My Hijab Story

I grew up to be a confident, intelligent, thoughtful, and caring young lady...

yet

that did not matter.

I left my parents in my hometown in Lebanon, came to a foreign country where I worked and went to school full time then earned double bachelors and a Master degree..

yet

that did not matter, either.

I became an influential, intentional, difference maker, and ground breaking teacher..

that also

did not

matter

!

Here is what mattered:

“Your hair is so beautiful”

“You have gorgeous eyes, “smallah””

“You coordinate your clothes very well”

”Is everyone’s skin in your family that perfect?”

Etc..Etc...

I would talk to people for half an hour about how fascinating the human body is, or share my wonder about the complexity of the universe, and would hear at the end of the conversation: no but really how are your lashes that full?!!

If you’re a man reading this I have a question for you:

Does/ Did this ever happen to you?
I bet the answer is rarely …if not - never!

Because I am a woman - I am defined in society by my physical appearance, first and foremost.

People can assume I am a “good person” if I dress up nicely! As simple as that! Right?

Then…

I got sick of it!

I was a lot more than just a pretty face!

I felt trapped if not imprisoned.

During my faith journey, I had always felt that my relationship with God is great yet something was missing, the full devotion. After a lot of research behind the idea of Hijab I understood that it was put in place to treat women as what they deserve: a human being with emotions and thoughts rather than an image or an object.

Hijab liberated me!

It liberated me from the prison of “society’s superficial expectations” and I was finally heard! My voice became louder than ever - and yes I have my own stereotypes being in Hijab - yet I shatter them every single day as I am in that same Hijab!

I still look great and think that I wear my hijab very nicely but all of a sudden people were less distracted about how I look and were more concerned with what I wanted to say.

Hijab liberated me.

I have a lot of shortcomings and I work on them daily, because I am a human being, not a machine, and I am so comfortable with the idea of the flawed being I can be!

Some may say Hijab limits your opportunities or choices.. that you are too young to wear hijab.. or that you need to enjoy your youth instead of give it away…

Sure.. if that is how you see things, genuinely.

In my world, Hijab gives me the opportunity to disguise the least important and expose the most important and therefore engage my ever-growing mind free of society’s expectations following one path - my truth ♥️

Farah

#worldhijabday