Miami Hurricane, March 26, 2015

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Religious garbs strengthen spirituality
Freshman Rowanne Ali began
wearing the hijab, a veil worn by Mus-lim
women, her sophomore year of high
school. Raised Muslim by Egyptian par-ents,
she made the decision to wear the
hijab when she was 13, after growing up
seeing her mother wear it.
“My parents always told me what it
was about, and that when I was ready,
that I could start wearing it,” she said.
“They always told me, ‘Don’t be fooled
into thinking it’s about the clothes you
wear, but once you start wearing it, you
also have to portray your religion in the
right light.’”
In the Miami weather, wearing a
head covering around the University of
Miami campus can get warm, but Ali
said it doesn’t cause too much discom-fort.
“It definitely gets hot, but I don’t
think it’s substantially hotter for me than
it would be if I didn’t have it on,” Ali
said about her hijab. “It’s something I
get used to. … If anything, it protects me
from the sun. … It’s not something that
bothers me, it never gets too hot.”
Warm weather aside, three UM
students from separate religious back-grounds
say their religious head cover-ings
not only serve a spiritual purpose for
them, but also give them the opportunity
to help others around them become more
religiously aware.
A study found that most college stu-dents
identify themselves as religious or
spiritual. According to the 2013 National
College Student Survey, 31.8 percent of
students identified their worldview as
religious, 32.4 percent identified them-selves
as spiritual and 28.2 percent as
secular.
The survey included a sample of
more than 1,800 students from 38 four-year
colleges and universities in the Unit-ed
States.
Moreover, religious knowledge is
most closely linked with years of school-ing,
according to a U.S. Religious Knowl-edge
Survey by the Pew Research Center.
Amanullah De Sondy, assistant pro-fessor
of Islamic Studies at UM, consid-ers
cultural and religious awareness a
key factor in the college experience. He
says it provides an opportunity for stu-dents
to learn about those around them
who have different beliefs and practices.
“It is important in order to interro-gate
critical questions in the academic
study, which then leads to a better un-derstanding
in building bridges between
faith communities and understanding
those who are different from you,” he
said.
Coverings represent
variety of faiths
BY EMILY DABAU
ONLINE NEWS EDITOR
The main thing I want to avoid
is any sort of stereotypes
or misconceptions coming
up and interfering with my
interaction with students.
Junior Ishtpreet Singh,
a practicing Sikh
PARKING
SAFETY
COMMUTERS DEAL
WITH VEHICULAR
VANDALS PAGE 3
ULTRA WEEKEND
FESTIVAL TO
OPEN WITH NEW
REGULATIONS PAGE 7
EMPIRE STATE
OF MIND
MEN’S BASKETBALL
TEAM ADVANCES TO
FINAL FOUR IN NIT, TO
PLAY IN NYC PAGE 9
SEE RELIGIOUS GARBS, PAGE 4
GIANCARLO FALCONI // STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
The Miami Vol. 93, Issue 42 | March 26 - March 29, 2015 . HURRICANE STUDENT NEWSPAPER OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI IN CORAL GABLES, FLORIDA, SINCE 1929
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