Sabika Sheikh was a 17 year old Pakistani exchange student. She was supposed to return home on June 9th after six months living and studying in Texas. She lived with a host family. Unfortunately,she was among the ten students murdered at the Santa Fe high school shooting. Sabika’s host family and the Texas community came together to mourn and celebrate her life at a local Mosque on Sunday.
Her host family Jason and Joleen Cogburn described their life with Sabika to the emotional crowd. “When she started Ramadan and started fasting, my family did that with her, because we did things together. Because, really, the root of our issue is love.” Her host father Jason Cogburn said .
Below is Sabika’s in an interview...
Sabika’s father, Mr Aziz Sheikh has said that Sabika had dreams to one day become a diplomat. She wanted to one day help strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Pakistan . Mr Aziz also told Reuters news that he hoped his daughter’s death would help change the gun laws in America ; “Sabika’s case should become an example to change the gun laws. I want this to become a base on which the people over there can stand and pass a law to deal with this.”
What’s amazing to me is how, even in grief, Sabika’s dad is humble and not lashing out at the American public. Anyone want to guess how Trump and even our media would have reacted were it a white American student murdered in Pakistan???
Sabika’s body is being flown home for a formal burial.