How do you feel fear of showing your passport at the Houston International Airport? It should feel like a quick chore before entering the Country however that was never the case for me. Every time I have to pull out my chestnut colored passport with the Colombian insignia proudly presented on the cover, I feel fear. Not because I’m not proud of being Colombian, or even because I find the guard intimidating but because of discrimination.

I don’t really know what will happen this time I’m showing my passport. It still hurts me, the time I was almost deported to Venezuela just because the guard felt like he wanted to joke do to my Latino features, being an u year old boy, it deeply hurt me that he felt I was a terrorist or related to one his words being something along the lines of “Are you related to Pablo Escobar?” The other time I was discriminated was when I was the only Colombian in the flight and they made me practically strip naked in order to see if I was carrying drugs in my shoes, pockets, and they even checked to see if my pringles had a  false bottom. No one else in the flight deck was checked and people made comments and laughed. That day I thought the only way to prevent it was rip myself out of my own identity and pretend to be from the US once I came back to Texas.

I thought I was the only one who was discriminated at least until I met Islam. What were my thoughts when I heard role of women in Islam “Oh… I see we will talk about how their husbands beat them and force them to wear burqas against their will”. I honestly thought it was true so I didn’t realize I was being a hypocrite until recently. I was actually shocked to find that “those who lead a righteous life” without wondering if their “male or female” “will enter paradise” as long as they believe in Allah. This is actually in the Quran and it clearly shows that women and men are considered equal at least until marriage. Sure it never grants as much freedom as governments in the west. However most of this stereotyping is caused by things that happen in radical islamic countries such as Saudi Arabia. This doesn’t mean that all muslim women are treated as slaves or objects by men, just like Colombia does have terrorists and drug dealers but most citizens aren’t. Every stereotype has to be based in some form of truth right?

Reading is powerful. It has always been a part of society, and its a great way to spread ideas. No wonder Khaled Hosseini tried to spread his message his Soap Opera book 1000 Splendid Suns.
I can tell what he was trying to do. I really can. But did  Hosseini really need such poorly written characters to represent his idea. I mean his one sided Rasheed “will find” the female protagonist and when “[he does]” “no court in the country will hold [him] accountable” for “anything he does to them”. Referring to when this man’s 2 wives try to escape and he catches them. This really tried to share a reality but using one sided ‘soapy’ characters that are either gods or devils it all collapses. All it does is reinforce Muslim stereotypes about how all men are the face of evil.

Education. This is what Hosseini was trying to get at. “Society has no chance of success” without something fundamental “education of women”. This may seem irrelevant. In fact it might be irrelevant. But it isn’t. This is true, and maybe some muslim societies restrict women’s education. There was a way without stereotyping in which Hosseini could’ve touched this like the fact that the Taliban itself was at fault. At the very least he could’ve given Rasheed traits other than evil, some sort of remorse. I felt like he was not a human anymore. Inhuman.

As I kept writing and researching a word was stuck in my mind. Hypocrite. Society is hypocritical in nature. Why are Muslims judged as violent, terrorists, women subjugators, and what about the rest of the world. For example the US has bombed innocent people and invaded other countries. Does that mean why generalize and say all 300 million americans are terrorists. No. And I won’t do the same with Muslim citizens in any country, or any other generalization there is today. Many muslims, americans, and even Colombians are regular people living their life, and I will not judge anyone because of something someone else of their country, or someone who believes in a certain  religion did, which had nothing to do with the religion itself.