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and my the me
Salaam alaikum
I came to America at the age of eleven
from Bangladesh with my family of six for a bright future.
By the time they reached America, my parents only had ten dollars in their pocket.
Our humble beginnings did not prevent
my parents from sending me to school but they had no idea
what it was waiting for me at school. Neither did I. I hardly spoke a word of
English
and was the only one wearing the headscarf also known as the hijab in the
entire school.
I chose to cover up to obey my Creator
and make a statement about my identity as a Muslim woman
which I held so close to my heart. But I had no idea that a piece of fabric on my
head would cause me so much pain
for the next several years. I was discriminated [against] both verbally
and physically. I was called names such as "Batman"
and "ninja". At one point, students literally
kicked me and spat at me both inside and outside the school.
I was so scared, I used to enter the school
from the boys' entrance instead of the girls'. I believe I was the only girl to do so.
The lowest point of my discrimination
in middle school in the Bronx was not what I went through by my classmates,
but rather
when my English teacher decided to make fun of the way I dressed. As a teacher, he was
supposed to protect me and help me boost my confidence, yet he did the opposite
by crushing my self-esteem to the ground. I faced similar situations at high school
but with much more intensity. I still remember the day when a bunch of girls,
they were waiting for me outside of my classroom just to pull off my hijab
and, of course, how can I forget the moment
of being surrounded by at least 10 to 15 boys
who spat and mocked my hijab? I constantly -
I feel so helpless
and terrified. I constantly face the following question:
"Don't you ever dress normal?" Constant discrimination continued
throughout my high school years.
I could have dropped out of my high school, but that was never
an option for me. In fact I graduated
the top of my class. (holding back tears)
Sorry. I was more terrified when
I entered university during the time of 9/11.
Being a Muslim in New York City
after 9/11 was risky to begin with. On top of that,
being a
hijabi was... (holding back tears)
On top of that, being hijabi was a direct sign saying, "She is a Muslim."
I constantly lived in fear
as I was calling names such as "Osama bin Laden" and "terrorist".
And, of course, I could never avoid those stares
as if I was from a different planet. I even got
chased a few times on the street. It was
a total nightmare. Fast-forwarding a few years,
on October 1, 2010,
I launched an online hijab store called stunninghijab.com
One of the aims of my business was to serve
others. I wanted to have a support system
where Muslim women could share their hijab experience.
Shortly afterwards, I started to receive emails from
women across the globe. I specifically remember this
14-year-old girl named Aliya from UK. She wrote me an email
explaining how her classmates chew gum and spit at
her hijab and it became a laughing matter just because of her hijab.
I also received countless messages from women
who got fired from their jobs
and were rejected at their job interviews just because of their hijab.
After reading all those messages I was able to relate to them,
sympathize with them and knew exactly what they're going through.
During the summer of 2011, after receiving many messages from
women across the globe with similar situations,
I kept on thinking, "How can I help these women?
"How can I help myself?" That's when the idea of World Hijab Day came to
my mind.
I thought if I could invite women in all faiths,
Muslim and non-Muslim, to walk in my shoes
just for one day, perhaps, perhaps things would change.
I wanted to bring this idea to life so I created a website called
worldhijabday.com along with a Facebook
fan page. I launched them on January 21, 2013.
My message was simply to invite women in all faiths
across the globe to wear the hijab just for one day
on February 1, 2013. Within just
eight days, I got responses from women from 67 countries
worldwide, including United Kingdom,
Australia, Nigeria, Indonesia, Pakistan, Sweden,
Albania, Denmark, and Mexico.
Women from various religious backgrounds including Jewish,
Christians, Pagans, Atheists, Wiccans, Rastafarians, Mormons,
and many more responded to my call. I was able to translate the World Hijab Day
poster into 23 different languages
including Dutch, Croation, Indonesian, and Burmese.
World Hijab Day was featured on mainstream news media
such as BBC, Al Jazeera, Huffington Post, and many more.
World Hijab Day was a huge success as women from different faiths
joined hand-in-hand in solidarity to support millions of women who choose to wear hijab
on a daily basis
and live a life of modesty. Let's hear some of the responses from World Hijab Day
participants.
Kerri-Jo Stewart from Canada wrote: "Emma, my 8-year-old daughter,
"said she got called names, but she kept on wearing the hijab.
"It didn't seem to bother her. We're Christians, but
"love our Muslim sisters. She wants to involve her school next year."
Diana Austin of Pagan background wrote: "Some of my friends and I have taken a vow to
"wear the hijab
"for a year and a day. It is to honor women around the world who wear them
"everyday."
Tia wrote: "I greatly respect women who wear hijab everyday
"I found it quite comfortable actually. I'm still confused however as to why
"some people seem to equate
"hijab with oppression. I felt nothing
"oppressive about covering my head at all. On the contrary,
"it was liberating not to have to constantly worry about my hair."
Jo Galvis, a Catholic from the Philippines wrote:
"It's commonly believed that wearing a veil is a form of *** discrimination.
"I didn't find it to be so. To my surprise,
"the veil was strangely liberating and an unapologetic
"form of self-expression." World Hijab Day
has helped many Muslim women embrace the hijab for a lifetime,
as Sister Nitasha expressed, "World Hijab Day was the encouragement
"I needed to wear hijab. By next World Hijab Day, I'll be proud to say that I've
"been a hijabi for a year, in sha Allah."
Before I end my talk, I would like to remind myself
and all of you here that this life is too short to hold grudges or hate toward
each other.
At the end of the day, we are all part of one big family called [the] human race.
I pray that a movement like World Hijab Day gives us an opportunity
to learn to be tolerant of each other by accepting and respecting each other's
differences.
It is only through tolerance and understanding we can coexist peacefully.
I invite all of you to join
in my quest to have one million participants for the next World Hijab Day
on the upcoming February 1st by spreading the word.
It is only through working together [that] we can achieve to have a local form of
World Hijab Day [in] as many cities, states,
countries, and continents as possible. Let's start a World Hijab Day
revolution;
a tool for tolerance, understanding, and peace. Thank you very much for your time.
Can you play the video please?