This Prom Has Everything, Except for Boys
A Different Kind of Prom: When religious beliefs keep some of the girls at Hamtramck High School from an important senior function, they throw a sparkly and very pink alternative.
By PATRICIA LEIGH BROWN
Published: May 1, 2012
HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — The prom countdown was nearly complete, the do-it-yourself Greek columns, pink and white tulle bows and plastic flutes with the “Once Upon a Dream” logo awaiting the evening of evenings.
But as she looked at her reflection in the mirror, her one-shoulder lavender gown matching the elaborate hijab that framed her face in a cascade of flowers — a style learned on YouTube — Tharima Ahmed knew that what lay ahead was more than simply a prom. As organizer of Hamtramck High School’s first all-girl prom, which conforms to religious beliefs forbidding dating, dancing with boys or appearing without a head scarf in front of men and boys, Ms. Ahmed, 17, was forging a new rite of passage for every teenage Muslim girl who ever spent prom night at home, wistfully watching the limousines roll by.
“Hi guys — I mean girls!” Ms. Ahmed, a Bangladeshi-American, exuded into the microphone as 100 girls — Yemeni-American, Polish-American, Palestinian-American, Bosnian-American and African-American — began pouring into the hall on Bangladesh Avenue.
This was prom, Hamtramck-style: the dense scrappy working-class city of 22,500 encircled by Detroit, once predominantly German and Polish, has become one of the most diverse small cities in America. Its new soul lay in the music playlist embedded in Rukeih Malik’s iPhone — Lady Gaga, Cobra Starship the Belgrade-born singer Ana Kokic and The Bilz, a Canadian-South Asian band, singing “2 Step Bhangra.”
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http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/us/hamtramck-high-holds-all-girl-prom.html?_r=1
