Ayny

Age at interview: 33

Brief Outline:

Gender: Female
Background: Ayny is 33 years old and is Pakistani. She is married with three kids. Ayny was encouraged to get the Covid vaccine by her father. He videoed himself getting the vaccine and shared it to local mosques.

 

More about me...

Ayny is part of a community of Muslim mums. When the pandemic first started, the mums in this group discussed what would happen. When the pandemic came to England, Ayny says that the mums became even more scared. She says, "my instant reaction was to start thinking about my parents. Coming from an Asian Pakistani family, my father is diabetic, my mum is overweight. This was super scary for my parents." By contrast, Ayny was less worried about herself and her children.
 
Ayny's husband is a teacher. She explains that he was "ten steps ahead of the game" in that he bought devices for her children so that they could still attend school remotely, and he himself moved his work online. While her husband was pretty calm, Ayny was panicking. She was wondering how she could cope with home-schooling three children. However, she found comfort through her religion.
 
Ayny says the pandemic was not all negative. She explains that because her family were all together she had the best Ramadan. She also says that she became closer to her Muslim faith during this time and felt a greater sense of community. She knows many refugees in her Muslim mum group and she would volunteer to shop, cook, and clean for them. 
 
When the Covid vaccine came out, Ayny was unsure whether she would take it. She felt like she did not have enough information about the vaccine. What helped sway her decision to get the vaccine was her dad. Ayny explains that her dad recorded himself having the vaccine and shared it to local mosques. She says that it helped encourage Muslims to get the vaccine, especially Muslim men. Ayny's mum also got the vaccine which also encouraged her decision to get the vaccine.

Ayny received a social media link to a video made by a Muslim doctor that convinced her Covid is serious.

And I remember one day we had this link sent from Muslim doctors and it was just showing the severity of this this virus. And it was, I think down to a tee - they weren’t being wishy washy about it. They were saying, it’s true, it’s real. When it affects you it’s deadly. It’s and I think when I had seen that then me, I got like a heart, my heart did sink a little bit and I felt, this is the first-hand doctors who are speaking, and I need to take this seriously.

Ayny convinced both her parents to leave their public-facing jobs to reduce their risk of catching Covid.

My brothers had recently had a, they got married and had a Covid wedding [laughs]. They just drove down, picked their wives up, the wives moved in, and we had a virtual wedding, and we were sat there, and my mum would keep going, “Oh it doesn't matter if you know, got yourself tested. Let’s create a bubble and what have you.” And we kept reinforcing the fact that mum and dad you’re Asian, you’re diabetic. All of the risks and risks under the sun absolutely convinced mum to leave her job. Convinced dad to leave his job. Again, we were more interested in their life than anything else. So, both mum and dad, actually yeah, for that reason came out. My dad is a imam, one of the muftis so he is a huge public figure and lots of the community were depending on him.

Ayny took herbal home remedies and upped her vitamin D intake while she was ill.

I was just upping my Vitamin D. Lots and lots of home remedies, lots of herbal teas that my sisters had like gifted me, obviously turmeric and then manuka honey and all of the goodness. I was just upping that. And honestly, I think I completely OD’d on Vitamin D [laughs]. My sisters were like, we’re short you know. Even the doctor said, “It’s fine.” You’d rather have more than less.