Religion can affect every aspect of your life, and Hayate Mustefa ’23, knows this to be true. Throughout her life, she hasn’t had a lot of struggles with her religion, but with the struggles she’s had, she manages to stay strong and positive through them. Mustefa has changed a lot through her personality since becoming more involved in the Islamic religion, her religion. 

She says that for her, getting more into her religion just sort of happened. That she was looking at YouTube and she accidentally clicked on this video. The video was about her religion. Mustefa said that she can’t remember why, but she watched the whole thing.  “And it was just talking about, like, my religion and culture. So after I watched that video, my heart was trembling. I can’t even explain it. And then I started to pray. ” Mustefa said. 

Her brother, Jibreel Mustefa ’21, has encouraged her throughout her life, and for siblings, they are pretty close. “Hayate’s personality can be described as outgoing, kind [and] independent,” Jibreel said. “I think people should know that under her niqaab she is the same as everyone else.”

One way Hayate is different than others is her thinking. “It’s kind of amazing,” Hayate said, “I just see their soul. Yeah, like, not … I just see, like, a heart. That kind of reminds me not to focus on how they look.” Hayate also said that “I started to learn more about religion, I started to change the way that I was thinking about people eventually.”

Hayate also said that there aren’t any bad things about her religion. Hayate said that the only barrier was praying during school, and that was easily fixed with her study halls and homeroom. “I’m very fortunate for that, Many people don’t even know that you can pray [during school]. … and I’m sure there’s many schools around the country that don’t like and even though that’s your right, that’s mentioned in the First Amendment freedom of religion.”

Being Muslim, Hayate said she gets negative comments, gets stereotyped, and has people judge her and her religion, but she doesn’t let that stop her. “[I] never really [let it] penetrate through my heart,” Hayate said. “Because I know what I’m doing, I know that I’m doing it for God.”

Sabrin Mohamed ’22, Hayate’s life-long friend, has seen how much Hayate’s personality had changed. “[She is a] very like positive person.” Mohamed said. Mohamed also said that Hayate is a very non-judgemental person, helpful, and kind person. Mohamed has known Hayate for five or six years, and they have been close since then. They have had less time for each other as school and life go on, but they have seen one another grow throughout the years and will always have some good memories.

Hayate’s life got turned for the better in a single moment. Hayate said that she has become so much more focused and kind. Many agree that Hayate has encouraged them to take a deeper look into their religion. With some very big dreams and a bright future, Hayate looks into the future with bright eyes and positivity radiating from her.