Recount Essay
My name is Aya Saeed. I’m 14 years old, almost 15. I am originally from Iraq
but I was born and raised in Canada. I am the middle child of five siblings (2 boys and
3 girls), in a family of seven. Even though I’ve never actually lived in Iraq, I feel a
strong connection to that culture, along with my Canadian culture. My parents were
both born and raised in Iraq and taught me a lot about my Iraqi culture, for example
they taught me to speak Arabic in Iraqi slag, and introduced me to Iraqi food. Most of
my relatives live in Iraq and practice my culture. But since I was born in Canada and
lived there for almost 10 years, I gained a strong connection with the culture there.
When I was 9, we moved to Qatar because my dad was transferred there for his work.
I’ve been living in Qatar for almost 6 years. However I don’t think the culture here
has changed or affected me at all. The purpose of this recount essay is to show how
my culture has changed over time. By comparing how certain aspects of my culture
are today to how they were for my relative in the past, I will explore why these
aspects changed or stayed the same.
An important practice in my culture and also my religion is Ramadan.
Ramadan is an Islamic month of fasting where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset.
For me personally, I treat Ramadan pretty much like an ordinary month, but I guess
you could say I act a bit more religious. During Ramadan, I don’t pray extra prayers; I
just make sure that I do all my prayers on time and don’t miss any. I also read Quran
but only on the last 10 days of Ramadan because those are the 10 most important
ones. I would also try to keep away from backbiting, gossiping, lying, swearing etc.
But that’s about it. My parents did very different things during Ramadan. When they
were young, they would do a lot of things for their religion. They use to pray all the
extra prayers (sunah) everyday for that month; they would also read one chapter every
day of the Quran with their family, make du’aa and do tasbee7 Unlike me, they did as
much good deeds as they could. They continue to do this to this day. I think the
changes happened because people aren’t as religious as they were before. When my
parents were young, they were taught a lot about Islam and how important it is to be a
good Muslim. So they tried hard to be good Muslims, which included valuing
Ramadan and doing as much good deeds during the month as possible. But now,
people aren’t as religious because they were taught that all you need to do to be a
good Muslim is the 5 pillars of Islam, which is to pray, fast during Ramadan, believe
in Allah, do hajj and pay Zakat. So anything else such as performing extra good deeds
in Ramadan is not very important to them and looked at as extra things that you don’t
need to do.
The way I dress is something I think is really important in my culture. One
thing that’s different about the way I dress to most people is that I wear hijab. Hijab is
when you cover your body apart from your face and hands; it’s a part of my culture
and also my religion. However I do not wear Abaya or long skirts, I usually just wear
regular jeans and a shirt that covers my arms, sometimes just a t-shirt and a jacket.
When my mom was my age, she never use to wear hijab. Back then, my moms family
never knew that much about Islam, they knew the main things like praying, fasting
during Ramadan, reading Quran etc. There were a small number of people who wore
hijab at that age. However, even though she never wore hijab, she dressed
appropriately. She would wear pants/skirts not above the knee, and never wear
sleeveless/strapless shirts. I think this change happened because my family learned
more about Islam. After moving to Canada my family made friends with a lot of
Muslim families who taught us a lot about Islam, we also started going to a Saturday
school about Islam. After my mom knew more about Islam she started wearing hijab,
but she wore it when she was around 35. By learning more about Islam she found out
that it is said in the Quran that you’re suppose to wear it when you reach puberty. A
lot of people argue about this topic but my mom believes that you should wear it after
puberty. So when I reached puberty my mother asked me to wear it and I agreed to it.
Another important part of my culture is football. I really like playing football,
and I’ve been playing since I was around 5. I went to lessons when I was really young
and went to practice twice a week. Now that I’m older, I join the school football team
every year and attend two practices after school, which improves my skills; a lot of
my friends play football too, which makes the sport even more enjoyable. I’m not the
best at it, but I’ve been doing it since I was really young and its always been a pretty
big part of my life. When my mom was my age, she also played football, but not as
much. She would play in her backyard with her sisters and brothers. There were no
places that offered teaching football for young girls, so her older brothers taught her
how to play and she got really good at it, a few of her friends also played football but
not that many. Her school didn’t provide a girls team for football, only a boys team.
So the only time she every played was in her backyard. I think this change happened
because before, football along with other sports was more of a boy’s thing to do and
less for girls. But now, people have become more open-minded and started to treat
girls and boys more equally. Before, people thought since sports were a more manly
thing that girls wouldn’t enjoy it so they never bothered making school teams for
them, or making places that offer teaching football to young girls. But now a lot of
girls willingly participate in football. There are lots of clubs where girls can go and
practice football, there is also female world cup for football, and almost every school
offers a girls football team. However boys football is still more popular, with more
sports clubs that only allow boys and not girls. But more girls play football now than
before.
During this assignment, I have discovered that a lot of things have changed
since my parents were my age due to modernization and how society changed. I
learned that local events such as Ramadan changed in a negative way, because now
people don’t value the month as much as before. They don’t treat the month any
different than normal besides fasting everyday. While before people would do so
much extra prayers, du’aa, Quran reading etc. Some people still do that but barely any
of them are people my age. Some changes were for the worse while others were for
the better, such as people becoming more open-minded and knowledgeable. If it
wasn’t for people learning more about Islam, my family would have never knew that
hijab is mandatory in our religion and I would not be wearing it today. This recount
essay has allowed me to understand a lot more about my culture and where I come
from, before I didn’t even know what my culture was but after doing this essay and
interviewing my relative, I understand why my culture is the way it is and where I get
my attitude and beliefs from, and also that my culture is unique and different to
everyone else’s.