S1 E3: Making Education Accessible, the Value of Human Rights Work and the Facing Discrimination for Wearing the Hijab with Fathia Fairuza
In this episode, I speak with Fathia Fairuza, a human rights practitioner focused on the access to education, and founder of Shape Your Life Indonesia. Fathia is a colleague of mine at Columbia University as we pursue our Masters in Human Rights Studies.
Summary
In this "On the Outside" episode, Taylor Rae interviews Fathia, the founder of Shape Your Life Indonesia, a youth-led organization empowering marginalized students. Fathia shares her educational journey, including her studies in Madrid as a Rotary International-supported exchange student and her achievement as valedictorian. Currently, Fathia is pursuing a Master's in Human Rights Studies at Columbia University and working as an intern at the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. The discussion also covered Fathia's experiences of discrimination as a Muslim student and the challenges that inspired her to establish her organization. They discuss issues of the Indonesian education system and the impact of Fathia's initiative “Shape Your Life” on the accessibility of higher education information. The conversation concludes with Fathia expressing her gratitude for the support she received overcoming challenges throughout her life.
Key Moments
Introduction, Meet Fathia Shape Your Life Indonesia, Study Abroad, Human Rights Studies (00:00:08 - 00:09:23)
Fathia is the founder of Shape Your Life. Indonesia, a youth-led organization empowering marginalized students in Indonesia. Fathia shares her educational background and experiences studying abroad. Fathia talks about the discrimination she faced as a Muslim. Fathia's determination to study abroad was born from an incident in junior high school when she was unable to join a costly school exchange program to Australia. Her organization, Shape Your Life. Indonesia offers mentorship and scholarship information to marginalized students. Fathia also currently interns at the UN Human Rights Office.Education System in Indonesia, Studying Abroad, Shape Your Life, Wearing the Hijab (00:09:24 - 00:29:40)
Fathia discusses her educational journey and the impact she is making on her community in rural Indonesia. She shares her initiative "Shape Your Life" designed to make information about higher education more accessible. She touches on struggles in the Indonesian education system such as the lack of quality teachers in rural areas and the early start times for schools. She also mentions the importance of learning English in Indonesia for job opportunities. Fathia further shares her experiences studying abroad, highlighting the difficulties she faced due to wearing a hijab. She interprets her hijab as symbol of protection.
Transcription
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Hey, hey, welcome back. My name is Taylor Rae and this is “On the Outside”. Welcome back. In today's episode, we talked to Fathia Fairuza. Fathia is the founder and creator of Shape Your Life. Indonesia, a youth led organization focused on empowering marginalized students in Indonesia. She was an exchange student to Madrid Spain by Rotary International from 2016 to 2017 and received her bachelor's of social science from resume in a Pu Japan and graduated as valedictorian in 2022.
Fathia is pursuing a master's degree in human Rights Studies at Columbia University and works as an intern for the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York City. Fathia shares her experience with education and studying abroad how she started an incredibly impactful organization called Shape Your Life in only seven days after being encouraged by her mentor, Nathan, the discrimination she faced as a Muslim person wearing this job as well as what it means to her. And more.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Let's start it out as we always do, hearing more about Fathia's story.
Fathia Fairuza
When I was in junior high school, I was about eighth grade. My school has an exchange program to Australia. But the program is so expensive. It's like, it's like $5000 to go for that exchange program. And my parents couldn't afford me to, to go to that exchange program while all of my friends in the class are leaving to Australia. So, imagine two weeks of school. I'm like the only student in the school studying because all of my friends are going to Australia. A 14 years old girl is like left out because all of their friends are going to
Australia only because my parents couldn't afford them. Like I feel super sad at that point, you know. so, but then from that point on, I, I kind of have like the strong motivation, ok? One day I will study abroad without having to give a financial burden to my parents. I will get a scholarship so I can study abroad so that this kind of thing, never gonna have never gonna happen again.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Let's get into our conversation by learning a little bit more about fo's experience growing up in Indonesia.
Fathia Fairuza
Ok. So my name is Fathia. I'm born and raised in Indonesia, specifically in Surabaya and Saro. It's in the east part of the Java Island. So I'm not from the capital, I'm not from Jakarta. And but I am very fortunate that even though with that kind of background, I have the opportunity to have a study abroad experience when I was 17 years old back in high school.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
So that's when I went to Madrid Spain for one whole year exchange program. And then coming back to Indonesia, I realized that I want to study, you know, international issues. So that's why I applied for a university in Japan. So I did my undergraduate studies in Japan for four years. And during those studies, I also realized that I need more knowledge.
Fathia Fairuza
And so I decided to go to the States because the things I want to learn is human rights. And I don't think any other country would have like enough of a comprehensive knowledge that they would offer to the students beside America. So II, I come here last year, the study at Columbia Universities studying human rights studies.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
You probably know by now that I am also at Columbia University, finishing my Masters in Human Rights Studies alongside Fata. Now, before enrolling in the program, I didn't know a ton about human rights. If I'm being honest, I thought they were just the assumed ways in which all people deserve to be treated with dignity. But that's not the full story.
Human rights are a distinct and specific set of international laws and norms with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or the UD hr as the milestone document in the history of human rights. This declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris in 1948 as the first standard of rights for all people in all nations. It set out for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected. Article 26 of the UD hr is the right to education.
We get into that in a lot more in today's episode, aside from fia's academic pursuits, which we'll talk about more. She founded shape your life. A youth led organization focused on empowering marginalized students to achieve a global citizenship education. So not just an academic education, but more than that. And reaching over 15,000 people with a team of almost 50 young people working with and for her overseeing four distinct programs.
Fathia Fairuza
I'm also a founder of Shape Your Life, Indonesia. It is an organization that helps marginalized students to study basically higher education. But we are also like exposing the information that if you want to maximize your potential by studying abroad, we can mentor you for free. And then we can also show you what type of scholarships you could apply if you have financial barriers and to study abroad because of course, it's not, it's not, it's not cheap right to, to study abroad.
So for some people that is such a huge amount of money you would spend in education and not everybody have the financial privilege to do that. So we are trying to let them know that as Indonesian, you are entitled to study higher education. And there are options for you to get scholarships so that you, so that, that path is possible for you.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Fathia is also working at the UN also.
Fathia Fairuza
Right now, I'm interning at the UN. Human rights office. I've been dealing with a lot of stuff and it's such a, it's such a difficult time to be there because everyone keeps coming at me about all of the issues that is happening on the world. Like, bro, I'm just an intern.
What do you expect me to do? Like, I'm not the Secretary General or something like that, you know, don't comment me. Ok, so, yeah, that's pretty much it about the activities that I'm dealing with right now. Start us off.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I want a little bit more background on shape your life.
Fathia Fairuza
It's been three years now, almost. Yeah. So that's crazy that it's been three years already now. There are two reasons why I started the organization. I was studying in Japan, right? And then every semester I would go back home for the semester break but little did I know a pandemic was coming. I wasn't prepared. Like I just come home with my one luggage thinking that I'm only gonna be there for a month without knowing that a month later, a pandemic hits us and then locked down all
over the world. So I'm only like waking up zoom class. That's it. And I'm like something's missing like I need more. So I, I decided to do an internship at a social media company in Indonesia in my hometown actually. And then, during my interview session, I was interviewed directly by the CEO of the company. And then, what I was expecting actually back then was study about copywriting about how to attract an audience from our posts and all that stuff, all the intern stuff that we
would do as an intern, right? But with the CEO after interviewing me, he doesn't want me to just be in intern. He doesn't want me to write a copywriting for his post or anything like that because he's interested more in the things that I can do. So he kind of like give me the freedom to lead my own projects, which I, which I don't have any idea at that time. And then, so he, he told me like, yeah, make your own project.
Like what are the issues that you're, you really want to tackle? What are the issues you're passionate about create that into something? OK. You have seven days next week, you come pitch your idea to me. So I have to literally pitch him, give him something in seven days after my internship interview.
Fathia Fairuza
And I'm thinking like crazy like, oh my God, what the vision for shape your life started in only seven days.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But since then fat has put in a lot of work to make a bigger impact on her community from making information more accessible to those in rural Indonesia through social media campaigns to mentorship programs. The vision and mission has grown so much.
So that's why I create shape your life. Indonesia. Because back then I was already, I already have the experience of studying abroad in Madrid and also studying in Japan with full scholarship.
Fathia Fairuza
So I want to tell people that studying abroad is not expensive, as you think with all of this in mind, I wanna back it up a little bit and just get more of an idea about what the education system in Indonesia is.
Fathia Fairuza
Like. Education in Indonesia are, is free from when we are primary school to high school. But compared to the public high school in Jakarta where my dad went, it's very different in a lot of aspects and, and, and in quality mostly how teacher is stationed in which region is based on their rank. So if they pass like the teacher exams with a good score, they will be placed in Jakarta or like any other big cities in Indonesia.
So, you know, logically in the suburbs, we don't get that good quality of a teacher because we're in the suburbs and for the record, we started high school at 6:30 a.m. in the morning. Girl. Yes, we started so early. Ok.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Yeah. How long were your school days?
Fathia Fairuza
We started 630 until 430. Isn't that long? Girl?
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
It's interesting because if you're like, it feels like a long school day.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But you're also not feeling like you're getting the resources that you need to excel. You're just there for a long time.
Fathia Fairuza
Yeah, exactly.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
For a little bit of context when it comes to education around the world. According to UNICEF, an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to Children worldwide. A children's right to education entails the right to learn. But for many Children across the globe, schooling does not lead to learning. And Fathia shares more about her experience with school in a second. But over 600 million Children and young people worldwide
cannot attain minimum proficiency levels in reading and math, even though two thirds of them are in school. So for out of school Children, I mean, skills in literacy and numeracy are even further from grasp. Is it possible to pursue higher education in your where you grew up, like in that local area? Or is it necessary to leave and go somewhere else either within Indonesia or abroad?
Fathia Fairuza
Like of course, it is an option. But if we want to work in a big five companies in Indonesia, perhaps, that is not the best option for us. Indonesian who want to have a good career, like usually we go to universities in Jakarta or in Bandung that, that, that are the top universities in Indonesia. But at the same time, if they are not having like enough financial background to move to Jakarta because it's such a huge gap and living costs.
Right. And then, they don't know anyone in the city and they don't have enough, financial background to pay their tuition because it's such a good university. The tuition is high. they might not be able to do that, you know, like the, their options are very limited.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Although English has no wide use in society in Indonesia and is not used as a medium of communication in official domains or accorded any special status in the country's language legislation. It's still seen as a priority. It's seen as the most important of the foreign languages to be taught.
Why is this the use of English in Indonesia has developed in the context of a post colonial world and more recently, the need to support development the special status of English as a quote unquote global language makes it especially important companies hired us not only because like our literacy or our no mercy anymore, right?
A lot of companies in Indonesia even are hiring like people who speak English, you know, how are you supposed to speak English if you are not exposed to English, you know English language.
Raj Khare was a professor of linguistics who coined the term world English. World English refers to the fact that the English language has been used as a global means of communication in numerous dialects worldwide. I was really interested in the way he describes a model of the different uses of English around the world. This model is comprised of three concentric circles which he labeled the inner circle, the outer circle and the expanding circle.
The inner circle consists of countries like the UK America, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Canada. The inner circle is said to be norm providing. So these countries set the standards around English norms. The outer circle is comprised of countries where English is not spoken natively, but is still maintained as an important language for communication.
So it might be an official, second language or the nation's official language for business and commerce. This most often is due to colonization. These countries include India, Nigeria, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Africa, Kenya. Finally, the expanding circle includes much of the rest of the world's population countries that do not hold historical or governmental importance towards English and this includes Indonesia.
I'm really interested to see how this is going to continue to shift what countries are going to start prioritizing English. How have they already been prioritizing English? Fathia talks about some of the tests that she was required to take to enroll and study abroad programs, how expensive they were, how much tutoring they required and how inaccessible they might be for a lot of people in Indonesia.
Fathia Fairuza
The option is to do an international program. So you would do two years in Indonesia and two years abroad. It's so expensive.
Fathia Fairuza
It's so expensive, it is so expensive to the point that if I go to Japan with full scholarship, that would be even a cheaper option and a better option than doing an international undergraduate program in in the university in Indonesia as a huge advocate for both access to education and study abroad.
Fathia Fairuza
Fata focuses a lot on how to make information more accessible for students, especially in rural areas in Indonesia for starters.
Because the biggest challenges for students to go to higher education is because the barrier of information. So I want to make sure that every single students all over the country have the same information about higher education. So we want to have that information accessible because it's also a human rights, right, the right to receive information.
That's why I create this online based platform because it was also during COVID, right? everything was online back then. That's making sure that everybody can access this information and we specifically tailor our post to be reached by. So we give them a free mentorship consisting of English courses and then writing essays like we provide them a mentor who would proofread their essays and then who would train them for an interview as well.
And then who basically could be a good mentor and guide them like which universities might be best for their field of study, what kind of scholarship they could apply. And then the the mentor could also connect them with the Indonesian community in the designated country or cities that they would want to go to. So it would be easier for them to transit from Indonesian education to wherever they choose.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Alongside impacting young people, seeking opportunities for education. Shape your life also creates a space for Indonesians to give back to their communities.
Fathia Fairuza
So in a way, this also give a platform for all information who wants to give back to their community to teach for free.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Sustainable Development goals or SDGS were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. These goals include things like no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well being, quality education, gender equality, clean water, decent work, climate action, and peace justice and strong institutions, which refers to strong governance.
There's 17 STGS total. The plan is to achieve these goals by 2030 but just by looking at the world around us, it's obvious that doing so will be difficult if not impossible to achieve that. Being said, having the ability to make an impact on spreading awareness around SDGS is crucial and that among many things has been a great success of fats and shape your life.
Fathia Fairuza
The opportunity to call up with the Ministry of Communication and Informatics in Indonesia. We contributed in SDGS. We are educating the society and teachers in rural areas about the sustainable development goal. We are chosen to do that because of the mission that we have to move forward. STG for quality education. And during our time doing that, it's so shocking that almost all of them never even heard of SDGS and sustainable development goals.
And then we also collaborate with local governments. One that we did was the one in my hometown in my province. He was the vice governor in my hometown. So I got the opportunity to talk to him about the education transformation in Indonesia and tell him about how our organization is helping the country move forward. I'm actually feeling very grateful. Like for, for starters, the, the fact that there are like 50 young individuals who are having the same vision as me, that they
would want to contribute in this cause which shape your life is, is crazy for me. It's just, I'm just so grateful for every one of them in the organization. And then, secondly, throughout these three years, we already sent about like 30 students from rural areas to study abroad. One of them went to Toronto with full car shed.
Fathia Fairuza, Fathia Fairuza
We are very proud of for, for all of them, you had great study abroad experiences like the ones that have brought you to where you are today.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
But you've also had some difficult experiences studying abroad in exchange programs. So can you tell me a little bit about your experience when you were doing an exchange program in Spain.
Fathia Fairuza
Yeah, obviously studying abroad is not as, it's not as perfect as we would see it from social media like traveling, getting new friends. But turns out there there might be some like culture shock or even some unfortunate events that we might not expect when we are studying abroad when I was 17 and studying abroad to Madrid Spain for an exchange program.
But then even though I was still 17, I already wear a hijab on my own. Like nobody forces me to wear this like I am wearing the hijab from myself. So for those of you who doesn't know what a hijab is, it's basically a quad that covers the hair and the head of a Muslim people and it is basically mandatory if we are a Muslim woman, but people usually have their own timing on when they want to decide to wear it.
Usually even my mom wear it when she's when she was 40 right? Like not everybody wear, wears it at, at the same time. But at the age of 17, I am already motivated to wear them as a symbol of protection. I see it that way. So even when I was 17, I, I was already wearing the hijab in Madrid and I went to school there and they see me with a hijab and they are not very happy about it as they told me to take it off. They told me to take it off if I want to continue studying in their school.
Which is weird because they should have said something when I applied to that school. You know, like the, they have all of my information, they have my photographs of me wearing a hijab and if they don't want me to study there, why not say it in the very first place? But at the same time, it's also very rude because that's discrimination basically, like why I cannot study or basically access education only because of my religious symbol.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I'm struck by Fatah's description of wearing her hijab as a symbol of protection. And I want to know more about that.
Fathia Fairuza
I got education from a Muslim school. I got the understanding that it's not only a symbol of religion but also a symbol of protection. I think it's as simple as this. Like, I live in New York now. Right? And the criminal rates in New York are very high and I could also feel so scared whenever I get out from my apartment. But I don't because for me like wearing the hijab is like protecting myself from all of the dangers outside, like from all of the terrible things that could happen to me because my God is, is protecting me because this mandatory comes from, from God. And when I wear them, when I wear this with me, I feel like Oh God is with me and is protecting me. that's the way I see it and why I wear it in the first place.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
I think as someone, as a non Muslim person that reads about why someone might wear a hijab, it's hard unless you truly talk to someone and understand what does this mean for you. And I think a lot of times people feel hesitant maybe which to an extent we shouldn't put emotional labor on people if they're not asking to take it on. But there are definitely people that don't have someone in their community or someone that they personally know that is Muslim to maybe ask this question to someone that does wear a hijab. So I think you sharing this is going to be just really amazing for people to hear that might not have access to that information from a real person. And I think a lot of people feel similarly with their other religious symbols that they might wear. I have a card that I keep in my wallet that my mom gave me with the Virgin Mary on it when I first got my license and I put it in every wallet, I put it with my passport when I travel and I always have that with me.
And for me it feels like a symbol of protection. So yeah, it was very cool to hear fata talk about her reasons for wearing her hijab as someone who has had the luxury of meeting so many people from around the country and around the world, especially through higher education and through past jobs like working in Dei, I recognize many people don't have that same kind of access to folks who are different than themselves. Now, that might be for a few reasons.
It could be because you've lived in a similar place with similar people for a long time, maybe for your whole life. Or it could be because of deeply held biases that subconsciously or consciously impact who you spend your time around regardless. I'm glad you're here today to learn a little bit more than you knew before. To close out our show. I asked fia how she felt about all of her accomplishments and there have been a lot of them.
Fathia Fairuza
Yeah, I feel like I was defying the odds of, of from coming from a rural high school to studying abroad. It's just everybody is like against my decision at that time. And like, question me about, about like whether it's the best option for me, whether like I would be able to compete with other students to get it, to get in, in the very first place. And it's just crazy to think how I didn't have like any help like at all.
Taylor Rae Almonte-Roman
Well, that is our show for Today Friends. I'm so grateful as always for Fatah to take the time to share her story with us. Honestly, there were a couple of stories in there about times that she was excluded ostracized and downright discriminated against. I'm really thankful that she opened up and shared some of those experiences with us.
As always, you can find more about Fata and follow her at Fathia Fua on Instagram. The full transcript of the episode along with citations can be found on my website and all of those links are available in the show notes. See you out there.
References
Khalid, Asma. “Lifting the Veil: Muslim Women Explain Their Choice.” NPR.org, 21 Apr. 2011, www.npr.org/2011/04/21/135523680/lifting-the-veil-muslim-women-explain-their-choice.
Lauder, Allan. “THE STATUS and FUNCTION of ENGLISH in INDONESIA: A REVIEW of KEY FACTORS.” Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia, vol. 12, no. 1, 1 July 2008, p. 9, https://doi.org/10.7454/mssh.v12i1.128. Accessed 18 June 2019.
Shape Your Life Indonesia. “About.” Shape Your Life ID, www.shapeyourlifeid.com/. Accessed 20 Jan. 2024.
UNICEF. 2019. “Education.” Unicef.org. UNICEF. 2019. https://www.unicef.org/education.
United Nations. 1948. “Universal Declaration of Human Rights.” United Nations. 1948. https://www.un.org/en/about-us/universal-declaration-of-human-rights.
United Nations Development Programme. “Sustainable Development Goals.” Sustainable Development Goals, United Nations, 2015, www.undp.org/sustainable-development-goals.
