The Muslim Student Association held its annual World Hijab Day occasion on Thursday evening at Erne Commons. Open to all college college students, occasion Recognized Muslim girls who select to put on hijab and promoted cultural understanding of hijab.
The celebration included colourful decorations, a floral photograph backdrop, and a catered dinner from Mezze. MSA additionally welcomed keynote speaker Dalia Mogahed. researcher Her analysis focuses on American Muslims on the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding. Although the occasion was dominated by Muslim girls carrying hijabs, it had a various viewers, together with Muslim males and non-Muslims.
The vitality was excessive as college students gathered and chatted earlier than the occasion. For Amer Chanda, MSA public affairs chair and third-year faculty pupil, World Hijab Day was a celebration of empowering Muslim girls’s identities.
“It’s a really unifying day since you get to see all of the sisters, all the women, and generally even strangers, who put on hijab,” Chanda stated. “We can all have fun what unites us and is important to our id.”
The hijab (a shawl worn by some Muslim girls) is mostly a component of Muslim modesty. I used to be misunderstood as a logo of oppression. Since 2013, communities around the globe celebrated World Hijab Day, noticed on February 1st annually, helps Muslim girls who select to put on the hijab and encourages non secular tolerance and understanding of hijab amongst non-Muslims.
The occasion started with a standard Quranic recitation. Mogahed then started her speech by sharing her personal expertise of carrying the hijab, describing the act as empowering.
“For me, carrying the hijab was a daring feminist declaration of independence from all of the pressures positioned on girls to evolve to sure social norms, to please the male gaze. ” stated Mogahed.
She additionally defined that calling the scarf oppressive is a misogynistic thought and urged contributors to think about their very own opinions on the hijab.
“To say that Muslim girls are oppressed as a result of they select to cowl their hair is definitely extremely misogynistic,” Mogahed stated. “Oppression is the taking away of somebody’s energy… So if girls are rendered powerless by protecting their our bodies, their hair, their magnificence, what are we saying in regards to the sources of ladies’s energy? ?”
Mogahed’s feminist perspective on hijab touched many college students. For senior Leena Al-Saadi, the dialogue fostered a neighborhood the place Muslim girls can help one another and be happy with their accomplishments.
“I feel feminism seems to be totally different to lots of people; [event] It’s a one-way avenue,” Al-Saadi stated. “For me, it’s extremely empowering to return right here and have an occasion devoted to us and the way we’re fulfilling our non secular obligations.”
Mr. Al-Saadi felt that Mr. Mogahed’s use of historic context and explanations of Quranic verses supplied perception into the broader dialogue on modesty and hijab.
“I feel she represented plenty of the issues that we Muslim girls really feel however do not know say,” Al-Saadi stated. “I really like that she stated what all of us actually thought.”
Aisha Amjad, a third-year pupil at Batten, was additionally impressed by Mogahed’s speech. She defined that Mogahed impressed her to attend the occasion, which deepened her understanding of the hijab she wears.
“Every time I scroll via Instagram, [Mogahed] So I used to be actually motivated to know what the that means behind what I put on on my head day by day really is,” Amjad stated.
Students have been additionally invited to view a small show of instructional posters with details about hijab. The exhibit featured details about the origins of World Hijab Day, why Muslim girls select to put on the hijab, and the areas of the world the place girls’s rights to put on the hijab are beneath menace.
The occasion attracted many guests to help family and friends and study in regards to the significance of hijab. Kendall Scherer, a fourth-year pupil within the College of Education, attended the occasion on the urging of her pals, making new friendships and deepening her understanding of the hijab.
“Before this occasion, I clearly knew in regards to the hijab, however I did not know a lot about it,” Scherer stated. “The most attention-grabbing factor for me was listening to the way you disguise your magnificence so that folks see you for who you’re, not simply your bodily options. . I by no means considered it that approach, however it makes plenty of sense to me.”
McIntire College junior Yusuf Mustafa additionally appreciated how World Hijab Day introduced the neighborhood collectively. He stated he was motivated to take part within the occasion due to his hijabi households and liked seeing the neighborhood come collectively to help the trigger.
“It makes me very completely happy to see non-Muslims come to our occasions desirous to study extra about hijab,” Mustafa stated. “I feel this can be a nice signal of progress. It permits us to develop as a neighborhood and study one another’s cultures.”
According to Chanda, the hijab is greater than only a non secular image; it’s a central a part of her id, representing confidence and wonder. Although it might be tough to search out somebody carrying a hijab at college or work, occasions like this help hijab college students and encourage non-Muslims to study the significance of the scarf. she acknowledged.
“[The hijab] It is a supply of energy and a supply of satisfaction for me to have the ability to share my id with the world,” Chanda stated. “This has resulted in plenty of nice conversations with Muslims, however extra importantly, non-Muslims have come as much as me and struck up a dialog and even smiled.”