I’m going to a memorial service this morning for my old Girl Scout troop leader. She was also my mother’s best friend and her daughters and my sister and I are the same age and were close friends when we were growing up. I haven’t seen the older daughter, the one my age, for thirty years. I didn’t even know her married name until I saw it in the obituary. I’m looking forward to seeing [...]
I was so excited—and nervous—when I went to get my driver’s license renewed because I was going to photographed in my hijab. That might seem like a little thing, but it’s actually not. It means that for the next four years I’m going to be identified as a Muslim whenever someone sees my driver’s license. I was so proud when the license bureau agent asked if I wear the scarf for religious purposes and I [...]
I was sitting in the airport, waiting for my flight, when the lady next to me struck up a conversation. “I hope you don’t mind if I ask you a question about your …” and she pointed to my hijab. “No, of course not. Go ahead, ” I said. “Do you have to wear it all the time, like even when you sleep or take a shower?” I grinned. “No, only when I’m in public [...]
There are predominantly three images that come to mind when those who are afraid of Muslims think of Islam: the World Trade Center on fire and collapsing on 9/11, Muslim men protesting in the streets, and Muslim women covering their bodies with Islamic clothing. Really? I can understand the first two, but what a woman wears? How can that be threatening? From what I’ve read and heard, there are several reasons that people feel threatened [...]
As a Muslim woman, even as a convert, I’m well aware that some people pity me for being “oppressed.” My husband isn’t even a Muslim, yet supposedly he is forcing me to “cover.” Or else I am so hung up about men’s lewd thoughts, all I can think of are ways to prevent them from seeing my “charms.” Either way, the implication is that I allow myself to be put in a box that limits [...]
When I joined a gym recently, I hadn’t thought of how hard it would be to get in shape and be an observant Muslimah at the same time. Many Muslim women are overweight and physically unfit because they can always “hide” their bodies under their loose clothing, so being fit and slim isn’t as big an issue for them as it is for non-Muslim women who expose more of their bodies to public view. Not only that, [...]
There are many people out there who will think I’m crazy for saying that the wearing of a headscarf (or hijab) is a woman’s right. That’s because Western society views Muslim women as oppressed and the hijab as a symbol of their oppression. We assume that the only reason women wear the hijab is because their men require them to and that they will discard them as soon as they’re liberated. While I don’t doubt [...]