It's no fun studying science while hiding in your bathtub. Just ask Sharmin Mollick.
The Bangladeshi-born Marble Hill HS senior was so determined to pursue her passion for biology -- despite her mother's objections on religious grounds -- that she would hide her books under her bed and study in the bathroom.
"It makes you feel very lonely -- like nobody is there to support you," Sharmin said.
"[But] I wouldn't let my passion be killed."
It wasn't the first time Sharmin -- now 18 and bound for Cornell University with a scholarship -- had hurdles thrown in the path of her education.
Emily Berl
CLASS ACT: Bangladeshi-born aspiring scientist Sharmin Mollick is off to Cornell.
After she excelled at her studies early on in her native Dhaka, her relatives forced her to quit school in the seventh grade because the culture frowned upon educating women.
But Sharmin managed to weave together enough odd jobs -- including working as a street sweeper at age 13 -- to pay for lessons at a local tutoring center.
At 15, with help from her largely absent father, Sharmin, her mom and her younger brother moved to The Bronx.
Even there, however, the young girl found that her gravitation toward the sciences -- and to biology in particular -- ran counter to her mother's Islamic beliefs.
Lessons on evolution and reproduction were taboo.
"She would see the pictures [in my books] and ask, 'What the hell are you studying?' " said Sharmin. "I had to hide myself and study behind her back."
This included epic sessions where she would lay towels down in the bathtub and recline against the basin for hours, hampered by her struggles with the English language.
It wasnt until 11th grade when Sharmin aced the college credit-bearing Advanced Placement Biology exam - scoring a 4 out of 5 - that her mother began to come around.
Conversations with teachers like David Meek helped persuade her mom even further.
"I have taught at Marble Hill School for International Studies for five years and have never seen a more dedicated science student," Meek, an AP biology instructor, wrote in a recommendation letter for Sharmins BlackRock-Schlosstein scholarship.
Even with financial aid, however, she's still $2,000 short per year for tuition - an obstacle she has yet to overcome.
After getting into 20 out of the 26 colleges to which she applied, the aspiring bioengineer said she hopes to set an example for other women stymied by society.
"You have to stand up and show what you can do and what you deserve," she said. "You can't let other people hold you down."
Western women have it easy. Despite the media that still casts them in the role as sex object and nothing else, any girl with gumption can become a scientist.
IN the Eastern world - the "third world countries" - women are lucky if they are allowed out of their homes. And if they do get to go out of their homes, they can't drive. (At least, not in Saudi Arabia.) And if they're not wearing a burkha, they're harassed for being immoral. Women who are willing - at the risk of their very lives - to break that cultural taboo and seek to fulfill themselves - deserve all our praise and protection.
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