Meet a Muslim woman who sees the world through heart-shaped glasses
Each week, I am an American introduces you to an exceptional American working to make his or her community a better place.
Meet a Muslim woman who sees the world through heart-shaped glasses
Happy Friday, y'all. Sometimes we get stuck in our own feedback bubbles. We believe so strongly in our own point of view that we not only lose the ability to find common ground with people outside those bubbles, but we tend to paint their point of view as a negative. Meet Arizona’s Tara Ijai, who hopes people will adjust that message to instead focus on what makes us the same instead of what divides us: love. We couldn’t agree more. Tara’s helping people around the country, and the world, focus on love with the heart-shaped glasses she sells via her Facebook page and website, “Love Glasses Revolution.”
Tara was 28 when she converted to Islam and chose to wear a hijab, a head covering traditionally worn by Muslim women. Two months later, on Sept. 11, 2001, her faith made her a target, she tells the Arizona Republic’s Karina Bland. And in the years since she’s experienced a range of reactions to her outward display of faith. Through it all, though, Tara has held true to her faith in Islam and her belief that love is bigger than hate.
Now she shows up at marches and demonstrations with a 12-foot banner that says, “Love for all.” People flock to it and push her to the front of the group. At an immigration march in Tempe, instead of “Down with Trump,” Tara and her fellow marchers chanted, “Love for all.” “That’s the thing that makes me so excited, that we can actually change the message,” Tara said. “We can make a difference.”
So she will keep showing up, wearing her hijab. “I know it changes the narrative,” she said. “They want me to be scary. They want me to be foreign. They want me to be different.”
By the way, Tara is the ninth person we’ve profiled since Jan. 1st. Meet more of the Amercians we’ve profiled here.
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This is one way the Paste BN NETWORK is working to connect you to a true cross-section of Americans from the communities around the country where we have newsrooms - 110 and growing. Unlike some national media outlets, the vast majority of our journalists actually live in the small towns and cities they cover all across America. In fact, we did the math, and found that only one in every 39 of our journalists is based in D.C., New York or Los Angeles.
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P.S.
March is National Women's Month. Stay tuned for profiles of amazing American women right here each week, but let us know if there are any more we should give a shout out to -- we'll do so in this space throughout the month! Here's an example: "Big ups to my mom, Dot Kelly, who taught me not just how to be a woman, but a human."