Mariam Al Nahedh

Mariam is a student from Kuwait who came to the United States for college. After coming to the U.S., she has become more aware of the ways Arabs and Muslims are portrayed in the media. A lot of people in the U.S. have a stereotype of Arabs and Muslims, but Mariam was not affected by that because she did not really look Arabic. She became friends with a lot of people during her freshman year of college, and she thinks this occurred because they did not know she was Arabic. Because of that, she became more alert when approaching people. Often times it was hard for her to know what people thought about Arabs and Muslims. Mariam loves sharing information about her country and her culture with others. During her senior year, her graphic design class completed a project on a book about American Muslims in the time after 9/11. Mariam shared Muslim culture and her point of view on this issue with her classmates, because otherwise they would not have in-depth knowledge about it. Mariam associates herself with people from different backgrounds, but her “everyday” friends are Kuwaitis. She is comfortable being around them because they speak the same language and have the same lifestyle as herself. Mariam is a proud Arabic woman and has become prouder of who she is and where she is from since she came to the U.S.