A young Cuban resident in Dubai who identifies on TikTok as @loreindubai posted a video in which she proudly asserts her dual identity: Cuban and Muslim, challenging those who believe that both can’t coexist in the same person.
The 59-second clip, published on May 15, is structured like a litany in which the author repeats "I am a Muslim Cuban and..." to connect memories of her childhood on the island with her current life in the United Arab Emirates.
"I'm a Muslim Cuban, and I know very well that people don't understand how those two things can coexist in the same person," she says at the beginning of the video.
The most emotional moment comes when he describes his reaction upon entering a supermarket filled with products: "I cried for those who have no idea what lies on the dark side," a direct reference to the scarcity that Cuba suffers under the dictatorship.
The young woman also evokes her upbringing on the island with images that are familiar to millions of Cubans: loud music, shouts in the street, candles lit during blackouts, hunger, and daily resilience.
Regarding the most visible element of her faith, the hijab, she firmly responds to those who question her: "People ask me why I cover my hair as if a scarf could erase where I come from."
The distance and the pain of exile also have their place in the narrative. "There are nights when the distance hurts more than any memory," he admits, adding that on more than one occasion he cried silently in front of a screen while telling his mother that everything was fine, so as not to worry her.
The video concludes with a statement that encapsulates his entire viewpoint: "My religion doesn't take away from where I come from because you never leave your land; the land lives within you."
In the description of the clip, written in English, the author is even more direct: "I was born Cuban and chose Islam. Two things I am very proud of in my life, and may Allah bless all my fellow Cuban compatriots in this very difficult time."
The case of @loreindubai is not the first of its kind. In December 2025, another young Cuban identified as @nayda4197, a resident of Tampa, Florida, went viral on TikTok for dancing reparto while wearing an Islamic hijab. In the comments on that video, a user recounted that she had been a Muslim for ten years and was married to an Arab, yet she had never stopped feeling Cuban.
Both cases reflect a documented tension: Muslim Cuban women are questioned both by compatriots who see Islam as something foreign to the national identity and by Muslim communities that do not always recognize Cuban identity as compatible with the faith.
The Muslim community in Cuba is small but growing, with estimates ranging from 3,000 to 13,000 people, mostly converts without Islamic family heritage. Islam was legally recognized on the island in 2007, and in June 2015, the Abdallah Mosque was inaugurated in Old Havana, the largest in the country, following the conversion of an old automobile museum.
The Cuban diaspora in Dubai, on the other hand, faces complex immigration conditions: residency is linked to employment and must be renewed periodically, and there are no direct flights from Cuba to the Emirates, so many travel through third countries.
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