This shot was taken in Istanbul a year into my work on Hafiz, the photo series that would launch my career as a photographer. Between 2017 and 2021, I travelled across Turkey documenting the lives of young Muslim schoolgirls enrolled in religious Qur’anic schools and studying to obtain “hafiz” – an ancient rite of passage that requires the memorising of all 604 pages – or 6,236 verses, or 77,430 words – of the Holy Qur’an.
Hafiz, which translates as “guardian” or “memoriser”, is a custom following in the footsteps of the prophet Muhammad, who – between the 6th and 7th centuries, when most people in the Arabic world were illiterate – spread religious scripture by word of mouth. Still today, thousands of students study to memorise the holy book. From the age of 12, my twin sister and I began the process, too. Every day we woke at 5am with the morning call to prayer, before chanting lines alongside 600 classmates at Qur’anic school. In the afternoon we attended secular school. There were moments of freedom at home, when we watched TV, ate what we liked and were normal teenagers. But in those moments I found myself missing hafiz school, and in particular my classmates. They became my sisters, too.
