Mahreen Munawar 

ENG 1121 

October 16, 2020

Word count: 345

Research question: How are Muslim teens in America impacted by the pressure of leading double lives? 

I got interested in my topic after I moved to NYC 7 years ago and started my high school in an all girls school. Since the school was all girls many religious parents whether it be Muslims, Christians and so on felt comfortable sending their daughters there hoping to save them from distractions and a “sinful life” as some might say. But due to the lack of interaction with the opposite gender the girls became a lot more desperate and lost respect for all religious and moral boundaries since being enrolled in that school was forced upon them. Instead of learning boundaries, they came up with ways to break them as an act of rebellion and started to lead double lives to feel something. I’m interested in this specific topic because most of the school population was Muslim girls and seeing the double lives they started to live and witnessing it get worse over the four years is something that made me question “why” on a deeper level. I really wanted to know what was truly going on inside their heads and homes that made them act out that way and run away from religion and made them feel this urge of wanting to fit in with the people that didn’t respect their culture or them. Because I too came from the same space but nothing made me act out to that extent. I expect to find personal stories and statistics of immigrant kids who felt like they were being forced to connect with their roots and how it impacted their relationship with their parents and with themselves. If I find something that doesn’t necessarily fit my hypothesis I’ll try and see if it’s a useful piece of information, and if it is I would like to add it into my piece to make it more informative. I want to be more open to adding whatever useful information I can find.Â