Running head: INTERVIEW OF NARGIS MAHMOOD 1

Interview of Nargis Mahmood

Courtney D. Gilliam
June 11, 2017
Old Dominion University
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Interview of Nargis Mahmood

Introduction
Nargis Mahmood is my neighbor in my hometown, Williamsburg, VA. She is originally

from Persia and lived there until she was 11 years old. Nargis came to the United States to

pursue her dreams of becoming a physical therapist. She knew that in order to excel in her

education, she had to move to the United States. While in the United States, she became friends

with a lot of Americans and eventually met her spouse from Florida. While interviewing Nargis,

she stated that she is a Muslim, and at times, she fears for her life because of the negative

connotations of the Muslim community.

Interview

Even though Nargis moved to the United States at a young age, she stills remember

memories of when she was judged for the way she looked and the way she dressed at school and

in the public. She would get stares constantly, and sometimes, people would make comments.

She felt offended because, at that time, it was difficult for her to explain her religion and beliefs.

She constantly felt categorized by a stereotype. One incident that she remembers was when she

was wearing her hijab. A little girl had asked her mother why she was wearing that on her

head. During this moment, Nargis felt alone and an outsider because many people in America

didnt understand her beliefs nor the Muslim community. She realized quickly that one of the

most common stereotypes about the Muslim community was that they are all terrorists. This is

not the case at all! Unfortunately, it is common for people to make assumptions about a different

culture and form stereotypes created by what people hear on the news and read in the press.

Although Nargis have lived in the United States for a few years now, she still remembers

how the Persian culture is different from the American culture. For instance, when Nargis
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moved to the United States, she realized that greetings and farewells were expressed differently

in the Persian culture. In the American culture, a person greets another person by saying Good

Morning or Good Afternoon, and for a farewell, the expression is Good Night. Nargis

indicated that in the Persian culture, it shows respect to shake hands with the other person during

a greeting and a farewell. Nargis stated to me that one day, she and one of her American

classmates decided to have a study group session at the library for an upcoming exam. When

Nargis saw her classmate, she immediately greeted her classmate and shook her hand. After the

study session was over, Nargis stood up, said a farewell, and tried to shake the classmates hand

again. Her American classmate looked at her awkwardly and laughed hysterically. While her

classmate knew that she was not from the United States, Nargis still felt embarrassed from this

experience, and she learned quickly that the United States and Persia were culturally different.

Another quality that was interesting was Nargiss strong accent. Her accent makes for an

interesting topic because it is different from the norm, and she has a strong accent. She stated

that her accent is always a conversation starter. People are always asking her where she is from

and wanting to learn more about her language. However, she does have moments where her

accent gets in the way of communicating effectively. It can be difficult for some people to

decipher what she is saying because of the rate that she is speaking and her accent. To help her

with her accent and communicate more effectively, she has taken speech classes. Before taking

her speech classes, Nargis had a difficult time with the communication gap, but now, she has

learned how to get accustomed to her accent and finding ways every day to communicate more

effectively.
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Related Research

Nargis believes that our society is becoming more accepting of different beliefs and

religions. She stated that prejudice has not been demolished, but it has improved throughout the

years. I believe that people are becoming more accepting of different cultures because cross-

cultural communication is becoming daily more common (Afghari & Karimnia, 2007). More

people are traveling to new places and learning more about different cultures. Geographical

distance has been greatly minimized because of the civil development of mankind, which

includes the rapid advance of science and technology, the interdependence of economic and

trading business, and the constant improvement of the means of transportation and

communication (Afghari & Karimnia, 2007). This infers that people are using technology to

communicate and learn more about cultures and religions.

While Nargis believes that prejudicialness has improved throughout the years,

prejudicialness is still common. Prejudice and stereotyping are biases that work together to

create and maintain social inequality. Prejudice refers to the attitudes and feelingswhether

positive or negative and whether conscious or non-consciousthat people have about members

of other groups. In contrast, stereotypes have traditionally have been defined as specific beliefs

about a group, such as descriptions of what members of a group look like, how they behave, or

their abilities (Vescio & Weaver, 2017). Assumptions and judgments are made based on

stereotypes and prejudicialness because of outside influences, such as the media outlets. These

judgments are wrong because they are grounded on lack of contact and lack of education with a

particular group. Also, these stereotypes affect the lives of many people, not just Nargiss life.

Many people let stereotypes get in the way of meeting and getting to know other people outside

their race or religion, but interviewing Nargis and taking the time to get to know her more, it
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opened my eyes to a lot of information about her culture that I didnt know before interviewing

her.

Conclusion

Getting to know Nargis has opened my eyes about cultural differences. She has been a

victim of stereotypes that are based on her culture and religion, but she doesnt let these

assumptions define her. Ive learned to be more open-minded about other cultures and to meet

more individuals that are culturally different from me. Nargis Mahmood was a great person to

get to know, and she has made a positive impact on my life.

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References

Afghari, A., & Karimnia, A. (2007). A Contrastive Study of Four Cultural Differences in Everyday

Conversation between English and Persian. Retrieved June 08, 2017, from

http://web.uri.edu/iaics/files/23-Akbar-Afghari.pdf

Vescio, T., & Weaver, K. (2017, May 18). Prejudice and Stereotyping. Retrieved June 17, 2017, from

http://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199828340/obo-

9780199828340-0097.xml