of life and perspective for the entire class. Excellent.
Beautiful! Well done.
Have to think about this a bit. Will msg you privately.
Tony, you are a rock superstar
This is a wonderful moment of perhaps solidarity across cultures but definitely of love between human beings. World Hijab Day is coming up on Feb 1st, the community, non-Muslim and Muslim alike, will wear hijab in solidarity — supporting a person’s right to express oneself and find this here in your words.