They believe that I have committed a form of cultural...

They believe that I have committed a form of cultural apostasy and blame themselves. They believe that they failed me-failed to give me strong self-esteem and failed to involve me fully in my own culture. I hope that one day they will accept my choice-perhaps not understand it, but accept it. There are many points of stress between myself and my parents regarding Islam. They dislike anything that physically marks me (or my children) as "different" (read "Muslim").

They are uncomfortable going out in public with me or my daughters because we wear hijab (myself) or modest clothing (my…