Guess what day IT IS! Huh? Anybody?
That’s right. It’s World Hijab Day.
Sort of like Christmas and Thanksgiving rolled into one for lovers of Muslim head coverings, World Hijab Day offers a formalized opportunity to proselytize about veils.
The World Hijab Day website offers a wealth of information about this festive day. The plan is for women who don’t wear Islamic headscarves to step into “the shoes of a hijabi for one day,” thus fostering “awareness of what the hijab is about.”
The site strongly emphasizes — with CAPITAL LETTERS EVEN — that some women — only some, of course — “do CHOOSE to wear it, that a hijab is not automatically an indication that a woman is being oppressed.”
The “Q & A” page provides additional insight. As it explains, women — “sisters” – can participate by donning hijabs “wherever they might be on February 1st.”
You don’t need to be a Muslim to be a part of the fun. “This event is for women of all faiths.”
If you don’t own your very own hijab, don’t fret. “Grab your most favorite scarf and use it” instead.
The Daily Caller feels compelled to issue a word of warning here: Be careful out there in the modern, consumer-driven world with scarves and hijabs of all kinds. (RELATED: Montreal woman killed after scarf gets caught in escalator)
Participants can involve their “non-Hijabi/non-Muslim friends” by asking them to take part and even by spending “the whole day with them by educating and helping them put on the hijab.”
The run-up to this year’s World Hijab Day has only received a smattering of press coverage in the United States thus far.
The Salt Lake Tribune compares the event to “Mormon Pants Day” and notes that New York resident Nazma Khan founded the Hijab Day website says “as a means to foster religious tolerance and understanding.”
Khan’s Facebook page is subtitled “Stunning Hijab” and it is bursting with photos of — wait for it — hijabs.
Press coverage has been a bit more extensive in other countries.
For example, in Saudi Arabia (where every day is World Hijab Day), the Saudi Gazette features World Hijab Day in the form of a first-person account by a young woman in France who proudly wears her hijab against all odds.
“I remember when I was in school; my heart broke each day when I had to show my hair. I felt naked,” explained the author, Fatima. “I now study journalism in Paris. I am the only hijabi in my university. To get the same results as the others, I have to work two, three, and four times harder; finding internships and asking people for an interview, wearing the hijab.”
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