I am 20 years old. I am the only Muslim in my whole family. I wear my hijab proudly. It’s a way I can show what I believe in. Hijab made me confident. Islam made me absolutely happy, and gave meaning to my life. It showed me a lot of things: how to be confident, patient, compassionate, and unobtrusive. I notice the beauty of nature; every single little things, how to help others in a good way, how to be thankful, and accept bad and good things. I know that He would never place me a situation that I can’t handle. I am unutterably happy because Allah showed me this Religion. I wear hijab with pleasure, and I don’t fear because I rely on Allah in every single thing, and I know He’ll is protect me, insha’Allah!

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One year ago, on January 1st 2013, my sister and I finally made the decision to start hijab. We thought about it many times and got pretty close to making the decision to start, but for different reasons would back out. It was scary to change our lifestyle. We could not imagine covering our hair, wearing different clothes, and standing out from the crowd.

But we started talking about it more and more. We talked about it so much, even stayed up nights charting out the pros and cons, only to find that there was just one con versus a long list of pros, and that was “what are people going to think of us?” That’s when we realized, what’s more important: People’s opinion of us OR God’s opinion of us. We asked ourselves what are we waiting for, and decided let’s just do it. When we first started wearing hijab, we were holding our breath waiting to hear the criticism and negative comments, but Alhamdullilah we have never received any such negativity from our friends, family, or even strangers.

Over one year of hijab, we have experienced so much. We love that we are visible Muslims. Hijab is an open and unapologetic statement of our faith in the West, and each day we challenge people’s stereotypes and prejudice. We don’t fit into the mould of beauty that is expected, and you won’t see images of girls covered up in magazines or in entertainment lol. However, as feminists we love the rebel status. We challenge people to respect us and know us for what is in our hearts and minds and our character, over our physical appearance, body, beauty and other superficial reasons. Hijab further ensures that we respect ourselves and maintain our modesty. We don’t get negative or condescending attention from men anymore, and have noticed that they lower their gaze and are respectful.

Hijab challenges us to strive to live up to its honour. In this day and age, it is very easy to slip and stray from our faith, but the hijab serves as a constant reminder of what our real aim and purpose is in this life. It has brought us peace and clarity, made us stronger individuals, filled us with confidence and empowered us as women.

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