Naima Saadeh Abudayyeh:
Episode 3
Naima finds part-time work tutoring Arab language
students at the University of Chicago. "I’m
doing good," she says. "I hope to
find a chance to make my master’s here.
But I think I need more time to get my English
well. I’m not perfect, but I’m
trying to make it."
Naima's homeland is in crisis as the second
Intifada grows more violent. Hatem has emerged
as a leader and spokesperson in the Palestinian-American
community and is increasingly political, helping
to organize large-scale demonstrations.
His very American way of thinking clashes
with Naima's feelings of hopelessness. And
the comfort she takes in her religion is at
odds with his secular political beliefs. The
two grow increasingly distant from each other
as Naima worries about her family in the West
Bank and Hatem continues to rally people to
the Palestinian cause. They argue about where
to hang a picture of suffering Palestinians
and whether protesting and speaking out will
make a difference.
"Me and Hatem, we are not similar with
these things," says Naima. "He’s
my husband, he’s my life, but at the
same time, do I have to think what he is thinking
and do whatever he is doing? It’s hard."
Naima has gotten a job at a day care center
that is owned and operated by a Jewish family.
"In the beginning, I feel like I don’t
want to work at this center," she says.
"I don’t feel comfortable. They
asked me, 'Where are you from?'
I said Palestine, and they don’t understand
where is Palestine. When I say Israel, they
understand. This is strange." But she
grows to care for the children, and they for
her—it seems she has found her niche.
At the same time, she is seeing less and less
of her husband as Hatem's commitment to the
Intifada grows along with his profile in the
community. "I can't see Hatem now, he’s
busy so much and he’s doing a lot of
things about, you know about Palestine. It’s
good thing, it’s great things to do,
but at the same time, I just want to work
and take care of my future—that’s it."
After the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001, a growing anti-Arab sentiment begins
to affect Hatem's family and the Arab American
Action Network. "They kept showing the
same footage on T.V.," he observes, "of
the same five little boys carrying the flags
and the same woman celebrating, and they’re
gonna keep showing it and keep showing it,
so people could think, oh look, the Palestinians
are celebrating, whatever happens to them,
they deserve it."
Barely two months after September 11th, the
Arab American center where Hatem works is
set on fire. The building is devastated and
so is Hatem, but he is committed to the center
and the cause.
"I’ve always wanted a job that
starts when I wake up in the morning and ends
when I go to sleep," explains Hatem.
"It does and it has taken a toll. It’s
probably not fair. I have a wife who expects
more personal and emotional investment from
her husband. It’s a decision that maybe
we didn’t make collectively, but I realized
that for our marriage to work, the most important
thing is my wife accepts who I am and I accept
who she is."
As Hatem works around the clock, Naima is
unsure how she feels about her marriage and
her new life. "I don’t want to
live in America, I don’t want to have
an American passport, I don’t want to
have a green card. I just want to have my
Palestinian ID and that’s it, because
Palestine still lives inside of me, so I don’t
feel any loyalty to here."
Her enthusiasm for her new life gets an injection
when she and Hatem buy their own home with
plenty of room for new family members. "Did
you see the baby’s room?" Naima
gushes. "That’s for the baby. Hatem’s
going to make it an office, but I’m
not going to do that. I love it. I like it.
It’s my house now."
Learn
more about Arab American immigration >
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| Children at
the Arab American Center in Chicago |
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| Naima and Hatem
at the Arab American Center |
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