With today being the first day of school in some counties, I started thinking about my childhood growing up in Northern Virginia. It's been a long time since I've been in school, but I remember hating it more than anything. I felt like school came before anything, my happiness, my tiredness, and even Islam.

         I believe wholeheartedly that the Muslim parents of my generation did their best to teach my peers and I about our beautiful religion and its five pillars. But why was our right to pray in school not established? Our parents, whether they migrated to the US, were reverts, or in some cases both, did not purposely forget to speak up for us. Many of them were struggling to stand for prayer in their jobs or in their universities. My heart worries for the next generation, we need to make practicing Islam easier for everyone so it can continue to spread and thrive all over this nation. 

       The older I get the more I realize that the collectivist culture of Islam holds a place for all different personality types. While there might be individual students who pray during school hours, some, if not the majority might be falling prey to peer pressure and be afraid to speak up for themselves. Meanwhile, at home they never miss a salah. This can even affect their ability to concentrate on school.  How can they listen to their teachers while they are anxious to make sujood?

         During Ramadan my Muslim friends and I spent our lunches in the library. With proud smiles on our faces we would ask our teacher for permission. But I never told a teacher I needed to go pray. Not when I was ten, not when I reached puberty, and not even when I was a 18, a full fledged legal adult.

       I struggled with my self-esteem all throughout my school years, because I couldn't find the courage to speak up for myself. Not even when it came to the first thing I am going to be asked about on Judgment Day; salah. This struggle continued through my adulthood once I began working. I spent years waiting until I got home or praying in the car before I went to my boss and said I need a place to pray.

        The habit of putting off salah and/or feeling like it's something we had to hide followed us through adulthood. As Muslims in America, 9/11 had a double impact on us. Some of us were in those towers, planes, and in The Pentagon. The scrutiny and criticism of our religion in the media added insult to injury. We reactively hid our deen on various levels to protect it and ourselves from an angry, grieving country that didn't understand us and our ways. But as much as we all tried to blend in, we were still bullied and called terrorists because of our hijabs, our skin colors, and even our names.

        I have never started a petition before, but if I can be a voice for even one child who's heart aches when it is time for salah but they cannot find the courage to speak up, I would like to be that voice. Let us save this upcoming generation from going through the same struggles we went through. We are commanded by Allah swt to make salah and it is our constitutional right under the first amendment to pray wherever and whenever we need to.