Growing up in India as a Bengali Muslim was tough. I was treated like I didn’t belong like an outsider even though I was born there. People acted like I was illegal and less than human and it took away a lot of the fun from my childhood. It made me feel like I was suffocating because everyone was treating me so badly just because of my religion. I didn’t know the words for it back then but I knew it wasn’t right.
This treatment really shaped how I saw the world. I felt like a pest like something that needed to be gotten rid of. It wasn’t just a one-time thing it was how people acted towards me all the time when I was a teenager. It had a big effect on me it made me feel like I wasn’t worth much and it was hard to grow up with that feeling. It was like my identity was being used against me.
The point of my story is to show how prejudice against religious minorities can hurt people. It’s about how being treated differently can make someone feel like they don’t belong and that they aren’t as good as everyone else. It’s about the long lasting marks these experiences can leave and how they change how you see the world and yourself.