When Amani Almatri’s eldest daughter was in the kindergarten of a primary school in Oakland, she told her mother that she wanted to wear a hijab, the veil that some Muslim women and girls use to cover their heads and hair. Although she didn’t have to wear it at such a young age, Almatri said that once she showed interest in it, she encouraged her daughter so that she could get used to the practice. But shortly after she started wearing the headscarf, her daughter, who is now seventh grader, was faced with a flood of questions from her classmates.
“The kids sat behind her and asked her too many questions, like, ‘Why do you have to wear this? Why do you have that on your head? ”Almatri told The Oaklandside through an interpreter. “Whenever children molested or bullied her about something, she stayed calm and didn’t tell anyone or defend herself.”
Almatri, who is from Yemen, a country in the Arabian Peninsula, is hoping the recent decision of the Oakland Unified School District Boards District to support more to Yemeni and other Arabic-speaking families could help prevent some of the harassment and insensitivity of their children at school from other students and even school staff.
Last month, the school board unanimously voted to instruct district officials to hire more Arabic translators and interpreters, especially those familiar with the Yemeni dialect, to conduct awareness training on Yemeni and Arabic culture, and the Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al holidays. to be recognized -Adha in the school calendar.
The Yemeni community in Oakland has grown steadily over the past decade and many families have children in OUSD schools. However, how many Yemeni families live or attend OUSD schools in Oakland is difficult to estimate due to imprecise demographic questions about school enrollment and census forms. Because of the way government agencies classify race and ethnicity, Yemeni Americans and other Middle Eastern groups are often categorized as white.
District officials have attempted to count Yemeni students by deducting the number of students who speak Arabic at home and citing Yemen as their place of birth. There are 871 OUSD students from Arabic-speaking families and 387 students who were born in Yemen and speak Arabic.
Hesham Hussain, who worked with OUSD director VanCedric Williams to draft the resolution, estimated that the district has about 1,000 Yemeni students and that about 10,000 Yemenis live in Oakland. This would make Yemenis the majority of the Arabic-speaking newcomers and Arabic-speaking foreign-born students in the district.
In recent years, the Yemeni American Association in the Bay Area and the American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals have held discussions with Yemeni families about their experiences in Oakland, and their struggles with navigating the school system have become an issue, said Dhaifallah M. Dhaifallah who does public relations for the Yemeni American Association. When Williams was elected last year, Dhaifallah began to work more closely with him on legislation.
“We try to instill some cultural sensitivity in our Muslim students and let them know that we welcome and recognize them now that they are here in America,” Williams said last month.
Yemenis began immigrating to the United States in large numbers after the 2011 Arab Spring, when revolutions in several Middle Eastern countries displaced long-standing governments. In Yemen, following the ousting of the president, various groups fought for power, and a civil war began in 2014 when the Houthi rebel group took over the capital of the country, Sanaa. As the violence escalated, Yemenis who were already in the US rushed to get their other family members to safety.
“The visa process has been accelerated in the last few days by Obama’s presidency and many Yemeni Americans have been able to bring their family members relatively quickly,” said Hussain, who also served as president of the national board for the American Association of Yemeni Students and Professionals, an organization that advocates the academic achievement of Yemeni Americans. “Since then, there has been an influx of Yemenis over the past five years, despite being affected by the Muslim travel ban.”
After Donald Trump became president in 2017, he announced a ban Travels from several Muslim-majority countriesincluding Yemen. In the year after the ban went into effect, visas issued to immigrants from Yemen fell by 83%, according to a Report of quartz. This year President Joe Biden did the ban lifted.
Almatri, a mother of six, came to the United States with her husband in 2007 to give their children a better education. They were returning for a visit to Yemen in September 2014, days before the Houthi took over Sana’a, she said.
“Years ago we went to Yemen and stayed there for a while, but we had to run away because of the war,” said Almatri. “We were grateful that we came here before it got so bad in Yemen.”
By adding the Eid Holidays to the school calendar, the district is not giving students and staff additional days off, but the goal is to make teachers and school staff aware of them so they can be more careful when planning test days or other school events. Eid al-Fitr marks the end of Ramadan, a month of fasting and prayer, and Eid al-Adha is the festival of sacrifice and also marks the end of Hajj, a five-day pilgrimage Muslims make to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.
The decision sparked a discussion among board members about recognizing more religious holidays such as Diwali, a Hindu festival, and Yom Kippur, the holiest day in Judaism. The board members suggested making a list of important cultural and religious holidays to be included in the school calendar.
Oakland Unified currently employs one full-time Arabic translator / interpreter and is recruiting a second District website. Last month’s resolution directed the district to hire more, along with more teachers and staff familiar with Yemeni and Muslim cultures.
With more interpreters, students like Almatri’s eldest daughter, who helps her Arabic-speaking mother to communicate with school officials, can be relieved.
“Now that my daughter is in seventh grade and understands both languages, she helps me a lot and makes life easier for me. I feel like I’m putting a lot of pressure on them too, ”Almatri said. “I want her to help me communicate with teachers or when there are meetings. She does a lot for me. “
Almatri also hopes that training teachers and staff on Muslim cultural practices will help them communicate better with their children’s teachers. For example, during Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day, Almatri asked if their children could be relieved of physical activity during PE
“You would be surprised and ask why you need to fast. I can’t explain why and how because I don’t speak English, ”she said.
While many of the changes could significantly improve the district’s communications and support for Yemeni, Muslim, and Arabic-speaking families, some proponents believe more could be done.
Horea Alroaini, a Yemeni mother of two East Oakland PRIDE Elementary students, would like more cultural exchange in schools so that students and staff can get to know each other’s backgrounds. One idea she suggested is “Museum Day”, where every student is given a classroom that they can decorate in their own culture. To help others learn more about Islam and Middle Eastern culture, Alroaini suggested that all student groups and their families have casual conversations where they ask each other questions about Ramadan or the hijab or other aspects of the culture that they do not know without being ashamed.
She also recommended establishing additional extracurricular classes to help Middle Eastern families adjust to US cultural norms. In Yemen, for example, boys and girls attend separate schools. When families immigrate to the United States and attend public school, boys “are shocked to be with girls and girls are shocked to be with boys,” Alroaini said.
Hussain believes the resolution is the least the district can do to help Arabic-speaking students and families.
“The resolution is neither a great achievement nor a big deal in itself because we are a large community and have long been underserved and underrepresented,” said Hussain.
He added that many Yemeni immigrants come from humble backgrounds or work to care for their families and find themselves unable to become more civic.
“Perhaps the travel ban helped, which underscores the importance of advocacy,” said Hussain. “There is a new generation of Yemeni Americans who have gone to school and college who can represent, engage and be heard.”
