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Menlo School senior Saniya Ahmed has found a passion for religious studies and unlike many high schoolers, she’s already gaining experience doing ethnographic work at a college level. Ahmed is currently working on a research article about the Muslim experience in America and India.
In February, Ahmed organized and facilitated a panel titled “What It’s Like Being Muslim in America,” featuring Muslim community members, Santa Clara University professor Farid Senzai and East Palo Alto Mayor Antonio López. The panel touched on the history of the Muslim community, discrimination and identity.
Ahmed has been working with Senzai, a professor of political science and international relations, to put together an academic paper on the Muslim Indian experience.
As a Muslim Indian, Ahmed explained that her identity feels like “a minority within a minority.” As the only Muslim Indian at Menlo School, she created the Muslim Affinity Group on campus to bring more awareness about her identity to her teachers and peers.
In her sophomore year, Ahmed began doing research on the Muslim and Indian community, learning about the current political tensions in India under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s regime to persecute Muslims and promote Hindu nationalism.
As she was working on her paper, she realized that she was “hearing about this issue from a privileged perspective.” In order to truly understand the Muslim Indian experience, she felt that she had to see what it was like first hand.
In December 2023, Ahmed traveled to Hyderabad, India for two weeks, interviewing people of different professions, age and social status. She spoke to business owners, a lawyer, rickshaw drivers, nonprofit owners, cooks and journalists. Ahmed said she tried to get a wide variety of perspectives by speaking to people as young as 20 years old and as old as 75.
“You could see over time how things have changed in the way that [Muslim Indians] were growing up and their experiences of being Muslim with the whole regime,” Ahmed said.
This was her first time going to India and although her intention to travel was solely for research, Ahmed said the trip ended up being an emotional and cultural experience as well. During her trip, she had the opportunity to meet her Indian relatives and learn how to cook traditional dishes with them, she said.
“When I was leaving India, I knew that this issue was a lot less surface level than I thought it was and it was something that was really close to my heart,” said Ahmed.
It wasn’t until she was returning back home that she realized as a 17-year-old, it was impossible for her to make a change in these deeply-rooted social issues.
“I knew I wanted to help in any way I could but I also knew that I was 17 years old and as much as I tried to help, I couldn’t,” said Ahmed. “It’s a government issue in India that a 17-year-old cannot be effective in helping.”
Ahmed explained that being a woman in India makes it harder to be able to make a change. Women are expected to work as seamstresses, servants or housewives while men are encouraged to pursue engineering, medicine and business, she said.
Ahmed believes that being Muslim in India adds additional barriers especially under Modi’s regime. “People do not have the same types of opportunities as Hindus would have,” she said. “Muslim women and men don’t get good paying jobs and have to work three times harder for the same job and are discriminated for the religion they practice.”
Despite not being able to make a change in India, Ahmed still wanted to make a difference locally. This sparked the idea to host a panel at her school.
Her academic paper on the Muslim Indian experience is currently being reviewed for publication, she said. She expressed her gratitude toward Senzai who treated her as one of his students and added a “higher level of understanding and academia” to her project.
“I saw him not only as a mentor but also a person I could go to for writing advice, questions and I could talk to him about what my feelings are about the situation [in India],” said Ahmed. “Having this experience in high school was really beneficial for me and will especially be beneficial when I go to college next year.”
Ahmed hopes to major in religious studies next school year and has already submitted early applications to Chapman University, Santa Clara University and Michigan State University.
