Tufts' Muslim community has welcomed a new chaplain this year. Shareda Hosein assumed the position after her predecessor, Imam Noureddine Hawat, chose to leave Tufts at the end of last year.
University Chaplain David O'Leary, who oversaw Hosein when she was an intern last year, said that Tufts is lucky to have her.
"She's been a wonder to have on my staff," he said. "She's been building bridges like chaplains should be doing."
These bridges include relationships with other campus ministries, as well as students and faculty members.
"I was very happy to be welcomed by the staff, faculty and students as an intern chaplain last year and to be re-welcomed as the Muslim chaplain this year," Hosein said.
She said she has been impressed with the Tufts community's perception of and attitude towards the Islamic faith.
"What I got from last year was the [people] that I interacted with were very happy to learn about Islam and [open enough] to ask questions and not feel like Muslims or Muslim students were a threat," she said.
These experiences have made her transition a smooth one.
"It's been going well because I had last year to get to know the students, to understand what they're up against, and also meet the staff and faculty around campus," she said. "So it feels like an easy transition and a continuation from last year."
Having a new chaplain is only one of the changes the Muslim community has experienced this year.
The completion of the Interfaith Center, for example, has solved many of the difficulties caused by the closure of the basement of the Islamic Center last year. The closure forced students to hold prayer services in classrooms after the closure. Now they are able to hold at least some of them in the new Winthrop St. location. Students were also able to break fast there during the still-ongoing Ramadan.
Hosein's gender has also constituted a significant change for the Muslim community, as she is the first woman ever to hold the position of Muslim chaplain at Tufts. In the Islamic faith, however, women are not permitted to read prayer.
According to senior Shirwac Mohamed, a co-chair of the Muslim Students Association, this has caused some minor inconveniences.
"It's a bit hectic because she is a woman and she can't read prayer, but at the same time she helps the students very much," he said.
Hosein said that the restriction has not been a problem.
"It is different because I'm not reading the prayer, but everything has been working out," she said.
She said that this is not a unique situation. "Wherever women chaplains are located ... they won't read the prayer but they'll find men to read [it]," she said.
As such, she said that the university has brought in imams every Friday for that purpose. So far, there has been no problem finding people to come.
Hosein said she was unaware that Hawat would be leaving when she accepted her internship last year. According to O'Leary, Hawat chose to leave his position at Tufts in order to accept an offer from a new mosque in Burlington, Vt.
Hawat's departure, however, allowed Tufts to enforce the previously overlooked requirement for chaplains to have advanced degrees - a requirement Hawat did not meet. "[Hawat] came up with this new position on his own, so we thought this was a good time to make the same requirement for everyone," O'Leary said.
Hosein, on the other hand, completed her graduate studies at Hartford University before arriving at Tufts, allowing her to properly meet the qualifications for a Tufts chaplain.
