Every sister I met during the course was amazing and utterly beautiful, even in the long jilbabs and soft pashmina hijabs. Every single girl there was my sister. And I loved her regardless of her skin colour, dedication to Islam or whether she wore Hijab properly or not. I prayed for her.

Perfection is the goal that keeps us from all other goals. It is the obstacle I face whenever I am motivated to do something productive, especially when it comes to Islam. I always hope and dream to be a better Muslim, planning the next step to increase my iman, to become the ‘perfect Muslimah.’

I have to confess, I am definitely not as big a Harry Potter fan as many of my diehard friends are. I stopped reading halfway into the second book, and I probably could not tell you the title of the one I actually did read. I have, however, been dedicated enough to watch all seven-ish or eight-ish movies without fail, and I shed a lone tear when Hedwig the puffy owl died in the last film. I guess the only real reason I kept up with the hype was because it reminded me of my childhood, and it was invigorating to witness the transformation of Harry, Ron and Hermione. For many of us – silly as it may seem – Hedwig’s death along with the finale of the Harry Potter series signified the end of our own claims to youth. Who knew that Harry Potty had more depth to it than just a couple of kids with awesome British accents?

The Turkish students and their teacher approached me. They told me how girls couldn’t wear the hijab in their schools now – I felt strongly about this and asked how girls cope and about the controversy involved with this enforcement. I found a raging spark ignite when I thought about anyone taking away my right to wear the hijab.

It’s easy to point out the weakness in others, especially a physical weakness that is very apparent, like a girl who hasn’t put on the hijab yet, but it’s a lot more difficult to look at our own faults and notice the mistakes in our attitude and actions.