World Hijab Day unites Muslims and non-Muslims

“Beautiful, confident and empowered” is the motto for World Hijab Day.

Across the globe today, Muslim women in more than 140 countries are teaching others what beauty, confidence and empowerment mean to Muslim women who wear the hijab.

Nazma Khan created World Hijab day in 2013 after she faced ridicule for wearing her hijab in college after 9/11.

“I figured the only way to end this discrimination would be to ask my fellow sisters to experience wearing the hijab for themselves,” Khan said on the day’s website.

In recent years, anti-Muslim sentiment has loomed over our country and has masked the voices of many practicing Muslims who wish only to dispel misconceptions of Islam. Unfortunately, people form snap judgments about women who wear hijabs. World Hijab Day gives these women the opportunity to educate their communities about their choice and the problems they face.

Today, millions of people are participating in World Hijab Day in the workplace, with friends and at universities. Pitt’s Muslim Students’ Association is hosting a World Hijab Day event in Towers Lobby, even encouraging students to borrow hijabs for a day if they’re interested.

Even if we do not directly participate in World Hijab Day, we should learn from the day’s sentiments of empathy and acceptance.

Since 9/11, the hijab has garnered a negative connotation and permeated popular discourse as a symbol of the Muslim woman’s plight. But, to many Muslim women, it’s a symbol of modesty and religious freedoms — a combination of both Islamic and American ideals.

Today, many people may also judge women who wear hijabs for being dressed so conservatively. With campaigns like the Free the Nipple movement and our constant portrayals of scantily clad women on magazine covers, people may dismiss hijabi women as being oppressed because of western culture’s growing acceptance of nudity.

According to Khan, many people make the inaccurate assumption that women only choose to wear hijabs out of insistence by their father or a radical family member. In reality, the hijab brings a sense of empowerment, not subjugation, to many hijabi women. 

Joe Galvez, a Catholic from the Philippines, wore a hijab for a full day and later told the International Business Times about the liberation she felt.

Galvez told the International Business Times, “It’s commonly believed that wearing a veil is a form of sexual discrimination. I didn’t find it to be so. To my surprise, the veil was strangely liberating — an unapologetic form of self-expression.”

World Hijab Day gives women who wear hijabs the opportunity to educate their communities about what the hijab represents and also helps create solidarity between Muslims and non-Muslims.

By demystifying the hijab, men and women can look past the hijab and focus more on the woman wearing it. Anyone can wear a hijab, and World Hijab Day encourages non-Muslims to try it and empathize with women who wear hijabs and the bigotry many face because of this choice.

World Hijab Day is an opportunity for women who wear hijabs to educate non-Muslims about the struggles that many Muslim women face at the hands of prejudice. The day is an opportunity for people to ask hijabi women questions, instead of speaking for them and placing a victim narrative on them — which is always something worth celebrating.