Muslim UW students call for more support during Ramadan

SEATTLE – Every year at the University of Washington, Safa Aynoor and Sarah Khan weighed an existential question during Ramadan: Am I a student or a Muslim first? As incoming UW freshmen, the two friends said they were not aware they could fill out a form to receive religious accommodations during the holiday.

Like all of Washington’s public colleges and universities, UW is legally required to coordinate with students who request support to reschedule exams, assignments and other classroom activities. As of 2019, public colleges and universities are legally required to post this information on its websites and in classes’ syllabi.

“My first year, I didn’t know the extent that you could ask professors for leeway or a little bit of help,” Aynoor said. “It would be a mental and physical relief for me.”

Although colleges and universities are mandated to offer these accommodations, some Muslim students say they still fear asking for help due to stigma or hostility from their peers and teachers. Some of those feelings of guilt and insecurity stem from the heightened surveillance of Muslim communities and discrimination after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Imraan Siddiqi of CAIR Washington, an advocacy group for the Muslim community. In turn, he said, this internalized stigma has made some Muslim students avoid being noticed for observing religious practices. He said students are aware that anti-Muslim sentiments are deeply ingrained in America’s social, political and cultural systems.

When Aynoor asked a professor last year to reschedule a morning science exam to a later time, she said the instructor only gave her an option to take the test an hour earlier.

“The mornings are hard for me,” said Aynoor, who fasts from sunrise to sunset and practices nightly prayers in accordance with Ramadan. “Even though I asked for accommodations, the professor was not understanding of the timing.”

While working as a teaching assistant for an introductory computer science course last spring, Khan said the professor exempted her from grading papers and her meeting schedule, but didn’t communicate the workload changes to Khan’s colleagues. As a result, Khan faced judgment from her peers about her work performance due to a lack of education about Ramadan. Students were unaware that she was fasting for 30 days and coming into class with just a few hours of sleep.

“Why can’t you grade your work?” she recalled a student asking. “I was already facing so much burnout from this course alone, and then the student asked me to justify my own reasoning for why I couldn’t.”

Khan ultimately did not file a complaint with the university, citing that she was unaware of the procedures in place to handle this issue.

Today, Aynoor and Khan, president and secretary of the UW’s Muslim Student Association, said incoming Muslim students are still unsure what accommodations they can ask for during Ramadan. The organization shares these resources widely on social media and in meetings with new Muslim students.

Michelle Ma, a UW spokesperson, said the university is “committed to supporting students’ religious observances with reasonable accommodations in accordance with both Washington state law and University policy.” Students who face discrimination or harassment because of their faith can file a report through the University’s Bias Incident Reporting Tool.

“As a community, we strive to ensure that students of all faiths feel welcome and free to practice their faith without adverse impact on their studies,” Ma said.

Despite these protections, some students say they still feel guilty, even though they know it is their religious right to receive accommodations.

“You deserve to experience Ramadan,” Aynoor said.