portraitsofboston:

portraitsofboston:

"In high school I was bullied a lot because I was Muslim. People called me names, told me I was a terrorist. Even when I won awards for being a good student, I didn’t go to the ceremonies because I was afraid people would make fun of me. I also struggled with my identity because my parents are from Turkey and I was born here. After high school, I did a study abroad, among other things, and I realized that Americans are not the only people in the world, and there are all these different cultures. Now I’m lot more comfortable being myself."

"Did you have the support of your family when you were going through this?"

"I actually didn’t tell my parents about the bullying because when I told them in 7th grade that I had decided to wear a headscarf to school, they told me, ‘Don’t do it! They’ll make fun of you.’"

"How about your struggle to find your true identity?"

"At one point, instead of trying to be either Turkish or American, I asked myself what’s the one thing that’s constant in both cases. It is that I am Muslim. So I stopped trying to be something else. It’s still a process, but I’m getting better at it."