WINNIPEG – When Taneem Vali joined Guide Girls unit in Dubai long years ago, the Muslim woman did not think that this move will determine her career and life for decades to come, becoming a “world citizen” due to the number of places she has lived in.

“When I was in high school in Dubai we had a teacher who started a Girl Guide unit. It was an honor to be in that unit because your grades had to be good and you were chosen to be in that unit,” Vali told CBC on Monday, February 29.

The Guide Girls’ love followed Vali to Winnipeg where she now lives after moving from Dubai to Chicago, Pakistan and Toronto before settling in the Canadian district.

“When I got here to Winnipeg, I got involved. I live opposite a church that has Girl Guides and I would see every Tuesday and Thursday these little girls going in and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. This must be like, the most amazing church on earth,” she said.

“They’ve got kids going into church here regularly,’ and I found out there were Girl Guides there.”

At this point, she decided to get involved with Guide Girls, becoming a Muslim Brownie leader for seven, eight years old girls of all faiths.

“The Brownies are seven, eight years old and we do have programming that we do.

“So, depending on what badge we’re working on — we have a science badge, we have an environment, the world around us — they’re called keys.”

The title of “world citizen” was granted to her due to the number of places she has lived in.

“I was born in India and when I was little, I moved to Dubai. So, I grew up there. Then I went to university in Detroit, the University of Detroit,” she said.

“I went to a Jesuit university. I went to Catholic elementary school, and then I went to Catholic high school, and then I went to a Jesuit university. And my mom went to a Catholic school as well, in India.”

Hijab

Donning the hijab has never been an issue for Vali.

Guiding young girls only, she sometimes takes it off when she is camping in a secluded area.

“When we go camping, we’re in an area that’s secluded, there is nobody there, so I take the hijab off,” she said.

“The first time the girls were like, ‘Oh, we’ve never seen your hair,’ and now they’re just used to it. You know, it’s not something to be talked about. There’s more interesting things.

By time, the girls were acquainted to their leader’s hijab, rushing to cover her themselves whenever a man appears in the camp area.

“We were at Birds Hill about two years ago camping and there were a whole bunch of units with us. So, there was a Girl Guide unit, other Brownie units.

“I had my hijab off and two park rangers came to turn the electricity on so the other leaders were like, ‘Oh, my god. There’s a man!” and [the girls] came and stood right in front of me, kind of surrounded me so I would have enough time to wrap my hijab on.

“It was just so natural. I think once you connect with somebody, you share the same interest, it’s just natural, it’s not something different.”

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

Muslims make around 2.8 percent of Canada’s 32.8 million population, and Islam is the number one non-Christian faith in the country.

A recent report from the Washington-based Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life said that Muslims are expected to make up 6.6% of Canada’s total population in 2030.

Toronto, the capital of Ontario, the province that one in three Canadians calls home, has the largest concentration of Muslims in Canada.