Hello, my name is Meryem and I am 27 years old. I live in Baden-Württemberg, which is a state in the south of Germany. I am born in Germany, but my parents originally came from Turkey. In the city where I live there are many people with a Turkish background, but even though we sometimes have to face discrimination because of our origin or our religion. After I finished school, I went to university because it was always my dream to become a teacher at a primary school. I really liked my studies and I loved my job at a primary school. But then one day the school principal came to me and I could see that he wanted to discuss a serious topic with me. He said: “Meryem, some parents came to me to complain about you because you are wearing a hijab in the classroom, they are afraid that you will influence their children religiously. Would it be possible for you to stop wearing it?” I was stunned. Did he really ask me to stop wearing a hijab? So I answered him: “No! Why should I stop wearing it? I am a good teacher and it has nothing to do with wearing a hijab or not! We have freedom of religion in Germany and it is legally allowed to wear a hijab as a teacher!” After a long and for me very emotional conversation the school principal agreed with me that I can continue wearing a hijab at school and he apologised for his behaviour. So I thought this topic would be done – but I was wrong. Some weeks later when I was leaving the school building, a man ran towards me and screamed at me: “Stupid foreigners! I will forbid you to continue teaching my son. You influence the students with your hijab. Germany is a Christian country! Who do you think you are? Do you think you can just come to my country and teach my son? We don´t want you here, you stupid Muslims!” I was so afraid of the man, who I had never seen before and who shouted at me loudly in front of many students, parents and even some of my colleagues. And none of them offered me help. I wished someone had supported me, but no one did. I was so happy when I finally reached my car, because the man scared me so much. I left as fast as I could and when I got home I started crying. Back then I didn´t know what hurt me more – the words from this man or no one helping me. The next morning I was insecure because I didn´t know what would happen at the school. But luckily nothing happened and the man didn´t come to the school, so I thought this would only happen once to me. But again – I was wrong. Five days later I saw the man standing in front of the school building. I didn´t know what to do now, so I decided to wait inside until he left but unfortunately he saw me standing inside the building. He immediately started screaming the same hateful words as some days before. He screamed that he doesn´t want me to teach his son and it would be a shame that a Muslim woman is allowed to be a teacher in Germany. Fortunately his son came out of the building in this moment and they went home, so I could go to my car without clashing with him. But from this day on I was afraid to go to school because I always had the fear of meeting this man. In the end, I moved to another school because the man did not stop to insult me for the rest of the school year. Even though I often waited inside the building for a long time just to be sure that this man is not standing in front of the building, but on some of the days when he picked up his son, he waited especially until I came out. So far, I had no problems at my new school and I hope that it will stay like that because the disputes with the man still put a strain on me, although it´s been over a year since I last saw him. I hope that I will never get into such a situation again or that at least someone will help me when I get into such a situation, because the fact that no one helped me was as hurtful as the discrimination itself. Afterwards I sometimes think that I should have reacted differently as I did, maybe I should have gone to the school principal or even the police to talk about my situation. But back then I was so daunted and not brave enough to do something against this man.
