Afsana is a Muslim- American girl who has found love in a place that she knows will not be accepted by her family or her religion. After meeting Jason in one of her college classes, dating and falling in love with him she decides that telling her family would not be the best thing to do for anyone. But when her father sets her up with a young Muslim man that he believes will be perfect for her she comes clean and tells them the truth. After which her father and mother cut her out of their lives. Afsana then moves in with Jason and they begin their life together. Jason is in the Marines and is on a tour in Afghanistan when he is gunned down but a group of Muslim militants. Afsana is left picking up the pieces and accepting that the man that she loved was killed by the culture she represents. It wasn’t until the loss of Jason that her parents come around. They are there with her when his flag is delivered and her father often asks her to tell him a story about Jason. The hardest thing to deal with is the idea that Jason was not accepted until he was dead, but at least her parents know that he was her everything. Will Afsana ever be able to move on? She asks herself the same question as the scene ends. (*Student should be of Muslim or Arabic background. There is Arabic within the piece as well as prayers.)
DI/ Female- Worlds Away
- (The scene opens with Afsana looking at her wedding ring. This doesn’t bring her joy like one would think.) A box. That’s it, just a box that sits in the deepest part of my closet because if I don’t have to see it everyday I’ll be able to forget that it’s back there. (Smiles) Love doesn’t work like that. I’m honestly not sure how you get over a broken heart. How you put your face on day-to-day and put one foot in front of the other when all I want to do is stay in bed, forever. But it’s beautiful isn’t it? Quite beautiful. (She stares blankly for a moment then removes the ring and places it in a box.) There are a few things that are unbreakable rules in the Muslim culture and at the top of that list are that you date, marry and have children with a like-minded man, a Muslim man. For the longest time I didn’t understand that in America you have choices. I am first generation American- Muslim. My parents made their way to America and had me soon after their arrival. When you’re raised in a Muslim neighborhood, with all of your customs and teachings the only thing you have is what you are taught. I never questioned it. I was going to marry a nice Muslim boy and that was all there was too it. My father is one of my best friends. I’m his only baby and I’m a girl which makes me that much more sacred to him. (Smiles) He is the best father ever. My mother was the one between the two of them that thought it important that I do things that an American child would do. She wanted me to be able to experience the world that I was raised in and balance it with the world I lived in.