Alison McKane
     Staff Writer

On Friday, March 18, Ahmet Tanhan, a doctoral student at UNCG, hosted a photovoice event and discussion regarding UNCG Muslims’ concerns on campus. With over 110 people attending both the dinner and the exhibition between the three and a half hours in which the event took place, Tanhan considered it a definite success.

In an excerpt Tanhan wrote prefacing the event, he said, “The Muslim community is typically a misunderstood population and face difficulties. Photovoice is an appropriate method to express one’s views. Through this project, you will have an opportunity to give voice to what makes your experience productive and meaningful, and what prevents or blocks you from a positive campus experience.”

The event was exactly what its title implies: to allow students to speak through photos they took of their lives.

Photovoice participants were to choose two images: one, to depict how they felt their religion was fostered on campus, and the other to portray the ways in which it is hindered.

The photovoice event began with Asr, the Muslim afternoon prayer, for all who wished to participate starting at 5:00 p.m. Those who did not participate were able to walk around and see the photos from different participants. Open to the public and anonymous, the participants were able to freely express how they felt their university helped and held back their religious observances.

After Asr was dinner and the exhibit, where attendees were able to talk to others around them and share their similarities and differences. The program ended with Magrib, or the evening prayer in the Meditation Room.

In April of 2015, Tanhan conducted a study on satisfaction with Muslim students. In all, there were 131 respondents, 102 of them from UNCG.

Photovoice, according to Tanhan, is a continuation of this event, and has two goals: one, to, “Enable you and your community to express strengths and concerns of yourself and your community; and two, promoting critical conversations and creating a stage to get engaged with one another, and especially the policy makers or administrators for creating more meaningful environments and conditions,” said Tanhan.

While photovoice focused on, obviously, the photos, the study was set in four steps, the photos only being the second step. Step one, Tanhan wrote, was to, “Identify a Strength or Facilitator, and a Concern or Boundary.” However, the instructions made it clear: participants were to talk about their experiences on their respective campus, not the entire world around them.

Step two was for students to take photos. There are two instructions given to students to aid their process: “Take one photo that represents in your view a strength or facilitator that affects your life on your campus,” and, “take another photo that represents a concern or barrier that affects your life on your campus.”

And while they could take as many as they desired, in step three, Tanhan outlined that they were only allowed to submit two photos, and one from each the aforementioned categories. However, step three also required participants to include a caption.

Step three also entailed that participants found a theme or metaphor to communicate something about their photos. Students could use one to three words to do as such in a caption. And finally, photovoice participants were asked a few demographic questions.

Tanhan emphasized that, even before this event, changes for Muslim students could be seen in and on campus. Specifically, in regards to certain restrooms, there is now access to water, and students now have better prayer facilities and tools, like mats. Those two things were most requested back in the survey from April 2015.

These changes show students that change both can and will happen if they push for it.