By Vedosi Karmarkar
As students create a home away from home in the dorms, they often ask themselves whether they are losing touch with their roots. With more limited avenues to practice religion, are international students drifting away from cultural and religious practices? The Herring set out to find out how students interact with religion within the dorms.
For many, engaging with religion has taken on a different shape now that they are in a new environment. Kasheen Kumar, a second-year Social Science major, says that her religious practices have shifted from being enacted out of faith to a method of staying mindful amidst a busy and chaotic semester. “It has become really important to me to stay grounded, and a prayer at the end of the night is usually like a reflection of the day.” She notes that a physical reminder of her faith often helps her feel calmer. “Almost every Indian student I know has an idol of Ganesha [a Hindu god] on their desk. I’m sure their parents have told them it will help them with their studies.” For her, religion is not a set of hard-and-fast rules that she follows. “I was raised religious, and I do believe in the concept of a higher power, but I wouldn’t say that it’s specific to the religion that I am a part of.” Similarly, second-year Science major Deniz Özbek “believes in [religion]” but doesn’t “follow it completely”.
In his first year, Özbek hosted an iftar dinner for his friend group following Ramadan. “I thought if I can’t have dinner with my family, why not do it with the family that I’m building here?” To him, practising religion in the dorms fosters relationships between students. “Doing small things like this builds community, which is mostly what religion is about.” For Özbek, being away from home has changed his perspective and given him more freedom in how he practices Islam. “Back home, I didn’t fast for Ramadan, but now that I’m here, I was able to fast all thirty days because I was able to make all my choices.” However, he emphasises that his faith hasn’t changed, but rather the way he practises it has.
Rebekka Walser, a second-year Social Science major, shares this sentiment. A protestant Christian, she emphasises that her view of her religion is highly dependent on “where I am and especially how I’m feeling.” Similar to Kumar, she views prayer as a source of comfort when she’s not doing well. While living in Germany, she regularly attended church services during her confirmation period. After arriving in Amsterdam, she attended a service at a German Protestant church, but “it was a horrible experience because the congregation was tiny”. She feels she doesn’t have a religious community to belong to and would potentially be more active if she lived somewhere that made that possible. When asked whether her opinions and perspectives on Christianity have changed after moving away from home, she responds that she is quite conflicted in her view of religion. “Religious people often get a bad reputation because religion is misused to harm people in such horrible ways. I feel the need to make it very clear that that is not the type of religion that I was raised with.” Amongst her peers, she often feels like she has to explain that there are a lot of parts of her religion that she doesn’t believe in or agree with.
Religion may not seem to have a large place in the AUC community; however, for some students, it can be a source of comfort. It helps students process and navigate the overwhelming task of leaving home and settling into a completely new environment. Kumar remarks, “It’s just nice to feel like someone’s watching over me.”
