Students and staff at University of Washington-Bothell (UW-B) took a look into the lives of those who served in the armed forces on November 11, 2011 as they attended a panel discussion held to commemorate Veterans Day. Titled “Diversity and the military”, the event was organized by the Students Veterans Association (SVA) at UW-B and had an enthusiastic audience curious to learn about the panelists.
The two speakers were Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, a disabled National Guard veteran who spoke about his life as a Muslim in the armed forces and Arika Uesugi, a UW-B accounting major who talked about her experiences as a woman serving in the air force. A few weeks prior to the event, CAIR-WA was contacted by the SVA requesting a Muslim military veteran to speak at the event and Chaudhry was referred by CAIR-WA to them.
Speaking about what the SVA hoped to achieve with this panel, its president, Benjamin Wiselogle, pointed out that while the goal of Veteran’s Day was to celebrate the achievements of those who served in the past, he also wanted to get people talking about the future, where an increasingly diverse military will emerge. Using Chaudhry's example, Wiselogle, who served in the navy for six years and is a Global Studies major at UW-B, said, “We want to hear from Muslim voices and leverage that going into the future.....The more the number of voices you hear from, the smaller the world becomes for you.”
The first to speak was Arika and responding to an audience question, she said that she never felt under-appreciated as a woman in the military. Said Arika, “If you’re good at your job, you’re recognized no matter what.” In fact, she even expressed her slight frustration with the lesser demands the military places on women. Said Arika, “the PT (physical testing) standards for example, are looser and slack for women (compared to men).”
The transition to civilian life from a military one though was particularly taxing for her. Arika joined the Air Force because it was a chance for her to travel and to grow as a person. Eventually though, there came a point when she felt she had gained as much as she could and decided to leave -- not that she wasn’t apprehensive about it. “There is always this temptation to stay in this nice military family and never go out, you just get scared to leave.” In her mind, the biggest change in her life has been how there is much less accountability and structure to it from before. Said Arika, “Somebody’s always there to check on you (in the military) but (in civilian life) you have to have your own motivation to do things.”
The other participant, Muhammad Zahid Chaudhry, then spoke about his experiences as a Muslim in the armed forces and life after it. He never really faced any issues practising his religion but did choose to not be demonstrative about it. “During Ramadan for example, (when Muslims are expected to fast during the day and only eat once the sun stets) what I did was I simply skipped breakfast and lunch, I never really told people I was observing Ramadan.”
Having served before and after the events of 9/11, Chaudhry is a unique witness to the highly-prejudiced climate that quickly emerged in the US. One of the things he noticed were changes in the way people behaved towards him. “People started getting suspicious of you just because of your name.” Some even questioned his loyalty. “I noticed that people started respecting you less. Even those junior to me started looking at me funny,” he said. Chaudhry was overlooked for several commendations during his service and also faced severe harassment from local police in various states as well, recalling one incident where the police overreacted to the sight of a military ID with a Muslim name. Paraphrasing the famous quote by Thomas Jefferson, he said “when we start trading liberty for security, people deserve neither.”
Presently fighting against deportation and for his right to be a naturalized citizen, Chaudhry maintains his love for the US. “I joined the National Guard here because people told me you should serve the country you love,” he said, “I’ve met wonderful people here, there is just so much goodness. What gives me hope now are the people.”
