By Eman Bare
Age (when it happened): 9
Location (when it happened): Canada
Memory: I remember going to school that morning knowing something was…different. I saw the towers collapse, but I didn’t understand how this was different than all the other chaos in the world. I went to an Islamic school at the time, and everyone was a little bit quieter.
I don’t remember if we talked about it at school or not, but I do remember overhearing my father’s conversations with my uncle that night when I was supposed to be sleeping. He said things were going to get worse, and that in the U.S. there were white radicals hunting Muslims in the street for revenge. I didn’t know what the revenge was for. My uncle was telling my dad that it was best we leave, and that soon the hatred would spread to Canada as well.
I made a list of all the things that I would take with me if we had to leave.
At the time, I was obsessed with this book series called “Dear Canada,” where young girls would keep a diary during times of war. I started journaling that night like one of those girls. I made a list of all the things that I would take with me if we had to leave.
How it lives with you today: 9/11 isn’t something I think about often, and maybe that’s because I’m Canadian. I think about it at memorial services when I pray for the lives lost. I think about all the children who were my age at the time, and lost their parents. And then I think of the men and women who died in Iraq because of a fabricated war on terror; the casualties on both sides, of both Americans, and Iraqis.
On the Iraqi side, I think of the children who died as well. 9/11 has made hatred and discrimination state policy. It’s changed the world by allowing governments to turn a blind eye to illegal prisons like Guantanamo. It’s changed our world in ways most of us do not pay attention to, and that’s the scariest part.
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For more about the experiences of Muslim women in a post-9/11 world, check out our upcoming book, Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age, by Muslim Girl’s founder, Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, available this October.