On the recent World Hjab Day, Amenakin went to London to invite non-Muslim, non-hijabi women to try on a headscarf.
Meeting Adriana, a non-Muslim participant in WHD
February 1st is World Hijab Day (WHD). It’s a relatively new social movement that seeks to support women who wear hijab by inviting non-Muslim and non-hijabi women to wear the hijab for a day. This year marks the event’s second year of success with 116 countries partaking in WHD.
Nazma Khan started this movement after encountering discrimination simply because she chooses to wear a headscarf. She is not alone and her experience is shared by women all over the world, particularly sisters in parts of the West such as France. With a growing sense of Islamophobia fuelled by the negative portrayal of Muslims in mainstream media, this obvious dedication to the faith and identification as a Muslim can make hijab-wearing women targets of various forms of attacks.
Alhamdullilah, rather than to victimise ourselves, many Muslim women gain strength from the situation and are propelled forward to spread support and positivity through this particular symbol of their faith.
2014 saw many more endorsements for World Hijab Day, including a major one from the renowned Mufti Ismail Menk who said, “World Hijab Day is not an act of worship but rather an effective way to create global awareness of the issue that is being attacked unfairly. It has achieved some great success already. Alhamdullilah.”[i]
I decided to create a video for World Hijab Day to support and create awareness of this movement. On Saturday, 1 February 2014 I asked non-Muslim, non-hijabi women on the streets of London to try on a headscarf and tell us what they thought about it. I also asked Muslim hijabi women what hijab means to them.
The result was inspiring. Not only were many non-Muslim women willing to try on a hijab, they wanted to keep it on for the rest of the day! Their feedback was also fascinating: whilst most of them felt a focus was placed on their eyes, face and voice, one of them even felt “comfortable” despite never having tried on a headscarf before. All of the women were also coincidentally raised in areas where there are no hijabis, and had minimum, or no interactions with headscarf-wearing women prior to that day.
Taken, therefore, from the viewpoint of neutrality, these women appeared to show a very positive response to headscarves. This sentiment was echoed by many non-Muslim women online.
Of course, every online entity faces criticism and the WHD movement is no exception. A few Muslims expressed concern over the day being a “bid’ah” or “innovation” – a term thrown around quite carelessly these days. Other commentators dislike the celebration of something that is a personal and spiritual act.
Both viewpoints are rather strange and seemingly ill-informed conclusions, since WHD is recognised as a social (and not explicitly religious) movement. It is a day where women support the choice of other women to cover up, to stand together to represent freedom of choice for a garment that continues to be attacked in social and political spheres.
On the other hand, perhaps the naming of the day causes confusion, since the concept of hijab is not just to cover one’s hair, but to cover everything but the face, hands and (according to most scholars) the feet, ensuring clothing is loose and not transparent. Furthermore, the hijab encompasses the conduct of a woman, her behaviour and interaction with those of the opposite sex. Simply wearing a headscarf and calling it “hijab” may not, technically, be acceptable to some people.
However, one needs to weigh up the pros and cons carefully. World Hijab Day has had the ability to be “marketed” so widely because of the inclusion of the term “hijab”, and it is, arguably, a good name insofar as it is that precise word to which society has attached stigma.
Most open-hearted participants, witnesses and organisers of WHD were inspired by the simplicity of the act and the message it represents. I pray that Allah – Great and Glorious is He! – places blessings on every act sincerely carried out to serve and support others.
The post Celebrating the Hijab on the Streets of London appeared first on Aquila Style.