Changing Perspectives
The day of the September 11 attacks was a defining moment for Muslim-American youths. The harrowing event splashed across every news outlet, as each word about Muslims from the American media “told the world who we are, and what I am.”
The soft voice of Saher Khan tremors with emotion as she recounts the moment she decided to be a journalist. Khan’s frustration mounted as the world turns its eyes on Muslims. It was then, a deeply respected voice gently coaxed Khan saying, why don’t you “fix the narrative by being part of it.” That was the voice of Khan’s grandfather, the uncle of her father.
A bright 22-year-old woman from suburban Chicago, Khan wore a yellow bowed headband that pulled back her dark brown, shoulder-length tresses, which revealed her olive skin and eloquent middle-eastern features. She studied at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, with an undergraduate in journalism and political science. Khan is soft-spoken, but she spoke firmly with a fierce look of determination. One can see that she took her grandfather’s words to heart: she is now a graduate journalism student at Columbia University.
Born to Afghan parents with Pashto Pathan ethnicity, Khan is the eldest of four children — one 11-year-old sister, and two brothers aged 18 and 20. Khan’s father first moved to the United States to start college in Pennsylvania, although he met Khan’s mother in India. Both of her parents are one of seven siblings; most of their families are living in the Gulf States. “I have a big family,” said Khan with a smile.
As the eldest child, Khan considers herself as an experiment for her parents, being the first in the family. When her siblings followed, the parenting also fell on Khan, as she assumed authority indirectly granted by her parents to ensure they are well looked after. That included mothering, dishing out advice, and ordering her siblings around. “My 18-year-old brother yelled at me saying, you’re not mom. You don’t know better than me!” laughed Khan.
Growing up in Chicago, Khan and her siblings were sent occasionally to stay with their grandfather, their father’s uncle, on his ranch in West Virginia. Their grandfather bred Arabian horses on the ranch isolated in a rural area. The Khan siblings were sent there with the plan that it would “define their character,” since there was no television on the ranch.
Khan’s grandfather was a writer and poet. He inspired her to read literature from Rumi and other middle-eastern writers and nurtured her passion to read and write, as well as debate politics. “He always played the devil’s advocate”, said Khan. “He opened my mind.”
Even though Khan’s grandfather passed away four years ago, she fondly recollects her time at the ranch. “We still go to the ranch,” Khan said. One of her brothers wants to move there to settle some day.
Now that Khan is over 700 miles away from Chicago, she no longer bosses her siblings around although she misses her family a lot. “My heart is in the mid-west,” she said.
Khan wants to learn multimedia skills at Columbia University; however, she is still currently searching for her niche. “I’m not stressed, I’m just figuring myself out,” she said. In the meantime, Khan is determined to change the world’s perspective, especially on Muslims.
“If I can change someone’s perspective, then I’ve succeeded.”
