These three articles were written by teens in the Teens in Print program of WriteBoston.
“Wearing the hijab was a horror film”
By Adamajan Bah
Teen Voices Rising commentator
For a week-and-a-half, I did something I’ve never done before. I wore my hijab to school and kept it on everywhere I went.
Whoa!
I know that I was supposed to start wearing the head scarf a very long time ago as a sign of modesty and my devotion to Islam. However, I hadn’t felt ready to commit.
Then, one morning a few months ago, I woke up and just decided that I was going to put it on.
Two days before, a Muslim teacher at my Arabic school had talked about the afterlife and how if you didn’t follow the rules of Islam you would be punished in hellfire. I was scared. My initial thoughts were that I was going to wear it for the rest of my life. I was a little skeptical about it, though. So I figured that I would wear it for a week and see how it went. I got dressed the way I usually did for school — jeans and a long-sleeved shirt — but this time I added a little spice to my wardrobe: a hijab. I went to the mirror to see how I looked. Fear struck as I thought about what people at school would say. However, I just sucked it up and said “Bismillah” — in the name of Allah, the most merciful, the most beneficent — and then walked out the door.
As I got to school and pulled my jacket hood off, I felt as if I was the center of everyone’s conversation. I actually heard someone blurt out: “What the heck is on Adama’s head?” As the day progressed, it seemed like there was a big sign on my forehead saying: “PLEASE STARE AT ME.”
While my first day wearing the hijab was unsettling, after that it was a horror film. The questions coming at me ranged from: “Do you wear it when you sleep?” to “Do you take a shower with it on?” to “Are you sad that they killed your father?” — a reference to Osama bin Laden. One friend went so far as to call me a terrorist.
I was terrified.
So, I eventually decided to take it off. I felt bad, realizing that I wasn’t ready to go all in.
Now, I can only imagine what I’d have heard if I’d been wearing my hijab after April’s Boston Marathon bombings, which were allegedly perpetrated by Islamic extremists. In the aftermath, I heard people say cruel and hurtful things about Muslims, like: “Muslims don’t like other people being happy because Muslim countries are not as good as America.”
Hopefully, by the time I go to college, I will be more prepared to wear the hijab full time. I will be more mature, more at peace with myself, and less concerned about being ridiculed for wanting to display my faith.
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This article was originally published at bostontip.com.
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