It was Aneeqa’s first day in an English school. It hadn’t been long since she moved from Saudi Arabia. Her father had an opportunity at work to move to England because he was doing a higher level of what he should be doing, so they pulled a few strings for him to get a better job at an English hospital. That’s when they moved. She knew it was going to be hard but she unenthusiastically agreed to move, just for her father.

As she entered the school building, she felt something was going to go wrong at some point of the school day. She went to class. She sat down. She listened to her teacher attentively. She went to her next class. She did the same thing and nothing happened. She went to break. Nothing. She had the same timetable and it all went well until lunch. She went to get her lunch from her backpack and that’s when it all started. A few children were waiting for her at her locker. ‘What are they doing?’ Aneeqa pondered. She walked to her locker, a bit concerned, and that’s when the bullies started to verbally abuse her. “You don’t belong here. This is an English school, not a, I don’t know, wherever you are from, school! And look at you, do you think your skin colour matches our white skin? No, right, so just get out!” Aneeqa ran with tears in her eyes. She couldn’t talk back. ‘They are right. I don’t belong here,’ Aneeqa said to herself. She still went to her classes because if she left she wouldn’t know where to go. The bullies were in the same class as her and whenever she looked at them she could see the fury in their eyes.

The next day, she started making excuses to not go to school. “Mom, look at me, I am really sick.” She made it look like she was sick by having tissues scattered everywhere in her room, putting the thermometer in hot tea so it looked like she had a temperature and she stayed in bed. “I know you Aneeqa, I am your mother. I know that you are faking to be sick. What’s wrong?” her mother said.

“Nothing, I don’t feel like going to school today. That’s it.” Aneeqa replied. She got out of bed and got ready for school.

When she got to school, she accidentally bumped into her enemy. The bullies. They started to be racist, make fun of her dress code (head scarf) and her English. This really affected her and she became depressed. She continued to make excuses and when her mom knew she was faking it, she always said the same thing. Her mom knew something was happening at school so she started to investigate. When Aneeqa was at school, she met with the head teacher. “I have seen Aneeqa being talked to by certain students and I think she is being bullied by those children. This isn’t a grammar school so we don’t take action when it comes to bullying,” the head teacher informed Aneeqa’s mother.

When Aneeqa came back from school, her mother was ready to confront her. “I know what happens at school; you get bullied,” she told her.

“H-h-how do you know?” Aneeqa stuttered.

“I did a bit of investigating,” she replied, shrugging.

“Yes, I do.” Aneeqa finally admitting the painful truth.

“Let me tell you a solution to fix that problem. Pray, read Quran, practise the 5 pillars of Islam, maintain a high level of Imaan and that way you will get closer with Allah. If you become a better Muslim, Allah will always be with you,” and that final statement ended the conversation. Aneeqa did what her mother said every single day. She became closer and closer with Allah. She became a better Muslim.

One day, on the school dashboard, Aneeqa saw a poster that said that they need one person from each class to become class councillor. She knew at once that she needed to get that role so she could finally be respected. She wrote down her name to become class councillor. She prayed, recited the Quran and asked dua so she would get the role. A few days later, the results came and she got the role! She had the most votes. It turns out that people did actually like her. She did have friends. She was over the moon, not just because she was class councillor but because she had friends. From then on, she loved coming to school and playing with her friends but at the same time she never changed, she was still a good Muslim.