I’m a person with an active life position. People who know me can describe me as a sociable and a highly motivated girl. Also, I always try to support human rights and to explain people how to respect everyone’s interests. However, sometimes I feel I was born in a wrong area.

I’m from Russia but Russia is a large country so there are so many ethnicities around the area. I’m Tatar. I’m really proud of my ethnicity because we have the interesting history, the incredible culture, and the great literature.

I grew up in the village where all people were Tatar. All of them are trying to save our traditions and lifestyle so far. That is not good at some point because the world is changing but they are not. When I was a kid all people around me used to tell me that I was supposed to grow up, to get married, to give a birth and to take care of my kids. I thought it was okay until I moved to another city to study at the university. I met many people who were super open-minded and tolerate. They used to talk about human rights, feminism, travelling and so much interesting things except marriage, kids and housework. At first, I felt uncomfortable with them because they used to tell me concepts that were completely different from mines. I really thought that my mission in this world was to get married and to do what my future husband would want.

At the university I was always busy. I organized various festivals. I also consulted students with different performances for three years in a row. I was a volunteer. I often participated in different events and help the organizers. I tutored two groups of first-year students including foreigners. So I met many people from different countries and cities. All of them were unique and most of them were super motivated. So their lifestyle motivated me to try to get a scholarship to study in the USA. And I did it. Last year I went to study there for 2 semesters.

When I was in America I saw a totally different side of life where people were tolerate, where people respected human interests, and where people supported everyone’s rights. I changed. I realized that every person had a right to be happy.

Unfortunately, in my community sexism, racism, and homophobia exist. The people do not take LGBTQ+, interracial marriage, even dating, and many other things. Also, they oppress women saying that women have to put up with everything even if it hurts them. And IT IS WRONG.

I had to study and work a lot to change myself from a shy girl from the conservative community with no goals and dreams to an open-minded girl with a wild desire to make the world better.

To be a person who supports people’s rights is hard because every day I get hated by the people from my community. They do not understand that PEOPLE ARE PEOPLE regardless their color of skin, a language they speak, their sex, and their sexual orientation. Everyone is unique! And all people have a right to be happy.