Mahnoor Nadim

My experience with faith was very community based in the sense that I grew up in Pakistan and the society itself has a certain cultural and religious atmosphere. People in my family who are ultra religious or super conservative, other people in my environment who were conservative, that really influenced how I interpreted religion, and it really pushed me away from religion because I don’t agree with a lot of conservative ideals that a lot of religious people tend to hold.

So, when I came to college I was able to explore religion on my own, as my own person. Before college, I used to consider myself agnostic and I could care less about religion. It didn’t play a very big part in my life, it wasn’t something that I thought about all the time it was an irrelevant concept. My second year in college, I became practicing and I started wearing a scarf.

When you’re an international, it gives you that sense of community so becoming friends with Muslim women, Muslim people, and attending the mosque — that gave me a sense of community — that I think influenced me religiously more than say my parents did. Now I have a certain faith in my religion, in God. My faith is stronger, even if I’m not as practicing, that faith element is stronger, which I am happy about, it gives me grounding. It’s more important to have a strong sense of faith than to be the perfect Muslim or perfect practicing person.