To the Muslims Out there

Hijab and Fashion

Many women of Islam feel pressured to abide to Westernized culture and their "easy-going" and "liberating" lifestyle.

In this post, I will explain how Islamic rules regarding women and their dressing/articles of clothing are in fact liberating. For the most part when I started high school, I wanted to just fit in. Whether it was the new hip cashmere cardigan, or the American Eagle jeans, I cherished to plainly blend in.

But I always was intrigued with the Hijab and how women specifically in Western/non-Islamic countries had the courage and inner ability to wear it in an environment that at times wasn't welcoming to Islam or its ideologies.

As grade 9 passed by, I started doing more research because I always felt a deep connection and safeness with the Hijab since I was a kid (even though I rarely wore it in public). As I was researching, I found out that Hijab literally meant to conceal or curtain oneself. Plus I began to learn about the reasons why Muslimas are told to wear the Hijab and dress modestly in the Quran. It wasn't a fashion statement but in fact the method for men to not look at women in an objectifying way.

Now living in a Western country, I not only saw this in the media, but I also had first-handed experience with being objectified, and completely understood where Islam came from when it says that women should cover.

Not to please men. But to be looked at as a person and not a sexual object.

Now while I see the Hijab in this perspective; the correct one, many see it as a means of oppression, and that is because although people are literate, media has brainwashed their minds into a form of illiteracy.

I see the Western women who is objectified. 

Who has eyes roaming around her cleavage, and down her legs as she cascades down the street oblivious to the way people are summing her up. 

Based not on her knowledge but on her beauty and what she has to display.

Islam says to cover up these adornments, so people don't think inappropriately of you and in a manner lower than what you really are worth. Because at the end of the day, it isn't my body who defines me but it is my mind.