My Hijab.

My Hijab is my crown.

I am a queen, and like a queen I don’t shake hands with strange men.

My Hijab.

My Hijab is peace.

This piece of cloth that covers my body.

Is serenity.

A sign of submission.

They say it’s a sign of submission to my husband.

I say:        No.

Submission to Someone much more important.

Omnipotent.

Allah.

Lord of the Worlds.

My Hijab.

My Hijab is a reminder.

A reminder to myself to behave in the manner I am supposed to:

With integrity.

Peacefully.

Respectfully.

Honestly.

Auspiciously.

Humbly.

Modestly.

My Hijab.

My Hijab may serve as a reminder to other people of how to treat me:

I am not an ornament for your eyes.

My beauty will not be cheapened by using pieces of my body to sell your:

Body wash

Cars or

Power tools.

I will not be used in some misogynists’ music video.

No.    You may not have my number.

All that man covets is hard to reach;

Gold and Jewels must be mined.

Oil must be drilled.

Pearls lie

Sealed

In shells

At the bottom of the sea.

Why is my body any different?

My Hijab, believe it or not, has nothing to do with you:

Your laws to ban it.

Your opinion that I’m oppressed.

Your view on my style of expression or belief system.

Your hateful heart and your hands that rip it from my head.

Your not in charge of my fate

My destiny.

My.          Maker.          Is.

My Hijab is my Piety.

My non con formation to mainstream.

I will NOT let YOU make me AFRAID.

This is who

I AM.

Before you made it something for people to fear.

And attached words like “Terrorist” to it.

Before you attempt to

Try to make me

Take it off,

or Assimilate.

My Hijab:

Get used to it. It’s not going away.

My Hijab is happiness:

Tranquility.

Serenity.

I am here.

I am empowered.

My Hijab is a liberation.

The Flag in the Muslimah Liberation.

The first movement of ‘feminism’;  started by the Prophet Muhammad.

May Peace and Blessings be Upon Him.

I declare these streets

Any streets

My Hijab’s country.

My Hijab’s Universe.

We are free and answer to God Alone.

But mainly

My Hijab and everything under it Is mine.

Mine

Mine

Mine.

My God Given Right.

My Freedom.

My Protection.

My Liberation.

My Dedication to My Maker and

No One Else.

The post My Hijab: A response to Eve Ensler’s “My Short Skirt” appeared first on World Hijab Day.

I am a born Muslim to a religious Muslim society of Saudi Arabia that commands specific dress codes. Thus I started wearing Abaya (Long-length dress specific to Muslim women) pretty much earlier without realizing its substance. However, with growing maturity and understanding of the doctrine of Islam, I have embraced Hijab from within the depths of my heart with profound sagacity and multifaceted import to it rather than wearing it senselessly just because the law demands for it (which should not be the case anyway).

On this World Hijab Day, I would like all the readers out there to question their purpose. The question needed to be asked is: What is Hijab for you? Is not it much extensive with numerous suggestions that is definitely much more than dress. Having said that, when we talk about the dress aspect of Hijab; the scarf along with a garb, it is not just a textile thing but much beyond that. For me, this attire is the brooch of identity, the reflection of my ideology, assertion of my customs, resistance to cultural imperialism, a fight to break fixated racist image, a mark of solidarity for victims, a mandate for dignity of women against objectification, and an aesthetic appeal to fashion.

In religious terms, it is the representative expression of the intrinsic connection to God (‘abd) and an appendage to the ummah’s (Muslim nation’s) essence (huwiyya). It is an elaboration of an abstract bond between an individual believer and a transcendent power. But is it all? No. Besides being the religious emblem, Hijab has served as multi-dimensional symbol of identity and political resistance throughout history. Hijab is used as a political symbol as much as religious one- it is a cultural way to make a declaration and take a stand.

For me, Hijab with its roots in Islamic theology, branches off outside the realm of religion to multiple tracks: a visual reminder of anti-colonialism, to protest against cultural imperialism, a struggle for recognition, and a resistance against Islamophobia. It is a symbol of Islam that is designed into a symbolic resistance to Western policy of assimilation, to protest the cultural imperialism and to stand in solidarity against stereotyped profiling that comes along being Muslim. Considering the growing violence against Muslims on one hand and on the other hand the upsurge of terrorism in our names, I, through my hijab, stand with the victims. I tell the narrative of a Muslim who is not an alien or a social exile but much like other humans who are social animals. I tell the story of frustrations, of humiliation,  and of struggle. My hijab tells the stories of hate crimes, propaganda, and war against my community.

My hijab speaks of my religion, my solidarity, and my identity. My hijab is a narrative of resistance. My hijab is an assertion of my belief. My hijab is mine.

The post My hijab is a narrative of resistance appeared first on World Hijab Day.