Her hair, her choice
“What is the
Rag you don
Upon your shiny, thick locks;
They are so beautiful left bare —
Why would you ever
Cover
Them up?”
“What is the reason
You follow such an
Oppressive
Religion? You don’t
Have any
Autonomy
Over your head or
Body;
Come here, let me show you
What it is to
Live freely — “
These are the words
Bestowed upon a student
Fighting to keep her hijab, against a teacher who wishes to remove it;
These are the things
A second-grade girl
Is singled out to hear
Among a crowd of her peers;
These are the ideas
Instilled in the youth — freedom isn’t freedom
Until it fits the western noose;
Freedom isn’t freedom
Until someone loses the right to choose;
Freedom isn’t freedom
Until it’s coerced —
Never mind that a
Child not even yet nine
Just wanted to
Wear something she liked;
It didn’t
Fit the bill
Of the average girl’s garb — so naturally
It could only be oppression
Or insecurity
That led her to put it on —
What kind of message
Does that little girl receive?
That her religious heritage is
Inferior to
Others’ views on
Who she should be?
It’s more than just clothes; it’s about what they represent
It’s about how a child’s choice
Riled up the teacher’s voice
Which detonated a stereotype—the very stereotype
Every Muslim woman wishes and prays
To avoid —
Muslim women aren’t helpless creatures just thrust across an Islamic void;
Muslim women aren’t sad or forced to keep quiet, modest poise;
Muslim women aren’t voiceless or broken or helpless porcelain toys
Muslim women have iron spines — of love, of fire, of fight
So fear the day that that little Muslim girl
Grows into a Muslim woman
And pity the one who tells her then
What she can wear or what she shouldn’t.
Last week, teacher Tamar Herman from Seth Boyden Elementary in Maplewood, NJ, forcibly removed a second-grade student’s hijab under the guise of “liberating” the little girl. The girl resisted, clearly wishing to keep her scarf atop her head. This teacher persisted, insisting that the girl uncover her hair because it was “so beautiful.” Herman told the girl she “didn’t have to wear her hijab to school anymore,” completely disregarding the possibility that perhaps the girl wanted to.
In a room full of highly impressionable children, Herman turned this girl into a spectacle of insecurity and oppression, leaving the child humiliated in her classroom by someone meant to nurture and protect all children therein.
This incident isn’t isolated; it affects multiple people. There’s the girl who was assaulted by a teacher, who may not recognize what occurred but feels scared nonetheless, yes, but there are also the girl’s peers, who may also adopt the views of the teacher and demonize the hijab.
The hijab is a spiritual choice embodied by a holy garment, but it is also just a piece of clothing. If one cannot agree with or refuses to understand its religious importance, that is that person’s prerogative. However, it is not allotted within said prerogative to dictate another’s wardrobe. This child probably didn’t know the deeper meaning of the hijab and wore it regardless. She fought to keep it on, even as Herman opposed her. She wanted to wear it. While the unfortunate truth is that in some parts of the world, women don’t have a choice and are forced to cover up, that wasn’t the case here, and it usually isn’t the case with women who don the hijab in the United States.
I am a proud American woman who wears the hijab. I, too, started from a young age, solely because I wanted to be like my mother. As I grew, I learned about the deeper importance of the hijab and chose to keep wearing it because of the way it tied me to my religion. Unfortunately, it also tied me to something else: Islamophobia. Lewd comments. Unkind gazes. Blatant stares. I’ve been fortunate that I never experienced the levels of animosity other women have, but knowing that it also happens to children splinters my soul. My initial reaction is always sadness, but it is immediately succeeded by anger, for how dare the western worldview turn us into broken dolls? How dare the Western worldview break us down, just to pat itself on the back for supposedly picking us up? How dare they demonize us? How dare the Western world bend over backwards to find an unflattering narrative to plaster onto the Muslim woman?
We Muslim women
Do not need to be saved
We Muslim women
Have fire in our veins.
We Muslim women
May turn the other cheek
But we Muslim women
Have never been known to be meek.
Whether it be undermined by an unfit American teacher or the whole of the French government, one truth will forever remain: Muslim girls will become Muslim women, and they will wear their hijabs. They will wear it for themselves, not because they are insecure about their hair or their bodies, but because the hijab makes them feel beautiful—because the hijab is a part of who they are. To an onlooker it may just be a piece of cloth. It may represent a terrorist’s garb. It may represent oppression. But to the Muslim woman it is pride. It is joy. It symbolizes the spirit and strength of Islam. It isn’t something any Muslim should feel obligated to justify.
~ Maaheen Shaikh `25
