Raafia
“I can remember feeling the pressure to perform being the perfect ‘Muslimah’ for my parents, my peers, etc. until I realized that I could not satisfy everyone all the time and the impact it was having on my health. Now, I'm interested in looking beyond and answering questions like 'how do we address the racism, sexism or other forms of oppression within the Muslim community? How do we make space for Muslims on the margins to be heard? How can I take care of myself and support others to take care of themselves? What community collaborations can I be a part of?"
Raafia is 27, a medical student, and volunteers at the Amal Community Centre, a grassroots non-profit whose community events and programming helps newcomers settle in the GTA. She told me, “when the 2016/2017 refugee crisis hit and when Trump implemented his ban, the organization was in its inception stages but there was a flood of folks pouring in. We would go to some homes with multiple families living together and not having basic necessities like rice or curtains. I remember Amal, [the organization founder], would pool all her resources to find them housing and I would scramble to my own community networks to get them basic necessities… I felt the panic, the fear, and the uncertainty about what would happen next. Since then, the organization has grown to provide a furniture bank, settlement services, and [does] multiple events throughout the year.” Raafia’s career and interests came from a time in high school where left Canada to spend two years in Pakistan, where her family originally hails from. She told me, “living in Pakistan taught me the reality of health and economic disparities.” Interacting with the folks in her neighbourhood made her “believe strongly in the power of social services and motivated me to want to be part of primary health care and address health disparities.” When Raafia is not studying and working, she loves to dance. She told me she’ll usually start and end the day dancing, and for a while taught dance to newcomer girls and women as a great way to establish a connection without a common language. When I asked Raafia what her biggest hope is she told me, “that I will stay true to my authentic self and surround myself with people who uplift and support me. What I mean by this is that I hope I do not succumb to the pressure to be "the perfect Muslimah" for Muslim men, or for the wider Muslim community, or even to appease non-Muslims about how Muslim women are or should be. I hope I am able to do the same for others, whether they are my patients, family or a community I work and live in.”
Q&A Feature:
What is your proudest accomplishment and why?
“My ability to fight for self determination. I was raised in a traditional household and I was told from a young age that as a woman, I was not to leave the home alone, have a job or career aspirations, and I would be expected to marry young to someone of my family's choosing. Well I fought all of that, I fought to get a part time job, against their marriage pressures, and eventually set out to have major career aspirations in medicine which I am now on the path towards completing. My path to medicine was not clear cut either, I dealt with multiple rejections, dealing with physical illness in the form of thyroid cancer, and at times doubt/criticism from my own loved ones..that I just don’t know how to fill out an application and I'll never make it..or that I'll be too old by the time I get into or complete medicine and hence no one will marry me.”
