Random Acts of Heroism

Nejwa Hamad

Nov. 12, 2019

A young woman, aged around her mid-twenties, struggles to find a seat on the bustling train. She compromises to standing, holding onto the train handle. Countless stops go by and the young woman is finally able to sit down. A man takes a stance in front of this woman.

“Young lady, I’m going to have to ask you to take that thing off of your head,” he bluntly states towards her.

Completely baffled by his sudden remark, the lady does not respond, and merely just stares at him in confusion. She looks around her surroundings to see if anyone else has heard the man speaking to her, the train didn’t seem so busy anymore. The train cabin had grown quiet, for they began to focus on the conversation about to take place between the man and the woman. The woman looks up at the man, and notices his anger arising. He begins to shout at her, and her heart rate picks up. She scans her surroundings once again. Silence. She exhales heavily and attempts to open her mouth, but she couldn’t even manage a croak to come out.

“Do you not speak any English? Shall I do this myself.” the man begins to reach for the woman’s hijab, and whispers and phones come into the scene. The woman’s eyes and lips tremble, embarrassment fills her, and she wonders why no one is willing to help her in this time. She closes her eyes and prays for the moment to pass. She can feel her scarf in securely place, wasn’t the man going to tear it from her head?

She opens her eyes once again, and now standing before her are a group of young women. She watches as one of the women exchanges profanities with the man. The young woman is now disoriented and completely unaware of her surroundings. The other woman explains, moreso yells at the man, telling him that under no circumstances should he be harassing this woman. The rest of the train finally chimes in, telling him to get off at the next stop, and he shamefully obeys.

As the scene settles down, the other woman crouches down and looks into her eyes fondly; “Are you alright?” She asks her. The woman continues to sit, in awe. Tears begin to stream down her face, and she can no longer contain her gratitude; she pulls the other woman in for a hug, and softly thanks her for her heroic actions.

What is heroism? We’ve grown accustomed to see heroes as fictional characters, such as Superman, or Iron Man. They are usually portrayed as the nation’s saviors, from rescuing cats from trees to restoring peace on planet earth. Nevertheless, we created these people to be heroes because they embody a specific characteristic we cannot overlook; they are selfless. Every hero known to man does something for the benefit of the other, not themselves. Superheroes are saving the world from destruction, literally. But how can that apply to us, normal human beings?

The woman, who stepped into the Islamophobic scene and cared for the woman wearing the hijab, is considered a hero/heroine. The rest of the train kept to themselves as this scene unfolded as the hijabi woman suffered in silence. The other woman unhesitantly stepped in, and began to use her power of words to fend off the villainous man. Soon, uplifted by her distinguishable heroic actions, the rest of the train fought off the man, until the woman wearing the hijab was finally at peace. The heroine influenced the rest of the train to save the woman in dismay. The heroine’s selflessness and heroic characteristics is what we normal human beings consider to be our heroes.

To be a hero signifies that a person must put themselves before others in any given situation. To be a hero signifies a person must not succumb to fear and become a bystander as a person idly suffers by them. To be a hero signifies that a person must stay true to their personal beliefs and not compromise to societal pressures, in which they abide quietly as a disaster show occurs. Without these heroes in everyday life, people would have this more grave, unsettling fear within them. These heroes in our lives may not be using supernatural powers to stop the end of the world, but they are doing everything in their power to make this place a better place for the rest of us civilians.