Rasha Character Analysis

The first of Bayoumi’s seven main subjects, Rasha is a Syrian American in her early 20s who moved to Brooklyn with her family at an early age. During high school, just after September 11, she is arbitrarily thrown in jail with her family for three months, like thousands of others, simply because she is an Arab Muslim and therefore under suspicion “for possible terrorism connections.” The experience is devastating and degrading—prison guards treat her, her sister Reem, and her mother like “a subhuman species,” and her friends at school, Gaby and Nicky, are dumbfounded and worried at her abrupt disappearance. After her release, she is ecstatic to see the sky for the first time in months, but her family remains scarred by their detention and she is distraught to see prejudice against Muslims all around her. As of the book’s publication, she is hoping to pursue a career in human rights. Her story demonstrates the severe, often forgotten human consequences of the American government’s draconian crackdown on Arabs and Muslims after September 11, but also the passionate dedication to social change that can emerge from the experience of injustice.