Soldier of Faith

As Mattson explored what an Islamic chaplaincy program at Hartford should offer, the U.S. military was aggressively seeking chaplains for growing numbers of Muslim servicemen and -women. "I visited all the chief of chaplains of all the different services and asked them what they were interested in," recalls Mattson, who also is the first female president of the Islamic Society of North America, a major Muslim advocacy group. "And they all expressed a lot of interest."

Hartford's program, unique in the country, was designed to be the equivalent of a master's of divinity degree, the minimum educational requirement for chaplains in the military and federal prison system.

The program launched in early 2000 with three male students. Enrollment was disappointingly low for several years, but it has picked up in part because of increased demand from hospitals, prisons and campuses for Muslim chaplains. As Shareda graduates on this June day, 20 students are pursuing only the practical component, which will allow them to work as associate chaplains in some institutions. But 19 are enrolled in the complete program, covering both academic and practical tracks, which will make them eligible for full chaplaincy positions. Shareda is about to become the fourth student -- and first female -- to complete the entire program.

Once inside the church's red-carpeted sanctuary, the graduates step forward as the presiding dean, Ian Markham, calls their names. Each receives a diploma and then an academic stole laid in place by a relative or close friend of the graduate. A late-afternoon sun slants through the sanctuary's arched windows by the time Shareda and Jack are called forward.

"It's my duty to attend to one special student," Markham announces to graduates and relatives seated in the wooden pews. "I'm pleased to present to you Shareda Hosein."

As the audience applauds, Jack places the red velvet and gold silk stole over his wife's head, fussing with its folds so they drape gracefully down her back.

Shareda's father, who proudly supports her Army chaplaincy quest, is absent because of a long-standing business commitment. But her mother is there holding a long-stemmed red rose for her daughter.

"It's a very proud day," says Ojeefan Hosein. "I feel great. My daughter accomplished what she wanted."

FOR MANY YEARS, SHAREDA WAS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT HER FAITH. "I was more like a 'holiday Muslim,'" she says, going through the motions but "still living an American lifestyle."

That changed when her parents insisted on taking her daughter, Farhana, then in kindergarten, to their mosque's Sunday school. "I realized that, to be a responsible parent, I needed to give my daughter at least the foundations that my parents gave me. And then she can choose, as I did later on in life," Shareda says.

So she joined the mosque's board of directors and got involved with its youth program, aiming to help young people avoid the internal conflicts of faith that she'd struggled with.

As she became more attached to her faith, the military ethos -- to lead by example, not just orders -- also influenced Shareda. "I had to do my own self-examination," she says, and that meant a reckoning with the Islamic head scarf, or hijab. She asked herself why she had no problem complying with the military's rules -- keeping her hair above the bottom edge of the collar when in uniform -- but ignored her religion's injunctions. "Am I more afraid of man's laws than God's laws or God's requests?" she wondered. "And that was, like, the shift for me . . . The next day I decided to wear it." She was 35.