Hijab Stories

Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu everyone!

So I was just reading LK's latest blog post (wheelsamsara.blogspot.com) about hijab, and she asked if anyone had any peculiar/funny/interesting stories about wearing hijab. Alhamdulillah, I am very happy to say that I have never had any discriminatory or bigoted attacks against me for wearing hijab (no cries of "Terrorist!" or "Go back to your country!"). I know this does happen to some people, and I was quite honestly expecting it to happen to me. Perhaps I haven't had this because I live in Boston, a very diverse, collegiate city with many young, open-minded people. The college that I go to is also quite open to diversity and everyone gets along well, Alhamdulillah. Nevertheless, I do have a couple stories to tell. :)

One of the biggest things I've noticed is that I have been approached by a lot more beggars since observing hijab. I'm thinking this may be because people see that I'm religious and therefore more likely to "have pity" on them or to give out charity. I know that if I were begging I would be more likely to ask someone who looked religious. I was visiting Rachel at her school a few months ago, and as we were walking to a restaurant a man and woman came up to me. The man said salaam to me and started talking to me about Islam, and then he asked for money so he could buy food. I don't mind helping out people who ask, but I am very wary about just giving people money since I don't know what they'll do with it. I told him that I would go and buy him some food, and he said he wanted to go to a pizza shop down the street. As we were walking, he saw another, more expensive deli and said he wanted to go there, so we went into the deli and ordered his food. At this point I was getting really creeped out and just wanted to leave, but the owner of the deli was being very slow and rude. The man and woman started yelling at him, and I was urging the owner to hurry up and let me pay so we could leave. I threw the money at him (paying more than I wanted to), and dashed out. Later I realized that the guy had ordered a sandwich with bacon on it. :P

When I was in New York City, I had two people come up to me, both professing to be Muslim. One was an older woman who was crying out in pain saying that she needed medicine for her ulcers. Again, I didn't want to just give her money, so I walked to a Walgreens with her and picked out the medicine with her to make sure she was actually getting ulcer medicine. The lady was actually very nice, Masha'Allah, and I think she was genuinely in need of help, so I didn't feel taken advantage of afterward. Later that day, some really creepy guy came up to me (supposedly a Muslim) and asked me to deliver a message to someone at a bar. I said absolutely not, but he kept talking to me for about 20 minutes about I don't even remember what (some of it involved a murder of a kid). I said I couldn't help him except by making du'a, and then practically ran away from him after he was done talking. I think he was mentally ill or some kind of addict, may ALLAH help him, heal him, and grant him peace of mind.

On a Friday afternoon in Boston, I was walking around the area near the masjid after jummah. I had a container of grilled chicken and rice with me, so I sat down at a busy bus stop to eat. An old woman came up to me and said she was starving and if I would give her money; I offered her my food instead, and she ate it. She then started talking to me about her life, including how she could barely pay rent and a discussion on barbecued ribs and sauces. Then she started asking me about Islam and went right into the questions of whether I was married, why men can have multiple wives, and wasn't I burning up in my hijab and jilbab. I answered the best I can, and also told her to stop by the masjid sometime if she wanted to, and also about the cafe in the masjid that makes (delicious) sandwiches, and even if you don't have money you can still get one. I think she might have also been mentally ill or an addict; she seemed to suffer from memory loss (I had to repeat myself numerous times) and had some anger issues (she yelled at people who walked by).

I have had several people inquire as to what my religion is when I wear hijab. I was wearing a thigh-length, navy blue khimar one day and a few people asked if I was a nun; one thought I was Greek Orthodox (never heard that one before). One day at my school I was wearing a long black skirt and a black maghneh (an Iranian style hijab similar to an al-Amira), and as I walked past the Catholic chaplain's office (a lovely woman who is also a nun) she said, "Man, you look like a nun!"

Another day, I was walking in the neighborhood of the masjid, which is pretty run-down and ghetto. On my way to a bookstore, I passed one man, a total stranger, who smiled and said "Assalaamu alaikum sister". That just made me feel really good, knowing that even though we were strangers we were still bound together through our faith. Later, I passed by another man, who actually stopped walking and BOWED to me, and told me never to change. I don't have an explanation for that one.

At the airport on my way to the Virgin Islands with Rachel, I ducked into the bathroom to put on my hijab and jilbab after my parents dropped us off. We then went through security, and, lo and behold, I was "randomly selected" to get extra screening. It was kind of funny, actually; I almost took it as a "rite of passage" into the world of hijabis. :) There are not many Muslims in the Virgin Islands, and I think I only saw one other hijabi the entire time I was there. A lot of the local people stopped to ask me questions about my faith. A taxi driver asked if I was Jewish, and I told him I was Muslim. He then asked if I believed in the Messiah, and I said yes, I believe that Jesus (as) was a prophet and will return to Earth again one day. The Virgin Islands is very strongly Christian, and the main question people asked of me was what I thought about Jesus (as). I think they were glad (and maybe relieved?) to know that I believe in him and that he will come again to the world. On the beach, one woman asked me a lot of questions about Islam, including "So is Islam a good religion?" All I did was smile and say something like, "Yes, I love it."

All in the day in the life of a hijabi. :)