Portfolio
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The Hunter MSA: A Home, A School, A Family
By SADAF AYAZ Outside Hunter West 617 on Friday, October 6th, volunteers from the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at Hunter College greeted guests with sweets and a smile for the MSA’s featured event of the month, Renowned scholar, Zaid Khan, discussed the story of the treaty between Prophet Muhammad and the tribe of Quraish that allowed Muslims to visit Makkah, Saudi Arabia, to perform an annual pilgrimage in this MSA event called Hidden Victories. Every month, the Hunter MSA holds events open to the public to discuss various topics about the history and practice of Islam. Students from different CUNY schools as well as the families and friends of students…
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East Hills Eid-ul-Adha School District Party
By SADAF AYAZ For the first time, Muslims from the East Hills school district came together at Antun’s by Minar, an event venue in Hicksville, Long Island, on September 23rd to celebrate Eid-ul-Adha. Eid-ul-Adha is an Islamic holiday that commemorates the willingness of Prophet Ibrahim to follow Allah’s command to sacrifice his son. This festival follows the annual Islamic pilgrimage to Makkah called Hajj, which Muslims are required to perform at least once in their lives, provided they are able to do so. The event was organized by Muslim Women of East Hills to celebrate the Muslim community’s success in getting approval for a school district-wide holiday break for both…
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Rewriting a Scene from Dreaming in Cuban
Sadaf Ayaz Professor Yelizaveta Shapiro Eng 32000-02: Multi-ethnic American Literature 22 August 2017 Extra Credit Prompt #1 Rewrite a scene in a text we read from the perspective of a character whose point of view we don’t see in that scene. Celia del Pino sits on the three front steps of her house, her heart racing. It’s been been almost two hours since Pilar left to find Ivanito and with every passing second, Celia can’t help but feel more anxious. She wipes the blood that drips from her shins, she scraped them a while back. “Abuela!” Pilar appears, walking forward breathless. “I couldn’t find him.” She says. She doesn’t believe…
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Dreaming in Cuban and the Non-Linear Narrative: The Role of Narrative Structure in Works of Fiction by Women Writers of the Twentieth-Century
Sadaf Ayaz Professor Yelizaveta Shapiro Eng 32000-02: Multi-ethnic American Literature 20 August 2017 Similar to choosing to write a story in the first-person point of view or in the second- or third-person point of view, choosing between a linear and non-linear narrative is an important decision for a writer. While non-linear narratives are often used to complicate a story and provide new emotions to readers which cannot be achieved through a linear narrative, for women writers it serves a whole different purpose. I believe Garcia’s decision in write Dreaming in Cuban with a non-linear narrative rooted from a deeper intention than a gripping unwrapping of the plot. Like many twentieth-century…
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Naina
Naina never really liked living in the hut. She wanted a home that was bigger. Warmer. Happier. She didn’t understand what it meant by her being poor. She did know that it had something to do with why there were nights when she slept with an ache in her stomach and times when she held quietly onto the pain of the dryness in her throat before she could gulp down a few sips of water that didn’t look quite like the water she tasted at the house Ammi used to work at. Naina never complained though. Ammi was too sick to help herself and Abbu always seemed so sad. He…
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The Agnes: An Actor or Transgender Man
Sadaf Ayaz Professor Yelizaveta Shapiro Eng 32000-02: Multi-ethnic American Literature 08/09/2017 While topics relating to the transgender community often involve complex discussions, and in general books that write about members of it try to create an understanding of the concept, Erdrich’s The Last Report in Little No Horse explores a new concept relating to it. Or perhaps, the books was never meant to be about a transgender character at all. Throughout the book, Erdrich switches cleverly between the personas of Sister Celia, Agnes, and Father Damien–all of which reside in one body. Sometimes referred to as she and other times as he, it is quite confusing to put Agnes within…
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Kira, Kira, Kira
Sadaf Ayaz Professor Hammer 10/24/2016 English 300 Workshop One Two hundred and forty-three Mississippi. Two hundred and forty-four Mississippi. I kept counting mentally as I strained my ears to hear my surroundings. My eyes weren’t of much help since this…secret tunnel thing was sealed shut from every corner. From a distance, I could hear cars whooshing past. As the wooden cart I was in kept moving forward, I figured that I was out of my neighborhood, but where exactly–I was embarrassed to say–I had no idea. All I knew was that I was headed towards the highway or the forest around it. Perhaps maybe even towards the small fire I…