Breaking Barriers without Breaking Principles - Tahera Rahman | Confident Muslim

welcome so we know you're dedicated because you walked all the way down the hall to come to the main session on a Saturday morning at nine o'clock I'm all tough Hussein you may know me in this convention in my capacity as the vice president of asana but alhamdulillah I'm very honored also to be called to serve as the vice president of the European Institute for Islamic research who is president inshallah I will introduce in a second so while you're here for this session we also throughout the weekend have introduced the college students to other programs yakeen is doing as well as in Chawla online we have an app as well so we hope in shuttle that you will download the app and you'll get to know your kin as well but for now because we're short on time it is my great honor and pleasure to introduce our the founder and the president of the european institute sheikh omar suleiman and he brought his own mic so now honey come on saliva to cattle so now from the Los Altos summer I said now I'm having your sack marijuana there's a clock here dr. Altaf and to all of you for for being committed enough to come this early in the morning at home did I know that conventions can be particularly exhausting you get divided between many sessions and you're jumping from place to place but hamdullah confident muslim over the last couple of years has become a feature of many of the National Islamic conventions and interestingly enough though it ends up on a morning a Saturday or a Sunday morning you find people that will get out of bed just to be here at confident Muslim and him that I love I mean so second law heightened to all of you for coming this was a program that we started out of the belief that contribution is a direct fruit of conviction when a lot talks about the tree of faith in the Quran and Allah mentions the roots of that tree and the foundation Oslo hobbits well Federer Hafiz sama and its branches are high in the sky providing fruit and shade for everyone around it's out of that direct belief if a person truly understands what their faith calls them to then they will better understand their responsibilities to humanity as a whole and they will never feel like they have to relinquish any part of their Islamic identity in order to benefit people all around them and I'm did a lot this year in this convention we're very honored to have sister Theodore mom now sister fajita is someone that many of us only heard about after she achieved the great milestone of becoming the first newscaster and hijab in Chicago at a local news station and many of us were very touched by her story that's how I think the most profound thing about bahudha story is that she didn't set out to become the first hijab' newscaster on news television instead she worked hard and she refused behind the scenes as she fought with the support of her family and obviously leaning on her faith to maintain her Deen to maintain her obligations while she rose in the ranks through her hard work ethic at hamdulillah and lean on her faith so we heard about the end result but we didn't get much about the journey leading up to that especially from a faith perspective I was incredibly inspired by her that day and right away I started reaching out to those of those of our staff and volunteers and fellows that live in Chicago and said you know what it what do you think can we can we get the hit ought to come to our next confident Muslim session hum did not allow me and she graciously accepted and she's used to interviewing people but today I have the the honor of interviewing her and charlotta but before that I'd like to bring her on and I'd like to read a short bio and then inshallah Tata will play a short video and and she'll join us waha da bageno Rahman is a TV news reporter at w h BF TV a CBS affiliate in the Quad Cities she's the first full-time broadcast TV reporter in the United States to wear hijab prior to this position she was a producer for the same station creating the evening broadcasts bahador started her career as a producer of radio Islam the nation's first daily live talk show produced by Muslims for the mainstream market during her tenure at The Hideout led the organization to a 200% growth da had also worked with Al Jazeera English in Doha Qatar and CBS Evening News Chicago Bureau she graduated from Loyola University Chicago magna laude in journalism and International Studies where she was the first editor in chief of the Loyola Phoenix the university's award-winning weekly newspaper inshallah Tata will play a short video and then please welcome sister Bahia de la mama it took years and a lot of nose for Tahereh mom to get to this moment but while she's just minutes away from making history it's important to know what it took to get here I didn't kind of have anyone who looked like me that was on TV so I never really thought it was a possibility however all that changed after a few internships that's when Tahera figured out TV news was her real passion and that's also when reality set in I interned with the CBS Evening News Bureau in Chicago and my producers there everyone decided was going to be hard one of my producers even asked me point-blank he's like if you got a dream your dream offer let's say like CNN they're gonna give you a reporting gig but they wanted you to take off your headscarf would you do it and I said no like you know and then he's like well then get ready for a lot of nose but after so much rejection it's only human to break down and that was the day she called her mom in the car a call that quite possibly changed her life I had to pull over because I couldn't stop crying and I was like I can't do it anymore and she said yes you can then she's like she's like you can and you will you get back up every time and you're gonna get back up this time the next time an opportunity becomes available you're gonna go for it again and you're gonna keep going friend that's what I did Sam I let go thank you so much for waking up with me today we first start in the name of God as always in the hamdulillah Muhammadu who honest I knew when I stopped Pharaoh who when i audible i him in shadow reinforced in our womans AIT i'm elina mannahatta allahu la moda la la romanian fella hadiyyah-lah watch other one la la la la hora de la sharika lah nebraska 2016 that was me second phone interview for a TV reporting job that i had been interviewing for and looking for for months I was this close to getting it and I could feel it I aced the interview I had a really good back-and-forth with the news director but that dreaded phone call came the one that said we're sorry but we decided to go a different direction I'd heard that before but it doesn't get any easier and at that moment I realized that there were two paths in front of me one take off my hijab get rid of the biggest red mark on my resume the one that seemed to make employers feel more than comfortable with putting my skills to use behind the camera but for some reason not in front of it the other path was to say on the one that I was on was to keep my head job to work harder possibly twice three times four times as long to get to where I want to go but inshallah stay in the favour of the one whose favor I'd ultimately need in order to succeed so I don't think it's a surprise which path I ended up going on I decided to take a behind the scenes job as a producer @wh TBF TV which is CBS affiliate in the Quad Cities and I thought you know what this will be good experience I got there and when I got there I realize wow this moment may never come here in the Quad Cities this little corner of Iowa doesn't see Muslims very often let alone hijabis I'm talking straight cornfields and country music and so I'm that I thought you know what at the very least this will be a stepping stone for me even when one of my co-workers when it disclosed my dream said you know what I don't think America will ever be ready be ready for hijab' TV reporter but I went to work and fast forward about nine months into that job a TV reporting position opened up at my station I was really excited I went for it I applied for it didn't get it I thought again do I keep going or do I give up on something that seems impossible I kept going I worked harder I worked every night longer hours than I needed to I came in whenever they needed someone I came in on weekends to perfect my craft because I thought you know what maybe just maybe it wasn't my job maybe I'm just not good enough and I need to get there I didn't want to leave any stone unturned so fast forward to March of 2017 at this point I had been at the station for about a year and a few positions opened up to report on TV and I thought I mean talk about confident Muslim that was me March 2017 I was I was here for a year I had a good reputation hamdullah with everybody not only in my newsroom but who worked at the station everybody knew my dream at this point everybody knew my goals and they had seen my improvements and how hard I was working so I applied and I didn't get it I was devastated to say the least I mean you saw in that video I think now pretty much the entire world has seen me cry that was the moment that was the moment where I had to pull over and talk to my mom because I thought I have been working non-stop for the past year if not now then when what else can I do I don't know what else to do to get this job and so of course mama Rockman who you heard a little bit about her influence there but she wouldn't let me rest and she said you're going to keep trying and so I did I went back to work and fast forward to fall of the same year September 2017 another position opened up and as you can imagine at this point I was still traumatized by my last experience I didn't even want to apply I didn't want to go through it again I didn't know if I could handle it but I did I was encouraged by actually some of my co-workers even to apply and then I waited and I waited and I waited and finally one day when I came into work that afternoon I was called into the general manager's office and he closed the door and he said to her you've earned this job you got the job I'm there laughs and I found out that the anchors of our newscasts had East gone in separately to talk on my behalf they each went in and said how hard I'd been working how capable more than capable I was of the job and they each told my boss that he'd be making the wrong decision if he didn't hire me subhanAllah no idea that this is going on and so finally on February 8 2018 I became the first Muslim woman to wear hijab while reporting on an American TV news station so that's it right I persevered I stuck to my principles the lights dim the cameras fade to black we all ride off into the sunset America is a better place not exactly one thing I've learned since then is that perseverance doesn't stop once you've attained your goals actually perhaps and now more so than ever you need to draw strength from your faith I get up probably around 9 every day my shift doesn't start till 1:30 in the afternoon but we're required to come in with a story already vetted a lead story worthy and so I'm making those calls I'm going in because now that I've got the job now that I've earned my job you have to keep it all of this means nothing if you're not worthy of the job and they're not perfecting your craft so I go in every day and then just like all my other fellow reporters where there in the field rain shine below freezing just this past week they were strong when 70 mile an hour winds but I was out there with tree branches falling in my face and my hood over my head job just dripping everywhere and to boot we carry our own gear most of the time I don't have a photographer I'm carrying my tripod my lights my microphones and trying to track people down who believe it or not people don't like to talk on camera so Ramadan was especially tough this year I'll just say that but I have done that there are things that get me through it what gets me through it is a handwritten card from an 82 year old woman with a $2.00 bill attached and she says that she switched channels just to watch me when she found out and the $2 bill was for good luck messages like the one from a Scotland Yard detective in London who subhanAllah said that he cried when he saw my story and he wanted me to meet his daughter because he wants her to know that she can be whatever she wants to be when she grows up messages from people like Frank a teacher in Pennsylvania who sent me a video and a picture on Twitter of his class learning about me for Women's History Month messages like the one from Dave who called himself in her message an average white man who grew up in on a farm in central Iowa and he told me you represent the Iowa that I want to live in thank you for doing what you're doing and then he invited me to dinner with him and his wife messages like the phone calls that I still get actually weeks after I interviewed a veteran in the Quad Cities about how he was on the verge of becoming homeless and he still calls me and he tells me that the best part about me sharing his story has been the kind person that he met through it and the job in Nebraska that I didn't get that news director actually messaged me after my story started circulating she told me that she still feels quote awful about having to reject me she says you were one of the best interviews you had a great wheel but that decision came from men in suits high higher above me I had no part in that decision and now that I don't work for that station anymore I have no problem telling you that but it's also not always all rainbows and butterflies there are some difficult moments things that get me down and you'd think that it would actually be the racist remarks but those are actually few and far between soprano line whenever they do come up my Quad Cities community is quick to jump to my defense even before I have a chance to do so myself but what gets me down is actually the criticism from our own community she's wearing makeup her clothes are too tight she this isn't Islam she's not a Muslim that's what gets me down and it's not new I'm sure that every single woman in here whether you're hijab' or not has faced the exact same kind of criticism and you can substitute my struggle with her jab with anything else I value in the club for men whether you have a beard or not that's what gets me down but then once again we all find ourselves now facing two paths one you can say well fine if I'm gonna be criticized either way whether I'm trying or not whether I'm struggling to be the best or not I might as well take the easy route out I might as well just do what I want to do if I'm going to be criticized anyway and that's the route that a lot of people take we've seen that we are seeing that play out in the hallways of our schools and our universities and even our workplaces but then there's always that other path there's a path that you struggle on but you acknowledge it and you say yes I do need to work on myself I just like every other human being on this planet have to perfect myself but that struggle is between me and Allah and inshallah with his help I can get better day by day we learned from the cradle to the grave as Muslims and if you stop learning along the way and if you stop growing that's when you need to reevaluate yourself that's when you are probably doing it wrong so my message tonight or not tonight today this morning to you is not a lecture but it's encouragement for you as well as myself to not be discouraged by that path to stay on it even if you feel weighted and lead and every single step you take seems hard and slow know that that struggle is not scary it's a good time you should own it work with it because ahead of you is always a loss of Hannah Latoya and that path is always path worth taking just suck a lot so now I ain't gonna hunt Florida Council it's like from Lafayette on thank you for those inspirational words I know you're used to doing the interviewing so it must be different to be on the other side and I'm used to getting interviewed so this is I always enjoy doing this part too because I I get to ask the questions that I typically would would appreciate being asked and I think our meaning meaningful first of all I do want to recognize your mother masha'allah sister Donna can you stand up and shout a long time oh she's over there my dad's here too now I feel like should also be interviewing you it's not a lot but may Allah bless you and reward you for instilling for doing your part to instill that type of principle and faith in your children may a loss upon tire rewards you and your entire family I think that there's a lot of effort and as I was listening to you speaking I was just thinking about the types of messages you must have been getting from your mother throughout all of these years to be able to deal with this type of pressure what I really appreciated about what you just walked us through is that it wasn't just about your career pursuit it was about the very real continuing struggle and I think as Muslims we often you know become complacent with ourselves and I've spoken about this quite a bit at the convention that you reach a point and then you say well I've done exactly what I want to do and you tend to look down upon those that are quote unquote less than you not realizing that everyone has their unique struggles and everyone has their unique their unique pursuits of good I guess my question to you would be as you were going through those moments the most difficult moments of your struggle not to get too personal but what was it from the Quran or what was it from the faith that was there a particular eye a particular Haditha particular story that motivated you and that inspired you to keep on going first of all I like to give a shout-out to my dad he's also here and I know you stand up to my loss I didn't all right I've got to walk this back okay my lost parents I reward you and bless you I didn't see you sitting there so I didn't really I didn't know you were here may Allah bless you and reward you for all that you've done and because of the like you said the environment I grew up in in the household handed less since a young age my parents were always making sure I mean we went to assignments schools but even when we weren't I mean we heard these stories like there were bedtime stories of different prophets and their struggles and how they persevered so not only that but I think it was important to have real-life role models who both my parents work and they were able to raise five kids ma'sha'allah and they also stayed strong in their beliefs they were never afraid whenever we go on road trips okay we have to stop even if it's a truck stop and we're gonna pray or even growing up I always felt like I was going to the movies with my friends and oh we need to pray we find a little corner of a movie theater that wasn't being used and we prayed so it's stuff like that that seems hard when you get older but when you grow up with it it actually won as I grew up actually a lot of my friends would tell me how do you do that and when you and I say what do you mean you have to do it like and I credit that entirely to my parents there's also an ayah that I read I want to say that it really stuck out to me when I was in post college actually and in that phase of looking for jobs and you're the chef not me so I don't know the exact words but it says when you call on Allah he sends a thousand angels one to the other to help you and I thought subhanAllah like when you pray and when you work you don't really think about that that there is so much power behind your call and so that what got that's what a lot of times got me through it was that you may think that nothing is happening but just remember there's a lot happening that you don't know about so I that's what kind of kept my faith up it's like you know inshallah things are happening even if I don't know it and I appreciate what you mentioned about your parents in that regard too because for many of us we look for the superheroes outside of our homes and when people ask me you know I I'm always intrigued when I when I talk about my kids I named my daughter after my my mom my Adama and I've talked a lot about you know this idea of naming your children after the Companions of the Prophet so I some that it's something special and they say name is May I'm like yeah because that's my mom and my mom was the most important influence in my life in terms of Deen as well as my father and those things that they don't pay attention to often like you mentioned just stopping and praying no matter what the circumstance was those are the things that really stick with you in life and then they become part of your normal behavior your normal ethos so hijab is just one of those struggles and obviously it's the most prominent struggle in your case but talk me through the job that you do and the things that you go through and what is it that you can also speak about in terms of the growth of faith or the struggle of faith again sort of an in-depth look in a type of position that you're in right now aside from the hijab other than that what's it like being a Muslim in the space that you're in in particular and trying to abide by other obligations that's a very good question I think there there are many so her job as you said is the most prominent and the most explicit that's the one that everyone CAES that's your struggle that the entire world is watching you go through but there are other things like for example even salah and praying when i I'm trying to meet a deadline for a live newscast and my alarms are going off like reminding me you have an hour now you have 30 minutes now you have 20 minutes and just trying to tear yourself away and reminding myself why am I even here it's it's for a reason and I need to go do my that fulfill that obligation and so a lot of times I mean that is still a struggle with me and one thing that always sticks with me to is my dad always says that your prayer is your most important if you are have so many struggles or sins that you're dealing with make sure you never ever lose your prayer so I always keep that in mind like if I don't have my Prairie or what do I have so I try to keep that prominent and first and foremost in my mind when I'm when I think that my deadline is important well there's something more important that's waiting for me so a lot of times actually have been on flood Patrol and in stuck in a car waiting for my live shots and I'll have to tell the photographer who's in the car with me can you turn off the radio I need to pray and so just on this side of a flood in the middle of Iowa you know I just pray because I have to remember the importance of that and the weight of even what I have at hand Allah that that gratitude can never be shown enough even with my Salah so that's that's I think one of the one of the biggest things and then kind of a little bit more in not a political side but I guess a little more in the superficial side is just being the only Muslim in on any of the TV channels in the Quad Cities we have three stations I'm a CBS station we have NBC as well as ABC and just making sure that our that I do represent a people I do represent my community and I want to make sure that that gets out there and a lot of times even like on Eid morning I woke up and I was like oh my god I'm gonna be at the salt ah who's gonna cover it so I sent an email to everyone to make sure somebody was there because we don't have enough of those positive stories as you know so things like that I also try to keep in mind so what's the future look like in China for you what are the what are the things that you really hope to a you know achieve not just for yourself but for your community and she'll know I mean obviously when you're a Muslim in a public space even if you don't intend to represent you are forced to be a representation and that's you know saying from all model the allotted on hakuna jonathan dilemma until Masami to and be callers to allah even as you're silent and they said how do you do that he said with your good character more than anything else it's going to be Raph laughs your character that's going to rise which will be constantly refined through the worship and praying on the side of a car in the middle of a flood and just sort of upholding that higher standard what what can we inshallah hope to see going forward and what message do you have for others that are also striving insha'Allah Allah to do what you do as far as what to expect for me I'd honestly have no idea what can we make Gough what can we pray for you in Selma inshallah that I just keep perfecting the craft I do i oh I always make dua that I am the best in my field and that while I do it that I always always always maintain a positive light on his name [Applause] so ultimately that's the goal I don't know how it will play out subhanAllah I couldn't even imagine how it has played out so far so I'm keeping an open mind and inshallah whatever doors open up I'll get to assess the situation when we get there but for right now even everyday I'm just trying to think what can I do today what how can I make an impact today and then as far as advice for people honestly in chef's when you called me to do this I even thought as soon as I hung up Who am I to do this Who am I to give advice people and and tell people what to do I mean so many people are so much more knowledgeable than me in this audience including my parents where I get all my advice from but I guess if there's something that I've learned that I think that people could remember is that whatever it is whatever your path is that you want to be on and your goal is its it's not gonna be easy there's so many challenges but I mean like I even tried to portray in my talk that Angele if you have that faith and even if it seemed ten it seems tenuous at times but even if you have a thread of faith or a thread of hope you just have to hang on to it and inshallah you surround yourself with people who reinforce that whether it be parents or if other family members or even friends because on a daily basis even for me I need that reinforcement so don't be afraid to seek it if you don't have it um last question is journalism a place for young Muslim women particularly those who want to abide by a job is there a future for other Muslim girls do you feel like you've paved the way and what advice would you have to those particularly trying to pursue that career yes that would be amazing the more the better I think part of my goal is to not become not be known as the first this or that but like oh yeah she's a really great journalist who happens to be Muslim because I don't think it should be anything outstanding or you need to see a Muslim on TV or a Muslim woman who wears hijab that should be normalized hands down and I know there's already Canada actually beat us to it a long time ago sister janela has been on the air for quite a few years and Japan a lot of it's one of the great things about social media she's been reaching out to me and giving me advice and I watch her stories and she watches mine in Canada so I definitely think that it's it's already started and several women before me have already paved the way I can't even express how encouraging it was to be a young Muslim American hoping to be in the field of journalism where there are barely any Muslims in general let alone with some women who wear hijab but seeing like names like Narine Hussain and Ramana Hussein in in the paper growing up or Malika below who's on al-jazeera AJ stream international show so things like that have offered me strength and inspiration and I hope that I only continue that that legacy and inshallah inshallah there are many many more women to come and I know I said that was gonna be my final question but I do have one more hearing you talk about and and I didn't expect this but I do think it's important criticism that you receive within the community what can we do to be a more supportive community I you know my daughter's turning nine masha'Allah she just started wearing hijab by her own her own decision she chose to start very early and she she's got a little bit of a defiance in her so she's ready to take on the world as well so I'm gonna have to talk to your parents about how to do better and shout a lot size as well get some advice from them but what can we do as a community not just as a fit family there's obviously the support that you got from your parents the support from your siblings the support from your your immediate friends as a community what would you like us to do what do you think we can do better in Shalva not just to support us behind but support other people that have dreams and that often have to balance between their own personal pursuits while being antagonized by their community for different things I wish I knew the exact answer but I think that it does start with just being positive and I don't think that's hard that's something that that's something that my news director always tells me when I do any interviews I just keep it positive always positive and I wish that that's advice that everyone took to heart even the prophets in law I said him he was always he was always smiling and when he gave advice when he gave him to see how it was always in a kind in a gentle way and I think that gets lost on us because especially because of social media it's a platform where hand Allah it rallies us together but it also does a really great job of dividing us and a lot of times we let that happen we forget that our voices are amplified on social media and each criticism it hurts a lot more coming from people who you're trying to represent all right here you know that you think have your back and are you'd like to think is your global community so I think just keeping it positive and just knowing that yes there are imperfections that everybody has and remember that on social media those are also amplified but note that there are people probably if you've noticed it there are people in his or her life that have also noticed it and are giving them advice already about it so that's not necessarily your place to do that and I think that even before my story came out I was already feeling nervous more about that than anything else and I as a muslim-american you grow up getting used to racism right you're prepared for that you develop thick skin especially as a Muslim woman I can count early as early as the age of 9 countering racism with my mom in the car wearing her job so you develop a way to protect yourself from that - let it just roll off of you and you know what it's important but you're not prepared I don't think I will ever be prepared for that backlash that comes from your own so just maybe if people keep that in mind before they hit enter in the comments and just make dua that's the best form right I mean I always tell people like just sokoloff for your kind of words and but you're the wise mean the most to me and that's for whether you want me to improve and you don't agree with something about me or just that you would like me to keep going either way just make that Salwa so you said that you're not a Shia and that you know I'm the one that's supposed to be giving advice but that's probably the best two minutes on social media that I've heard in the convention thus far so because you probably don't hear it enough and you do hear a lot of criticism from the community just know that we are extremely proud of you and your family we are you know you inspire in all of us men and women that ability in Charlotte IATA to power through with our principles and very uncomfortable spaces it is a feat and HMDA data what you've accomplished there's no small thing and inshallah you will inspire others to also move forward so I'm gonna ask your parents one more time just to end up in Charlotte sila and may Allah bless you may Allah keep you sincere may Allah reward your family may allah subhanaw taala allow you to always be guided and guide through you may allah always allow your heart to be rectified and rectify others through you and may Allah allow you to only grow both individually and then Charlotte - Hannah for our community as well it was like in law high tents and I wanna come on handsome you

Channel: Yaqeen Institute

Views: 32,056

Rating: 4.9028339 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: D7dhiqms_2M

Length: 40min 57sec (2457 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 08 2018