Husnia said she was a bit concerned about
Lynchburg being a conservative area and she wasn’t sure what sort of reception she would find here. The LC community, however, has been great, she said. People ask her about her scarf and about her religion and she’s happy to explain. “I’m here to teach people about my culture,” she said. “Islam is beautiful.” She adds, however, that the culture and gov-
ernment have corrupted Islam to subjugate women. “As a woman in Afghanistan,” she says, “I never had a chance to talk publically.” Husnia has already made two presentations
on campus to teach fellow students about her faith in support of President Obama’s
“Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge.” LC is one of 200 colleges nation- wide participating in this effort. In an hour-long talk on Islam, Husnia
explained the five pillars, or tenets, of her religion, as well as prayer and dress. Islam means “peace,” she said, and she cited four misconceptions about her religion: that it’s violent; male-dominated; requires women to
wear burqas; and that marriages have to be pre-arranged. Husnia prays three times a day in her resi-
dence hall room, facing Mecca, and recites passages from the Quran in Arabic, though her native tongue is Farsi. She retains the practice of wearing a scarf, or hajib, a Muslim tradition that keeps her connected to her faith. “Every religion has a distinctive quality,” she said. “The distinctive quality of Islam is modesty.
Spring 2012 LC MAGAZINE 17
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