Amanda Magalhães: From a New Life in Dubai to a Choice of Faith
Amanda Magalhães first visited Dubai in 2005 to see her sister. The Brazilian liked the city and decided she wanted to live there. Everyday life in a new setting brought her closer to Islam, as she recounted to ANBA in an interview published on 3 March 2014. [1]
She described her earlier faith as non-practising Catholicism. In Dubai, curiosity led her to buy books about Islam, while her clothing choices gradually changed. Learning about the religion became part of life in her new surroundings. [1]
She emphasized Islam’s simplicity and a direct relationship with God. Closeness to God was the attraction she named, beyond her appreciation of the city and its culture. [1]
The interview report places her decision to embrace Islam in 2007. She said her parents did not oppose it: they wanted her to follow what would be good for her. She remembered that support alongside the changes in her own life. [1]
By the 2014 interview she wore a headscarf, worked and studied. Combining aviation work, examinations and care for her young child became difficult, and she changed jobs. She explained that change through the competing responsibilities she was carrying. [1]
She subsequently worked in events and helped Brazilians settle in Dubai while studying education remotely. This was her life at the time of the interview: learning, work and responsibility after a decision of faith. Her journey invites a question: what might a visitor discover by looking beyond a place’s image to the religion itself? [1]