A Very Large Expanse of Sea

It is 2002, a year after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. On the first day of classes at her third new high school in two years, sophomore Shirin, a 16-year-old Muslim girl, cannot find her English class. She arrives late. The teacher suggests that she cannot handle the Honors workload; he wrongfully assumes from her appearance and headscarf that she needs ESL (English as a Second Language) services. Shirin tries to tell him she is in the right class, but when he insists that she does not belong there, students laugh; Shirin snaps at the teacher and uses profanity. She gets a lecture and detention from the principal, then spends lunch in a bathroom.

Shirin’s brother Navid, a senior who makes friends easily, texts to invite her to his lunch table, but she declines. Shirin is tired of getting to know peers only to move again when her parents find better jobs and opportunities. Social acceptance is next to impossible, Shirin is convinced, because she is Muslim. Shirin experiences anti-Muslim bigotry often, especially since September 11; a week after the terrorist attacks, two boys pushed Shirin to the sidewalk, ripped away her headscarf, and “[tried] to choke [her] with it” (7).