Father thought it was a trick: a Han Chinese woman’s conversion to Islam
To shield her parents, Aysha Xiong refrains from wearing a headscarf and performing prayers when visiting her hometown in Yunnan province
Aysha Xiong, 23, one of only a few Han Chinese to have converted to Islam, admits it was a shock to her parents.
Although Yunnan (雲南) province is home to a large number of ethnic minorities, Xiong grew up in the town of Binchuan, where most residents were Han.
She said she always respected Islam and read books about it while at school. She started to think about converting after learning more about the religion from ethnic Hui classmates in high school.
If the neighbours start gossiping about how I have changed, my parents will get hurt a lot
Xiong went to university in Kunming ( 昆明 ), the capital of Yunnan ( 雲南 ), where she became friends with a Hui student whose cousin was a local imam. Through the friend, Xiong expressed her desire to convert, and the imam agreed to hold a ceremony for her. On a Friday in November 2013, Xiong officially converted in a Kunming mosque in front of about 100 other believers. The imam gave her the Muslim name “Aysha”, which means “woman” in Arabic and derives from the name of the Prophet Mohammed’s favourite wife.
Xiong said that for her parents, religion was little more than people burning incense sticks at Lunar New Year; their only knowledge about Islam came from news about terror attacks.
“My father was worried I was being tricked into this and would take a wrong path,” she said.
While her mother came to understand her decision, her father still insisted she should quit.
