Mum, I'm a Muslim (Religious Documentary) | Real Stories

how did you actually tell your parents i think i kind of was beating around the bush saying you know i've changed recently and i don't know if you've noticed i've done this and that and i think they were kind of like oh just spit it out do you think they thought you were going to say you were gay or something exactly god you're not muslim with what you're going to say you're a muslim then actually i am what is it that makes a woman with all the freedom and opportunities of modern britain choose to become a muslim it's a few weeks before september the 11th and like most people i know very little about islam i'm finding that women are reluctant to talk openly about their conversion but then a friend puts me in touch with [Music] caroline nervous but eventually agrees to be filmed in the privacy of her home were you searching for some kind of meaning i think yeah but then i think if any human being doesn't ever question why they're here then that i think there's something wrong in that and even though one part of me was saying it might upset people if i did this i mean i got to the stage in the in the january three years ago where i just i thought i have i have to follow this this is the right way i like to identify myself as a muslim i do feel disappointed with myself if i do go out you know like this but i do think i really should be covering my head so why don't you wear a scarf i guess it is just worrying about people's reactions and i know that that is an excuse it's not a reason it's it is an excuse i i'm worried i think oh we're going to work or it's head scarf on people will treat me differently people are thinking i'm strange people think i'm foreign i wish i did have the strength to do it and i'm hoping that in the next few months i will do in the next few months i hope so but then i did say oh when i start work i'm going to put the hair scarf on it's not going to come off and then i bottled out can we see what you look like with your head scarf on if you like can we yeah so can you like use anything or are there specific hijab things someone i know said that you can tell where someone comes from according to what their scarf's like but so i don't know what people think i come from look in the mirror because i get it wonky like that make sure like my head's my that's covered there i feel in a way like i'm leading a double life because people don't know i'm muslim that sounds terribly exciting it's not that exciting but it does feel a bit deceptive because i believe what i'm following the truth so i want to be honest about it but then that's my weakness you look like a muslim now i am i'm surprised how a simple headscarf can so radically transform somebody and i suppose it's just this sort of reaction that's making it so difficult for caroline and the others to be more public about their conversion i leave caroline and go in search of other converts but then everything changes middleton with a new splash on hallam fm two planes have crashed into the world trade center towers in new york at least one of the planes had been hijacked it thought hundreds of people may have been killed in the explosions news all over the world is now dominated by terrorism and islam and with a lot of people thinking they're the same thing white muslims in the uk are not rushing to be in the film i head off to sheffield apparently the convert capital of britain where i meet a coach driver called demina okay i'll go and get me a checklist and we'll go and find our bus and i'll check it over amina converted as a teenager and later married a sheffield yemeni now she acts as a kind of big sister to other white girls interested in islam do you know quite a lot of women who are converting since i became muslim like 10 years ago there's been so many maybe 50 or so that i know of personally morning this is bryn my co-driver for the day kind of unusual job for a muslim woman it certainly is yeah i think i'm the only one how's that bit more out please cheers there's such a taboo isn't there about muslim women we are considered as being such poor creatures who are so oppressed and not allowed to go out of the house we have to walk 25 paces behind our husband i walk in front of mine right are we ready is allowing me to drive a 12-ton coach down the motorway even a lot of english men wouldn't want their wives to do the job that i'm doing oh it's got a good lock on it fantastic well i leave amina to drive down the m1 she says she'll help me find other white muslims to talk to i hope she has more luck than me three women have dropped out of the film so far it's not just september the 11th there are problems closer to home hi samina you're right yeah not too bad thank you i've got my voice at the moment you have to while i didn't think you would why don't i alright so you're not gonna know then okay then it doesn't matter it's all right don't matter what reasons is he given for not wanting you to do it does his family not know about you oh that's probably why then he probably doesn't want to advertise the fact that he's committing haram on national television to say anyway love it it doesn't matter don't worry about it i'll speak to you soon yeah okay bye boyfriend don't want us to do it his family don't know about her so um don't think they'd be dead impressed see this is the thing we're going to come up against so much she asked him that if it was because of all the trouble that's gone off you know with this and bombing and everything he said no so it's obvious that the only other reason is that he doesn't to want his family to find out that he's seeing somebody openly yeah there's nobody else i can think of ahmed is there anyone who you can think of any of your mates who have got english girlfriends who are thinking about becoming muslim did you try it over i've tried everybody's boyfriends seem to have a problem with it now muslim men are saying white girls yeah well mostly men see english girls and islamically it's not acceptable to have a relationship out of marriage unless you're considering somebody for marriage in a non-physical relationship way which obviously those relationships aren't that type of relationship um so obviously they don't want their families to find out because it causes a lot of trouble not all muslim lads going out with white girls are so guarded amina's husband ahmed puts me in touch with his friend hussein whose girlfriend's thinking about converting and your girlfriend no she's not ending my girlfriend tell me a bit about your girlfriend do you want to know about my girlfriend why do you think it's important for her to become a muslim i'll answer what you think of becoming a muslim and she said no problem but she just want to know more about it i'll read about it and so i got out some books from amina and she still read them i just showed that she one day when she'll come to me says yeah i'm ready for it but i'm not forcing it into it but in islam you're not supposed to be going out with any girl are you true it's forbidden to go within a girl it doesn't have to be a white girl but you just live with that and do wrong i just live and do wrong it's pretty tough though for a kind of muslim guy living in this country to abide by that rule isn't it it's tough that's why i say it's tough because if you're driving or walking past and this all the half naked female you see in town or motherhood on that it's forbidden you look because you can't help but look the gaming but at the same time it's forbidden to look and if you can't really help yourself that's it you're doing the wrong thing all the time but majority do do it the majority of muslim lads yeah bloods yeah the majority of muslim lads do do it some of them probably behind close curtains on the cover but they still do it hussein's girlfriend like the others doesn't want to go on camera but in the meantime amina's come up trumps she arranges to meet up with amy a student from wales who doesn't have a muslim boyfriend pleased to meet you you're saying isn't it yeah i'm a meaner so i wouldn't have been mostly four weeks oh frighten you yeah so it's all a bit so scary everything's really new yeah it's like what's your family think about it they don't know yet that's the next scary room well they like what kind of background you're coming from where i live at home no muslims at all nothing just white people yeah you know the media gives them yeah you know viewpoint there so that's the problem you know it's horrible i hate it so how do you think they're gonna react i think they'll be all right maybelline's going to be better than my dad i think and for my dad i think he's going to be more concerned like i'm being forced into it or something yeah my mind was similar they're sort of like oh well you're being oppressed why would you give up your western free lifestyle like this and it's gonna be really hard because i'm i don't know where to wear my scarf or not i'm like oh i don't know so when i told my parents i just did it in a very subtle way i think if you're gentle with them and you sort of put the primer on first as it goes do you know what i mean like prime it before you put the top coat on you know every muslim basically that i know is born into a muslim family whatever and you know it's really nice meeting rivers we're a species of our own aren't we fantastic we get the best of both worlds so what about marriage is there any marriage on the horizon um not the moment nobody in mind i have had some offers oh you've had some offers yeah but that doesn't surprise me at all no no not yet please do it when you're ready yeah how old are you you're on a young one i'm 19. oh well then i've got plenty of times plenty of time i'm really excited about this weekend as well because it's like my first time busting and i'm like yay that's the first drama that went into it what time is it it must be nearly time for monday yeah oh we better go and pray [Music] see which direction we are [Music] you have to stand close together [Music] within the last few minutes it's been confirmed the us has launched airstrikes on afghanistan western town of jalalabad has also been the target of u.s raids the taliban have responded with anti-aircraft fire [Music] top stories this hour the us now dominates afghan airspace after almost a week of fighting in other news the home secretary david blanket says he utterly condemns attacks on muslims it's only four weeks since amy became a muslim and as the bombing continues i can't help thinking she couldn't have picked a worse time to convert i want to know how she got into islam i never really believed in god i had a few friends who are muslims and i asked them for books so i could respect what they believed and the more i learned the more it was like common sense to me so i just decided to convict islam and i'm happy what was hard walking into university of my hijab on the first day that was harassed because everybody was like was she done or was she done but yeah because some of my friends didn't know about my interest in this laugh but not all of them and that was quite interesting and how did you cope what about your parents i haven't told them yet but i'm going to tell them i think they'll be okay it might be a bit of a shock to see me wearing a scarf to start off with but after that i think they'll be all right have you seen any of your family since you've become a muslim i saw my brother the week after and she came to visit me and i took my scarf off there i've got to admit yeah okay right it's not been good but ideal i took my scarf off while he came to see me um it was only for a few hours but i felt i wasn't ready to tell him as long as it's in my heart it's right then that's what matters really yeah i think as soon as they see that i've not changed i hope please as a new muslim amy's had to change her whole lifestyle and that includes her wardrobe so where are we going amy we're going to tyrak to look for some scarves usually i can find something i really like oh we go down here aren't we most people wear the sort of black ones don't they i find them too boring so there are sort of rules about what you can and can't wear um c3 ones are not a good idea because they're like obviously showing your hair i can't wear that because you can see straight through it but it's really pretty it's just a shame but and you're not like pictures either like of animals like dogs no no no so people comment on them um sometimes some comments i've had it's like oh it's too bright it makes it really pale blah blah blah but that's i think it's only people who can't like actually handle the fact that i am muslim and i'm white as well do you think that's harder for people to accept well being white and muslim i think so right there we go have you got a mirror is that your trick this is the trick so that looks quite nice don't you think yeah i do i like this color it's nice and how did you decide what style to weigh i just covered my friends because i find like you know some people they put pin there and then they take that bit up there like that i can't do that it's too complicated so what do you do i just put a pin like a safety pin did you worry about looking nice no i don't care how i look [Music] top stories at three a passenger plane has crashed in new york in the residential queens area of the city prime minister tony blair has spoken to say it's too early to tell whether it was a tragic accident or related to terrorism communication and they don't think so they're looking for the black box they're not ruling out a terrorist attack but what is it to try to determine the cause of it i hope it isn't another one because that's the last thing the new york people needing so after what they've just been through another one have they been blaming muslims or not well not yet but i'm waiting for it you know oh snotty case lovely oh yeah yeah all right but you've not finished yet have you oh yeah i'm going out again i thought so what time are you going to work to sometimes like 10 11. islamically the husband's got to provide for his family it's incumbent on him to go out and work but if the woman goes out and works it's her own choice if she wants to go out and work even that money that she earned within the marriage is her own money he can't touch her it's her pocket money what how does jacket happen yeah a cat what were you speaking there oh rebecca what did he say told him to put his jacket and shoes on so when you boss him around you do that in arabic depends if he's arab speaking mate sorry i do in english one thing that's appealing about muslim men to english girls is the fact that you know that your man's not gonna come in absolutely bladder at two o'clock in the morning with lipstick all over his face come on darling let's good boy oh get mop where's the man open that door it's inside there could tell how much you use the mop you don't even know where it's kept i get this on film an arab man mopping up because it's a miracle [Laughter] to prove that i help in the house that's documented now first time ever no he's good actually you're good sally come on can i come see you later amina is certainly defying my stereotype of the timid muslim wife she's never home long enough to be chained to the kitchen sink and the escalating conflict with afghanistan is politicizing her life headlines tony blair has been rallying support for the war on terror saying no one should forget the appalling atrocities of september the 11th the prime minister claims there's now a flood of evidence proving osama bin laden's guilt meanwhile british muslims have been calling for an end to the bombing and in sheffield an anti-war protest is gathering pace with new demonstrations being organized for tomorrow it's one of ours as well what is this demonstration about about the um persecution of the muslims in afghanistan obviously we're not saying that what happened on the 11th of september is right it's not it's completely wrong but two wrongs don't make her right and that's what it boils down to i'm english i'm proud to be english i was born and bred in england and i love this country so much yeah but the way the way that things are going um i don't feel comfortable here anymore i'm frightened to come into town on a saturday afternoon to do my shopping in case somebody attacks me or my children in the street and i'm not just saying that you know because nothing's happened people have had their scars ripped off in the streets in sheffield and so i don't feel that i want to bring my children up in that type of an environment where they've got to be looking over their shoulder just to go to the local shop and i know a lot of people who are actually are actually going back to their own countries oh that's a good one an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind okay well we better put our call it says two rums don't make a right stop bullying the innocent in this country things have become acceptable in society that would have been completely unacceptable morally like 100 years ago likewise such as adultery adultery is acceptable nowadays yeah yeah of course it is people people people laugh people laugh about it don't they people think it's i think people think it's funny oh you know some some bloke's gone behind his wives back and all this you know it happens so often fornication well that's just complete norm now into what do you mean by that follocation that's like um when two people are together out of marriage here it's one thing to disapprove of adultery and promiscuity but do amina and acme go along with the punishment what crimes would islamic law punish by public execution murder um obviously um treason is one of them um adultery adultery you get punished by death yeah if you think that's right this is proven you know if if god is given a law then that's for a good reason if you look at what's behind the sharia law and then you can see that it's actually very logical and very sensible but you think for someone to just commit adultery they should die yeah but just commit adultery fair enough just the act of committing adultery is not a big act yeah but if you think of the implications behind the act of adultery that is so detrimental to society yeah it breaks up a family it can affect the emotions of the children for life it's like do you think it would affect the emotions of the children to see their mother murdered and executed when they grow up they will know that their mother yeah she was a nice person but she did something wrong it's not it's not allowed in islam that like islam is really detailed on everything yeah yeah near enough yeah the big things has been sorted does it tell you like you know what's sexually okay and not okay oh yeah well they can do anything [Music] apart from you know one place that the man shouldn't go there i've got it i'll get you yeah yeah but apart from that everything else is okay yeah as long as it's reasonable yeah as long as it's reasonable yeah so this is does it go into that specific like what is it obviously to the extent of you you disrespect your partner so anything that's consensual yeah yeah basically apart from that particular place the northern alliance have captured the afghan capital of kabul after the taliban fled the city the united states has ruled out any pause in the military campaign in afghanistan during the holy month of ramadan but obama raids are to be made against frontline taliban positions specialist it's amy's first ramadan the month where muslims fast between sunrise and sunset every evening she meets with the university islamic society to pray and then break her fast as prayers get underway we have a problem just like in a mosque men and women are strictly segregated so with men on our crew we're not able to film amy praying have you asked my sister that they said no they weren't happy with the guys going in the sisters area it wasn't about what we were i mean the thing is you go to lectures everywhere you go you have to mingle with men but as soon as you come to the prayer room everybody goes oh no gotta keep separate gorky separate so what do you do do you find the logic of that aspect of the religion i think i think no i don't find it hard i think it's um quite good in a way because it stops you doing like going and getting too close to men and like go and have sex and stuff like that because it leads to that you get close to a guy i mean i've been there i get you get friends with the guy you start talking to him get closer close so you just end up you know doing something and as like you know fornication is not allowed in islam then you know it's a good thing so you're not going to have sex between now and marriage does that make you want to get married quicker no that would be nice a few days later ramena calls with some startling news she's emigrating to the yemen which right now is on the watch list in the war against terrorism the foreign office is strongly advising britain's not to travel there we've decided to take our chances over there as it were we're gonna try and get a job over there and what so there's so much um hatred for muslims at the moment in britain i'm not bothered for myself but my kids you know just in case you just don't know do you what's gonna happen i suppose in all religions converts are notoriously zealous and for all the white muslim women i've met so far the rules and regulations of islam seem to be the dominant issue but had heard about the sufis a branch of islam which emphasizes spirituality over rules nice to see you how do you come in thank you before converting to sufi islam a year ago jan was a christian she separated from her husband and has two sons who've now left home i'm going for the zika tonight so i'm looking forward to it so i said i'd do the food tonight a zika is a lovely remembrance service where you just say the names of allah and then eat afterwards is such a prayer meeting yes yes it is really some friends have said that you were a good christian so what have you um sold out almost is what what they would imply and i think my answer to that is well i didn't know about the prophet and indeed in the bible jesus actually does say somebody will come after me so i think for me it hasn't been at all a sellout of my faith it's been an enriching of my face lily broke my fast then did you notice no but i didn't what did you do well i've got some garlic on my thing and i said about it look it up but i didn't there is a lot of rule following isn't there yes and like that i have no problem at all praying because it brings you in god's presence five times a day what hampers me is um fearing i'm going to put a foot wrong with the culture you know like i can't pronounce this properly if i'm not wearing the right clothes if i'm not behaving appropriately as all my friends so doesn't mean you have to get all sort of scarved up and walk about um you know like with them a bed sheet on you and just going to see you just with your eyes and i said no it isn't like that you know because that's cultural isn't to separate the cultural uh from what the face is saying the faces seem to dress modestly and to cover yourself appropriately and to not um not dress in a way that is provocative cultures interpret that differently don't they as we've seen in afghanistan and various places like that but do you do things like shake men's hand and yeah be in a room with a man and a lot of that into mixing yes i can't see myself making that shift very easily because i'm an english woman and i see men and women men and women come to my house i see many women at work if it is in the quran that you shouldn't be in the same room as a man on your own that is not family then i feel the way that i deal with that for myself is what your intention is i just find it really difficult i really do and i think that and i'm still struggling with many aspects of that and i can't deny it really there are issues about the whole thing that you're meant to question but you can't just go around sort of thinking well this is what i think you know it's not fair for women i think you know like looking at what i was like in the 70s to how i am now my mum and my sister and i went to green uncommon i had um orange hair that was like a quarter of an inch all over i used to wear dungarees i never burnt my bra i never did anything like that i didn't go to that i thought that's all this about um but i was kind of the right on feminist in those days really and it was essential i mean it wasn't until what the 60s that we could own our own property in england we could have a bank account without a husband having to sign the cheque islamic women have always had those rights but if i stick to what the quran says to me and what the message is it's very clear to me that i have total equality just do as it says and nobody can argue with me on that it's friday lunchtime duma prayer and a more traditional scene at the yemeni mosque in a few days ahmed amina and their two young children leave sheffield ami ahmed to talk about what life in the yemen will be like for his english wife rivers when they go to arab country they will be treated very very highly like this person left the west way of life the freedom whatever they name it to become a muslim to wear a hijab that's a big thing for a woman when they see like one like i mean they treat her with really high respect is it different though being married to a white muslim i've been long enough in this country to know the mentality of the woman in this country obviously so i knew what i was getting into i was prepared to you were prepared for amina yeah yeah she is she's a strong person she's got a very strong personality but i was preparing to her i know how she thinks i know how the way she is who wears the trousers in your hair the house is her kingdom that i leave everything in the house to her sometimes she gets overexcited and then he'll have to take control then oh ahmed well i can't find it oh you're big turd wait a minute today i mean i would be nice oh shut up everything's packed here thanks when i bought her to do this work [Music] two is have you got your butthole in there yeah it's here wow that's lucky do you wear that the whole time when there's like a lot of men around and i don't feel comfortable like um some of the markets in yemen get very very busy with blokes with me being english i am taller and i am a lot whiter than most arab women i've got blue eyes in the arab countries they find this very attractive so to save myself any type of awesome because you walk around like that yeah it's all right you can see and everything it's not problem i drive with it on you don't yeah you can see perfectly well it's like having black windows on your car and then if you want to see you know more you just lift thank you you look like a tent cheers don't you mind that no i'd rather be seen as a chest modest woman than a slapper to be honest i mean obviously a bloke in the street isn't gonna fancy me over fancying somebody with a short skirt and a good pair of legs there's two blokes here would you guys find me attractive in this lot or would you rather look at a woman in a miniskirt you can answer mr sound man i think that was in no no exactly so you don't find me attractive she's that's good idea [Music] later i meet jan at the sufi center for the zika where men and women pray together [Music] i didn't know what to do whether i wore a scarf how you behaved where you sat and what you did and i asked and the person that ran the center said it doesn't matter don't worry about that you know you aren't here to worry about a scarf that stays with me too sort of comments like that it didn't seem dogmatic it didn't seem you will do this you won't do that so it didn't seem as exclusive so there seemed like a way in for me really are you getting a little help here looking at the quran it's the perfect way of life for me if i keep on the clear message it's giving me and it's very simple to love people to care for people [Music] is both these complexes have very different dd transition intensities we come to the end it's the end of university term for amy and her parents are picking her up they still don't know she's a muslim but she's decided that today she'll break the news well my parents are coming down here like four o'clock to see me i am really stressing and then i'll tell you if your granddad's coming no they said my dad said oh i might be granddad so if my granddad's coming i don't know if i should tell them or not do you think they're gonna be kind of shocked about it then um i found my brother last night right and i was like dave can i tell you something i was crying my eyes out my brother's great though and he's like it's cool yeah cool don't worry about it i'm just like scared they're gonna ask like really awkward questions you gotta like tell them not to get your christmas music today no because i'll just take them as random 25th of december presents because that's why i'm giving i've got christmas presents for them as well so you don't mind if we buy your christmas presents very quite welcome you should be all right though [Music] the longer i know amy the harder it is to imagine her without her head scarf i want to see the girl her parents expect to see she invites me around to her flat to show me photos of the old amy hey come here i like your slippers yeah this is my room is it in oh this is a good one this is probably about four yeah four years ago fifteen don't you miss going clubbing yeah but i just put my rage you wanna do it in my room is it not allowed to go clubbing it's not allowed to be in places where there's alcohol and guys are like on the pole and not a good atmosphere this is the guy i used to fancy it's a very well handled view i don't know why i've still got it actually i don't go for blondes anymore no blondes thank you thank you did you used to have boyfriends oh yeah yeah yeah you missed that no well in a way i missed the hugs yeah but that's it but i get my hugs off my mates i'll have that or when i get married anyway this is when i went out for my birthday that was the start of may are there quite a lot of people back in your town who don't know you're a muslim yeah yeah loads of fun so it's quite a big time for you now really isn't it yes have you been worrying a bit yeah a bit a lot yeah about them coming but it'll be all right it'll work out i'm sure it will a bit scared are you it'll be all right i wish the phone may actually tell me they're on their way oh they're gonna be here in like half an hour understandably amy wants to tell her parents in private we agree to meet again when everyone's had time to think it through good luck okay i left amy with one of the most difficult tasks converts are faced with breaking the news to their parents a week later i go to amy's hometown in wales to find out how it went her mum didn't want to talk about it but her dad and brother agreed to meet me for a drink point of ipa please and lemonade but it's my wife who told me they went shopping so i went for a walk and when i got back to amy's flight she told me you know thank you i was a big shock to start with but then you know what did your wife say to you um i think andrew was a little embarrassed walking around sainsbury's with her with a with amy wanted she was yeah to be fair because amy had a scarf yeah ellen's probably the one that took it the worst out of the family she's always believed for women to be sort of independent and she's always sort of you know tried to teach my sister and then you know without the understanding just thinking that women are the ones that got to stay at home and that is a bit of a bit of a shock in that way i think it was a cover in her head that really upset her the most wasn't it yeah yeah why is that hard for us i don't understand it personally the way my sister explained that it's like you know to wear the head scarf is to sort of keep you special for your loved one but i can't ever i don't understand why a head scarf keeps you special in any way what about when you first saw her with this girl it didn't bother me much at all no it didn't no she gave me a few books to read i haven't read them all i've only read a little bit but i can see you know yeah why she's done it yeah i mean i think she's um because it's a complete way of life isn't it she's doing and she seems very happy with just that complete way of life do you think there was a side of her that was kind of like didn't feel like she fitted in and so was looking for a different path yeah she never wanted to go out and you know get drunk and go to nightclubs and all that like like her friends did you know and in that way then she never sort of fitted in you know and now she does because she's got people around her that sort of do the same thing as she does you know i suppose living in pembroke she was a bit of a square pegging around the whole wouldn't she she comes across as a lot happier now than what she did when she was in school yeah yeah she does yeah islam answers a lot of questions that the social way of life around here doesn't answer for me everybody does the same thing i just kind of go to the pub get drunk go clubbing get drunk go to the rugby get drunk that's what they do i didn't want to go out to the pub i didn't want to go and have like so much to drink that i couldn't remember what i was doing and that's when people started to find me a bit strange and i decided not to get along with people around here really and that's quite scary because you think i'm alone i'm the only person around here who's like this it's reported the taliban hold on afghanistan has weakened even further british troops are on standby to go into the country as a peacekeeping force it's the end of ramadan and jan calls she's made a major decision despite her more liberal interpretation of the rules of islam she's decided to wear the hijab it's monday morning and she's got to go to work how are you feeling about it and well i was it was just upstairs in the bathroom and uh um yeah i feel quite emotional really why are you gonna start wearing the scarf to wear a scarf for me as an english woman in islam is a real statement and i really feel i want to do it and it just feels the right time to do it i think what makes me feel a little upset is um i think i'm moving on isn't it really because um people have known some of them my friends at work know that i've been looking at this face but to actually go today with a scarf feels quite um quite a journey really i suppose i'll be alright in a minute i will compose myself if you thought hard about what scarf you're going to wear yes i did i did i've seen a lot of people wearing scarves in different ways and i think i quite like this way and it seems acceptable and doesn't feel too too covering for starters for beginners which i'll be like in five years or whatever also i'll put a top on too because i predict space to pray lightly you wouldn't go out in that t-shirt though no did you used to yes it's amazing how you sort of change isn't it as i look over my clothes now i think that's probably not appropriate to wear like what have you got in there now that you wouldn't wear this isn't quite a favorite skirt of mine actually i really like this skirt but it's got slits at the side you know you do have to sort of think about about your clothes more and you see that skirt i couldn't wear anymore as because it's you know it's quite tight too this is a bit short i don't know bit figure hugging too in me you see you've got to be so careful that would show your bum wouldn't it sure i quite like bright skulls and i quite like flowery ones too i wondered if that was partly the hippie in me that was flower power and all that make love not war it's still the same today isn't it show love um i'm not make now anymore not supposed to do that well i think yes i think i think interestingly that the prophet didn't deny it didn't mean the prophet didn't sort of object to that did he uh in fact one somebody once said to me the prophet was a whole man you know unlike jesus who you don't know what he is up to and the other people you don't know what he did or what he didn't do because you haven't you don't know what his life was about i don't think that i'll go today with any expectations of myself i'll just get on with my working day but i think from now on i will begin to slowly but surely be more islamic in the way i am really it feels like i've had the apprenticeship this year and it's been a difficult year i actually feel quite ill prepared today emotions are running high in amina and ahmed's house too in just a few hours the family are leaving sheffield for a new life in the yemen there's still lots to do but no shortage of help that's the car keys there for the tv in that bedroom yeah give it to bakir oh and also i've done my like in the back of the car is a computer it needs to be dropped off at wale and leila's house okay you get all this a lot of people i know who have become muslim one of the things that's drawn them to islam is the strength and the bond between the muslims i don't think i would have had that type of quality of relationship with my friends before i'll probably cry before she goes we're always there for each other whenever somebody needs something like for instance someone's had a baby the rest of us will be there sort of helping out and cooking meals and making sure that they're okay but that's islam it brings people together [Music] abdul hamid's here can we get a shower yeah we've got time [Music] any strong men in the house please right that case can go downstairs oh you should have thought that i'll need it it's gonna have to do with me ahmed it's an aftershave for crying out loud it's from harrods what about my hair where's the gel packed obviously it's packed so i'll carry it off thanks charlotte where am i going to put this that's it [Music] all i protected in chandler have we got everything all right oh i'll miss you too [Music] she'll be back soon hopefully [Music] jan arrives at the northern general hospital where she works as a counsellor i feel quite nervous actually it's the first day of her new life wearing hijab this is where i work the sheffield kidney institute morning there isn't anything for me is that lucy legit yeah okay all right guys i'll catch you later bye they didn't say anything i think that's what how people are gonna get i think that might be what would happen that they just kind of think what's that about this this is a statement um yes it really is isn't it really it's probably uh a move forward really do you think it looks okay i know i know and how have you found it this morning this morning it felt okay i was very shaky at home because it just felt like um it's a lot of explaining isn't it yeah but lots of people know that the the way that your face has been going you have been this is true this is true in the hospital it's very secular it doesn't recognize a god particularly it's cause and effect isn't it got an illness we cure it we don't look at the soul and a lot of problems that people have with emotional illness is there and i think if you can help them spiritually you don't have to say become a sufi become a muslim this but to try and help them i feel is what i want to do more now really and i do sing thank you allah god because kind of think blimey i've got so many things to learn and to do could be sat in my twin set goodnight somewhere waiting for the grandchildren to come [Music] if i can cope now i can stick with it i mean i know i've been through the hardest part so far which is telling my parents you know going out with my hijab on going out round home i know that's that's the hardest bit over and done with now nobody's forced me to do it i've done it of my own pretty well i'm a british muslim that's what i am you know i have my islam and i have my british culture as well you know looking at england [Music] foreign this [Applause] you

Channel: Real Stories

Views: 512,950

Keywords: Islamic guidance for women., Islamic lifestyle, Islamic perspective, Islamic values, Muslim sisterhood, Muslim struggles and triumphs, Real Stories, discovering Islam, diversity in Islam, faith and identity, faith documentary, faith exploration, finding peace in Islam, finding purpose in Islam, journey to Islam, new Muslim women, religious commitment, search for truth, spiritual awakening, spirituality in Islam, white converts

Id: AJv4UEHI40o

Length: 49min 8sec (2948 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 29 2018