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Mohammad
An administrator at Yasmin’s school who is responsible for overseeing student government. While he is polite and always listens respectfully to Yasmin’s arguments for why she should be allowed to serve on student government despite not being able to attend school dances for religious reasons, he always rejects her requests. When she gets elected class president, he is immensely supportive, and they remain close in the years after she graduates high school.
The Student Affairs Coordinator Quotes in How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?
The How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? quotes below are all either spoken by The Student Affairs Coordinator or refer to The Student Affairs Coordinator . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Yasmin Quotes
“With all due respect to your religion, sir, how long do you think you can control your daughter?”
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When Yasmin insists that she cannot go to the school dance and ends up at a meeting with her father, a sheikh (religious leader), and her school’s student affairs coordinator, who oversees the student government, the coordinator asks her father this. Beyond the fact that this does not show the “due respect” the coordinator shows other students’ religions, this statement is significant because it shows how the coordinator’s picture of Yasmin’s religious objection to her job requirements is embedded in a gendered stereotype about family structure and power in Islam. In fact, although the sheikh has final say on whether Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperi
I was forced to submit my resignation due to the system's inability to understand my moral obligations. For example, my beliefs prevent me from having anything to do with drinking/dancing. When I was young, the system told me to stand up and fight for what I believe in. While now I am being told to do the exact opposite, instead I should give up what I believe in for some rules and regulations. Martin Luther King Jr. fought for what he believed in and gave up his life for it. I too am taking that same stand by giving up my position to defend what I believe in.
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This is Yasmin’s first letter to her school, which has forced her to resign rather than let her skip school dances and remain in the student government. While she later regrets comparing herself with Martin Luther King, Jr., Yasmin’s central argument holds true: not only is she standing up for her beliefs, but American institutions are contradictory in encouraging people to stand up in theory but dissuading them from doing so in practice. She offers the same argument that Bayoumi ultimately makes to explain what it will take to save America from its worst, most exclusionary impulses: people (especially marginalized Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occ
What hurt me most was that when I won secretary as a Freshman, I felt that I had achieved my dreams and broken a racial barrier that I thought would hold me back. I finally felt that as a Muslim that I was doing something and I could make a difference in the world. I believed people would have confidence in me because of what was in my heart and not prejudice against my outer appearance—I had hope that I could achieve my dreams—but when they took me out I felt different and segregated and it shattered everything I had hoped and dreamed of. Now all I feel is hurt, sadness, and I feel that as a Muslim I can never be something because America is prejudiced so much and will never let people like me succeed no matter how hard we try. I never told anyone that this is what really hurts me and makes me cry. My family doesn't even know that I still cry and that I am still hurt and think about it every day. I felt so bad, and knowing how that feels, I don't want to have anyone else go through what I went through, Muslim or non-Muslim.
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In a heartfelt letter to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), Yasmin explains how her motivation for running for student government in the first place has transformed into her motivation for fighting the school’s exclusionary policy. When running for secretary, she was initially convinced she would never win; her very victory broke barriers among her peers, but then she encountered exactly the same barriers among the school’s administration. She gained and lost hope in turn as America revealed its two opposing tendencies—radical acceptance and radical exclusion. Crucially, despite her sense of despair in this letter, the fact that she is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut
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The Student Affairs Coordinator Character Timeline in How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?
The timeline below shows where the character The Student Affairs Coordinator appears in How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Yasmin
...to go, but the other girls think this might be a problem. She explains to the student affairs coordinator that her religious beliefs preclude her from going to the dance, but he says that...
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The Executive Board meets without Yasmin and agrees with the student affairs coordinator that she has to go to the dance or else resign. The coordinator meets with...
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...gets nowhere. She begins reading law books at the Brooklyn Public Library and talks to the student affairs coordinator whenever she comes up with a new argument—he always listens patiently but ultimately refutes her...
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Yasmin continues corresponding with CAIR and arguing her case with the student affairs coordinator ; she also convinces her sister Mariam to run for freshman representative and add on...
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...to bring to trial, and Yasmin’s father cannot afford this price tag. Yasmin notes when the student affairs coordinator lets Greek students out of a bodybuilding event because of a religious conflict and starts...
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...students’ rights. After two vote counts, the race is still too close to call, and the coordinator of student affairs tells her there would be one more count, although she has the right to ask...
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Yasmin is a well-respected and successful class president; the coordinator of student affairs even writes her a college recommendation, and they are still friends many years later. She...
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