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Meet Yeliz A Young Woman of Conviction, Distinct across Contexts Yeliz’s self-portrait is of a beautiful young woman, head covered with ħijāb, with the letters MUSLIM floating overhead. An A student in most of her courses, Yeliz studies three to five hours a week, considers school to be “very important,” and is now reading Of Mice and Men. She describes herself as “Caucasian/white/EuroAmerican .” Her mother and father are from Turkey, and both are high school graduates. Yeliz is well aware that her behaviors, her perspectives, and her practices vary according to the situation. “I draw that because I used to live in Paterson , we used to walk around on the way to the mosque . . . but I’m partly Muslim.” Selcuk (the interviewer) asked, “What is she looking at?” Yeliz responded, “Everybody.” Selcuk pressed a bit,“Do people look at her?”“Ahh, well, some people. It depends. Well, not in Paterson, but if you are here [suburban New Jersey] people will stare at you.”Then Selcuk asked whether the staring made Yeliz uncomfortable. “No, if someone says something to me, I just argue back and . . . they wouldn’t dare . . . I get into fights too much.” Remarkably reflective about her tendency to get into “fights,” Yeliz also was mindful of her prayer behavior. In the midst of the interview, she announced to Selcuk, “I’m going to start today, I used to do it [pray] once in a while, but now I’m going to start five times a day.” An extremely assertive young woman, Yeliz is delighted to educate others about Islam and to argue if necessary. See now in social studies class, we are now learning about Muslims, and I am the only Muslim in my class and the teacher tells me if we say something wrong, correct me, can you bring in things to show everybody, so I told them, yeah. I’m gonna bring in stuff. . . . It feels good ’cause no one knows about it. I teach them. Yeliz had been planning a career as a lawyer, and then “I switched to FBI” and now maybe “detective.” She likes to 82 ❙ go outside, . . . talk a lot. I talk a lot. . . . we hang out with friends, go on the computer sometimes, talk to my friends . . . sports, I like to play with my cousins and I was gonna join the basketball team this year, but I couldn’t so they opened karate here so I’m going to start karate again. . . . I write stories and stuff. I like writing. She is not stressed except “when others make jokes about or put down Muslim ; when people consider Muslim Americans to be more dangerous than other groups; and when loosening the ties with Islam is difficult.” Although she rated almost all the physical and psychological problems as “Not at all true,”Yeliz rated “I argue a lot” as VERY TRUE. It came as no surprise, then that when Yeliz hears “TV and news and everything . . . about Muslims,” I feel like beating them up . . . because you can’t judge anybody. That’s just one person’s mistake . . . there is actually two kids that sit behind me in social studies class, and I kept hearing “the Muslims, the Muslims”; that’s what they kept on saying and I guess they were making fun of the teacher when she was teaching, and I asked them about it but not when they were like “Muslims” to stop it, if not I was gonna turn around and yell at them. What are they gonna do? It was two boys, I even know them, they shouldn’t be saying anything. I got really mad. My sister was, like, “Forget about it.” I don’t forget things. Acutely attuned to contextual slights or assaults, Yeliz could “pass” as Caucasian and non-Muslim, but instead she responds assertively and passionately to any bias she encounters. Her friends are Muslim, Bosnian, and “American” . . . but “my mom says ‘watch who your friends are’ . . . be careful.” Yeliz notes that her older sister is even more strict than my mom. She is serious . . . more strict . . . she’s annoying , she’ll say, let’s see, don’t talk to this person, I don’t like who he is who she is, you know, she knows them and so she tells me not to hang out with them. . . . Sometimes I get really mad . . . [but] I have to be [OK with it]; yeah, she’ll kick me out. “If I [Yeliz] want...

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