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Updating this to address some of the comments!
Please note this is not an exhaustive list of reasons, it just includes the points the headline refers to as reasons women in this article mentioned. The reasons are from Tweets I shared in this post, particularly one that goes into a thread.
To break it down the thread I shared starts with the common misconception that people assume women wear the hijab to hide themselves from the gaze of men, while this is true for some it is not the sole reason women take on wearing the hijab or “modest” clothing because the truth is wearing a headscarf does not protect you from harassment.
One of the reasons women gave was because it has become a symbol of Islam especially in the Western world and thus becomes a symbol of rebellion because you are openly practicing something many individuals hate blindly or do not understand. This is actually one of the reasons my mother wears it, to create awareness of religion.
“Today, some women wear the hijab to signal pride in their ethnic identity,” Caitlin Killian, a sociology professor noted. “This is more so for immigrants in Europe and the United States, where there has been an increase in Islamophobia.”
Similarly, others shared that they began wearing the hijab because it was a reminder that their actions could impact thousands of others since the hijab is a known symbol of Islam. As a result, wearing the hijab allowed these women to stay accountable for their actions and put their best selves forward. Many shared that it helped them develop, strive to be a better person, and grow themselves while smashing stereotypes against Muslims.
Another reason some shared was that they felt their hair was their beauty and that they should not have to openly share that with just anyone. So by wearing the hijab they only shared their beauty with those they chose to. The idea that showing one’s beauty does not equal liberation was a common theme.
Some shared that because they wore it to pray, they just decided to wear it regularly as it became a norm for them and made them feel closer to their religion as it was a spiritual symbol. It made them feel empowered and essentially closer to God.
It is important to remember that hijab looks different from culture to culture because in Islam there is no regulated way on how to wear it, thus by interpretation people decide how they wear it to depict their relationship to religion. This is because while the definition of hijab is now connected to a woman’s headscarf, in reality, the meaning of hijab in the Quran is just something that shields you from strangers, whether it be clothing, behavior, or speech AND it applies to both men and women. Women wear headscarves for a multitude of reasons, I just wanted to shed light on some stories that are often silenced since the media is quick to share stories of oppression, not empowerment. Again I am no expert, I am just a Muslim woman who grew up in a Muslim household and studied the religion both in a spiritual and academic setting.
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