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Behind the Veil: The Intersection of Religion, Politics, and Culture
October 13, 2017
Where does the hijab fit into the fabric of our daily lives as Muslims in the U.S.? This is a question that Muslims, non-Muslims, governments, and everyone in between seem to have an answer to.
This is a recording of Yaqeen's first LIVE webinar, "Behind the Veil: The Intersection of Religion, Politics, and Culture", originally aired on October 12, 2017. Featuring Amina Darwish, Hosai Mojaddidi, Ieasha Prime, Dalia Mogahed, and moderated by Yaqeen Institute Fellows Nour Soubani and Tesneem Alkiek.
Transcript
This transcript was auto-generated using AI and may contain misspellings. Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh everyone. Jazakumullah khair for tuning into Yaqeen Institute's first ever webinar. My name is Noor Sulwani. I'm a research fellow at Yaqeen and your moderator for today. Historically, hijab has often been a problem. From the colonial era to a Muslim woman swimming in hijab just last summer on a beach in France, hijab seems to represent a problem, an unknown, a symbol of otherness that should be removed. In the US and globally, the recent resurgence of white supremacist groups has come with an increase in xenophobia and islamophobia, which is often most easily directed at Muslim women wearing hijab. Even internally, within our Muslim communities, there is often confusion about hijab. Is it cultural? Is it political? Is it religious? What does it mean to be a Muslim woman wearing hijab today? And how is that different from the past? Ironically, these questions have been answered, not always by Muslim women themselves, but by those who claim to speak for them. Our webinar today will cover four specific and overarching themes. Number one, what are the foundations for hijab in Islam? What are the spiritual and mental health challenges that come with wearing hijab in today's context? Number three, how can we understand hijab today in a broader context of social justice issues? How does it relate to issues of citizenship, gender, race and religion? And number four, how can we begin to reclaim the narrative on hijab? Our four speakers, who are experts in their respective fields, will provide insights on these questions
and also establish a space created for Muslim women by Muslim women to share our experiences, questions and concerns. We've also been asked about the title for this webinar, and you may have wondered yourself, why behind the veil? Hasn't the phrase behind the veil been used in colonial and orientalist contexts to symbolize the objectification of Muslim women through their unveiling? But here we aim to reclaim this narrative on what hijab represents and move beyond hijab as a physical symbol that others see to uplift the voices of Muslim women who wear it. The flow of this webinar is simple. Each speaker will have 10 to 15 minutes to share their thoughts, and we'll follow that up with a Q&A session at the end. Now, remember, these questions will be coming from you, the audience. Please use the chat box to the right of this video to ask questions throughout the webinar. You'll need to sign into YouTube to be able to ask questions through the chat box. Also, you'll notice an info icon at the top right of the video. Please click on it, support Yaqeen, and answer the polling questions as we go through the webinar. Finally, this webinar will be recorded and available on our website at yaqeeninstitute.org, inshallah, for those of you who missed it or want to come back and review it later. Now, before I move on to introduce our first speaker, I want to also thank Dr. Saad Abdel-Khabir. Dr. Saad had planned to join us on this panel but couldn't make it due to family matters. We request that everyone please keep her in your du'as. Now, without further ado, I have the honor of introducing our first speaker. Sister Amina Darwish has received her ijazah certification from the Qalam Seminary under the guidance of Sheikh Abdullah Sajjanga. She is the Muslim chaplain at the University of Cincinnati.
She has a PhD in chemical engineering, and she is also the founder and CEO of Mercy in Action. Our question for you, Sister Amina, is what are the foundations for hijab in Islam? Assalamu alaikum. Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. As-salatu wasalamu ala'l-mursaleen wa-bashrahil sadri wa-sirri amri wa-hla laghdatan min lisani wa-afqahu qawli. SubhanAllah, probably my question is on some level the simplest because we get to go back to sources and I don't have to answer in my opinion at all. But subhanAllah, it's also one of the heaviest because of a lot of spiritual abuse that is associated with hijab and a lot of misinformation there is about hijab. So first and foremost, we have to define the term. The word hijab, there's a linguistic meaning, and for every word in Islam, we have a linguistic meaning and a technical meaning. For example, salah literally means a connection that we have with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, but in terms of our practice, it is very set number of raka'at during certain parts of the day, etc. So there is the linguistic meaning and there is the technical meaning in terms of Islam. So for hijab, there is a lot of discussion about what the word itself means linguistically. And probably the word that I wanted to reflect on in terms of its linguistic meaning, so your eyebrow in Arabic is called a hajab. And the reason it's called a hajab is not because it's actually talking about an eyebrow, but because of the bone right underneath it, which is your eye socket. Your eye socket is there that fits exactly around your eye, protects it, and allows you the ability to see. So subhanAllah, in the same way, a lot of the words of hijab can come from that, of it gives you the ability and the space to be who you are and hopefully be able to see and see inwards. So in its essence, hijab is an act of worship. It's a ibadah. And this is Imam al-Razi, rahimahullah, he writes in his tafsir about the ayah in surat al-nur, he says that hijab is an act of worship and lowering your gaze is a mu'amala,
which is a social contract. And those two things are fundamentally different in how we view them in fiqh. Anything that is an act of worship has to be determined from Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, and we're not, basically it's a very set structure. Whereas mu'amala, there's a lot more space, so a financial contract would be a mu'amala, salah, or any other traditional act of worship of how we understand it as a ibadah. So I wanted to hopefully delve into that ayah for a little bit. In surat al-nur, ayah 30, it says, قُل للمؤمنين يغضوا من أبصارهم that first, the ayah 30 is actually addressing, it could either address the men, or it can address the generality of believers. And this is kind of how the Arabic language works, where the male plural can specifically mean men, or it can mean a generality of all believers. And traditionally speaking, it means the generality of believers, unless otherwise specified. So first the believers are asked to lower their gaze and protect themselves from sexual desire, and that ayah stands on its own. The next ayah is specific to the believing women, because the way the Arabic language works is if it's directed to the female plural, then it's directed to women and the females in the plural. And then the next ayah says, قُل للمؤمنات And again it repeats, يغضوطن من أبصارهن that they lower their gazes, وإحفظن فروجهن and they protect themselves from sexual desire, and then the rest of the verse continues, and this is the point where it actually starts talking about hijab. And it's what it's saying, and again we're going back to the term, so the Arabic ayah is talking about the khimar, which was traditionally something that you used to cover your head, and they were asking the women at the time to use the khimar to cover their chest area. And this is how we get a lot of the interpretations of what does hijab look like, what does khimar look like, and really there's subhanAllah there's a fallacy about our fiqh, that when we study the Hanafi madhhab or the Maliki madhhab,
that we're studying the opinion of Imam Malik. We're not. We're not studying the opinion of Imam Abu Hanifa. Their opinions exist in the madhhab as do thousands of scholars throughout the history of the entire madhhab, but at the end of the day, even Imam Abu Hanifa and Imam Malik, and Imam Shafri and Imam Ahmed ibn Hanbal, their jobs was to compile what it means to do the specific act of worship. It wasn't their own opinions, and they each have their train that goes back to a specific sahabi that we learn something from the Prophet ﷺ, and their specific sahaba that were highly influential in each of the madhhab. But for the vast majority of women's issues, a lot of it comes through Aisha radiAllahu anha, and it comes from the women, the muhajirat, the women that did hijrah, and the women of the ansar. So a lot of our interpretations of how we understand what the ayah means still fundamentally goes back to that original community of the Prophet ﷺ, and how the women there interpreted it, and not necessarily something, we were not allowed to self-impose our own opinions of specific words, especially on matters of fiqh. So the reason the women are specifically specified about this, and I'm sure that this is something that hopefully the other speakers will also touch on, the objectification of women is very oppressive to women. More than 90% of sexualized media is obsessed with the female form, and the objectification of women is taking women down from their human form, where their job and their presence on earth is like the men, and like the jinn, is to worship Allah ﷻ. And Abdullah ibn Abbas radiAllahu anha, when he talks about the ayah that we all know, that it says, وَمَا خَلَقْتُ الْجِنَّ وَالْإِنسَ إِلَّا الَّذِي عَبُوذُونَ This is in Surat al-Dhariyat, he's saying that worship in this word, in this ayah, means to know Allah ﷻ. So every act of worship is supposed to bring us closer to our relationship with Allah ﷻ.
And if we as women, I'm not talking about men, I'm talking about us as women, how we view ourselves physically has a huge impact on ourselves and our interactions in society. And in the same way that sexualized media is telling, communicating something to men, it's also communicating to women that this is what you're supposed to aspire to be. Like our highest aspirations in life are to fit a specific form, which is wholly just so insulting to our humanity and to who we are as believers, subhanAllah. We don't exist on earth to fit a specific form. And unfortunately, I think the study said that 10 million women and 1 million men in America struggle with eating disorders. And it's because we're still trying to fit a mold that is not specific to us. And this is just one example, there's countless examples of women that use bleaching creams. These are women across the world that will put chemicals and harm themselves physically to try to fit a beauty standard that wasn't even theirs in the first place. And subhanAllah, so this is our act of worship to hopefully liberate us and remind us that we are far more important inside than we are outside. And this is, I think, something that is important for all of us to remember. There's a hadith, there's two hadith that I wanted to touch on that specifically mention this. The first one is from Abi Huraira radiyaAllahu anhu. He says, إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَنظُرْ إِلَىٰ سُورِكُمْ وَأَمْوَالِكُمْ وَلَكَنْ يَنظُرْ إِلَىٰ قُلُوبِكُمْ وَأَعْمَالِكُمْ Allah does not look at your images or your outer appearances or your money. And in fact, He looks at your hearts and your deeds. And there's another hadith, and this is probably one of my favorite. We have a women's halaqa here. And we were going through the 99 names of Allah. And one of the names of Allah that we were talking about is al-Musawwir. And we always share our experiences.
And subhanAllah, we have such a diverse group of ages, ethnicities, backgrounds. These women come from every single thing that you can imagine. And we had this extensive conversation about beauty standards and how they have such a huge impact on us as women. And subhanAllah, the major takeaway that we had from that was this hadith of the Prophet ﷺ that is actually narrated by Aisha radiyaAllahu anhu. And she said that every time he was in front of a mirror, he would say, Allahumma ahsan ta khalqi fa ahsan khuluqi. That, Ya Allah, You've beautified my outer. You've beautified my inner. And built into that hadith is already an acceptance that because Allah subhanAllah has created us, then it is already fundamentally beautiful. SubhanAllah. So part of our reclamation of our act of worship that is specific to women is remembering that our act of worship brings us closer to Allah subhanAllah by realizing our true purpose of being on earth. May Allah allow us to do that. SubhanAllah. This is something that within the madhab, all four madhab agree, all four Sunni madhab, forgive me, I don't actually, I don't know the Shia madhab. But within the four Sunni madhab, it is a mandatory act of worship. And because it is a mandatory act of worship, we're part of a timeless tradition. We're not allowed to change the rules even if we're not allowed to do them. Even if we're not able to do them. So subhanAllah there are a few things that are legitimate concerns. For example, if you genuinely fear for your safety, you have to listen to your intuition. I remember we had a, it was a self-defense class that we did at the masjid. And we had a woman that was a cop and she said never was a woman attacked except that she sensed it before. We have to learn to trust our intuition and this is why our spiritual development as women is so important because we have to be able to distinguish in our intuition whether we're acting out of fear, whether we're acting out of something, a true danger that's coming,
or whether we're acting because something is necessarily going to feed our nafs and we want to just, we don't want to do this. And ultimately these are answers that we have to have in front of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. So that's one thing. Another issue that people might have is fearing a loss of income. And it's very easy for someone to say, tell a single mother, hey, you know what, stand up for your religion anyway. It's not fair for us to make that judgment. Ultimately this is her act of worship and she's going to have to answer to Allah for it. You do the best that you humanly possibly can. If you are able to find another job, alhamdulillah, if you are not able to find another job and you have people that are depending on you, then again, this is part of your relationship with Allah. And the reason I bring this up, so there's an ayah in the Quran that is talking about, it was talking about food. And at the end of the ayah it says, فَمَنِ الطُّرَّ غَيْرَ بَاغٍ وَلَا عَادٍ فَلَا إِثْمَ عَلَيْهِ Despite all of these foods being haram, if you have no other option, if you're in the middle of the desert and you're going to die, eat the pork. And this is what the ayah is saying. But the ayah still specifies that you're not allowed to go overboard. So even if we can't wear the hijab as it is prescribed by Allah Subhanahu wa Ta'ala for whatever reasons, we still have to observe some amount of modesty. And because it's an act of, subhanAllah, how much more time do I have? Okay, I can't hear you, so I'm just going to keep talking until you're done. You have a few more minutes, go ahead. Alhamdulillah. So hijab is interesting because it is like fasting, for example. It's a state that you're in, which means that just because it has a physical presence, doesn't mean that we in any way, shape, or form can disregard the spiritual presence and the metaphysical realities that are happening with us wearing hijab, subhanAllah. So there are societal benefits to it.
For example, if you pray on time, you might become more punctual in your life, which is great, but that's not the point of praying on time. And in the same way that us, if poverty ended in the world, we would still fast, because there are still spiritual benefits to it. And if we can't do the fast exactly the way that it is, we still do the best that we humanly possibly can. There's another thing that I wanted to touch on, and this is, I feel like because it's now hijab is the image of the Muslim woman, that a lot of women that are told that if you don't wear hijab, that we're going to wholly dismiss you as a Muslim woman. That's spiritual abuse, and that's very problematic, because one act of worship does not change another act of worship. If you pray dhuhr, that doesn't exempt you from asr, and if you don't pray dhuhr, it doesn't make asr any less mandatory. So just because someone is, we do not know what people are going through, we're not allowed to make judgments about people and their Islam based on whether they're wearing hijab or not. May Allah protect us all. It's a very visible act of worship, and it's very difficult, which makes it interesting. But it also makes it difficult because people think that they are allowed to have all of these opinions about it. And just the last thing that I wanted to talk about, which really, really bothers me. There are these memes on the internet of like a woman, like a covered lollipop or an uncovered lollipop. Women are not lollipops. Women are not objects. And it's just the same objectification of women with this religious veneer. That's spiritual abuse, and that's not something anyone is allowed to do. Alhamdulillah, I'm very, very grateful for this webinar. I'm honored to be part of this. And there are other ayat, and there's so much to talk about, but alhamdulillah, I'm really honored to be part of the company of the women that inshaAllah you will get to talk about because of just the identity
that happens with hijab. May Allah allow us all to live out our hijab and live out modesty in the best way we humanly possibly can. Jazakumullah khairan. I apologize for the event in the background. Jazakumullah khairan, sister Amina. Thank you so much for your insights. Before we move to the next speaker, I just want to remind everyone to continue to asking questions in the chat box on the right. You'll have to be signed in to YouTube to do that, and also to click the info button on the top right of the video to please support Yakhleen, and do that by clicking the info button. Also, we have polling questions going on throughout the webinar. Like I said in the beginning, we really want this to be interactive. We want our audience to be engaged and to try and get some information about who are the people watching and engaging in this discussion. Please do answer the polling questions. And finally, I just want to make a note, our speakers are from around the country. We've actually gotten emails and messages from people tuning in from around the world, from Italy, from London, from places all over the U.S. So I want to ask our audience to please go ahead and message us wherever you're watching on Facebook or YouTube. Let us know where you're tuning in from so we can see that there are people from all over the world watching this webinar and engaging in this really important discussion. So now I'd like to move on to our next speaker. Sister Hussain Mujaddidi is the co-founder of the website MentalHealthForMuslims.com, and she currently holds monthly self-development and spiritual wellness classes for Muslim women at Taitlif Collective in Fremont, California. She has served the American Muslim community for over 20 years as a spiritual advisor,
mental health advocate, a writer and an editor, a mediator, an interfaith organizer, and a public speaker. So our question for you tonight, Sister Hussain, is what are the spiritual and mental health challenges and opportunities that come with wearing hijab in today's context? Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim. I want to first thank the organizers for inviting me to be a part of such an incredible panel of talented women to discuss this very important topic, and to also thank all of the viewers from all around the world who are tuning in right now. Alhamdulillah, I'm very honored to be a part of this. As we all know too well, when it comes to representation in the media, our community isn't always presented fairly or honestly. In fact, a study that was done earlier this year by the students from Georgia State University concluded that alleged crimes perpetrated by Muslims received on average 449% more coverage than attacks by other groups. So it goes without saying that when there's such a disproportionate amount of negative media coverage about Islam and Muslims, the most visibly Muslim members of the community, which are often women in hijab, are vulnerable and likely to be discriminated against and even targeted. So this obviously presents a major problem, right? For Muslim women who ardently love their faith and they want to identify as practicing Muslims, they have to reconcile this desire with wearing the hijab, and also having very legitimate fears of being attacked, and just having to deal with the constant pressures that come
with having a target on your back every day. So no doubt there are spiritual and mental health implications for many Muslim women in this position. Many times they can be overwhelmed with feelings of guilt and inadequacy for even having fear and anxiety in the first place, doubting the strength of one's faith because they have these thoughts. There are obviously spiritual issues that they might deal with. And then fear, right? Anxiety, just really dealing with those feelings. And then depression. So how can we overcome these things? I have three different things that I want to focus on. First, we have to accept that times are absolutely tough. And whatever fluctuations that we may have in our faith are actually very normal, and they're not necessarily because there's something wrong with us. It's just that we are living in really, really complex times. And we were warned that things would get difficult. The Prophet ﷺ told us that there will come upon the people a time when holding on to the religion will be like holding hot coal. So again, if we look at the world today, it's increasingly becoming more challenging to be a person of faith. Not just a Muslim, but people of faith are having a challenge because there's this intellectual war against religion in general. But in addition to that, there's also uncertainty and fear around us everywhere. There's political and civil unrest. There's the threat of domestic and foreign terrorism. There's blatant now discrimination and racism. It's just becoming more and more widespread every day. We have serious economic and health problems. We have opioid addictions sweeping across many states. Suicides are on the rise. Natural disasters. I mean, we've seen it all, especially just in recent years.
So it's no surprise that people are having all these anxiety issues and just fears. And again, what we're describing just here in our own, you know, in the States. But if you look globally, beyond that, there's famine, there's genocide and war and so many other horrible, atrocious things happening in our world today. So the world is just a complex place and people are scared. And Muslims, of course, we're like everybody else. We're going to have to deal with the fact that, you know, we're just living in really difficult times. But we also have been given hope. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la tells us not to capitulate to external or internal fears. In one verse in the Qur'an, He says, and whoever fears Allah, He will make a way for him or her to get out from every difficulty. And He will provide him or her from sources he could never imagine. So you know, the relief will come from places we wouldn't even expect. And this is a promise of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And then of course, we know the verse of, Verily with every difficulty there is relief. Verily with every difficulty there is relief. So we have to have hope. So the first thing is, accept that times are difficult, don't lose hope. The second thing we have to remember is the powerful reminders throughout the Qur'an about how to cope with the difficulties in the world. Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, and hold fast together by the rope of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la and be not divided among yourselves. And remember with gratitude God's favor on you. So just in this one verse alone, we have three very clear directives. One, hold on to our faith, even if times are difficult, even if that coal is burning hot, hold on, try your best to hold on. Hold on to the jama'a, right, to have unity and avoid division. And I think now more than ever, we need to hear and reflect on these messages of unity.
And then to be grateful, to constantly remember the blessings of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. The Prophet ﷺ said in a hadith in Sahih Muslim, he said, Verily Allah, the Exalted, is pleased with you by three things and displeased by three things. He is pleased for you to worship him without associating anything with him, to hold fast to the rope of Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la together and to not become divided. And he's displeased for you to gossip among yourselves, to ask many unnecessary questions and to waste your wealth. And these, you know, these, the first two and this last part of what displeases Allah is very important for us, especially now again with just the controversies that we've seen on social media to really reflect on, to not contribute to gossip, to, you know, any type of fitna and asking unnecessary questions to pry into things that are none of our business. These are reminders for us in this day and age to take seriously and again to stick together. Because if we're, if we really think about that, it's a lot easier, right, to hold on this analogy of the hot coal. It's going to be a lot easier for us to hold on to it if we're all sharing the burden of holding on to it, right? It's kind of like, you know, a game of hot potato I guess you could say, where, you know, we've all played it before. If I have to hold on to it for too long, it's hot. But if I know I can rely on my brother or sister to help me when it gets too hot for me, then we can continue, you know, and rely on each other. And that's what we need. So as women in hijab, we have to remember we're absolutely, I mean, all Muslims, not just women, but because we're talking about this particular group, we're fortified when we lean on our fellow Muslims, brothers and sisters, but especially our other Muslim sisters, whether they wear hijab or not, for us to get together regularly and to really create those spaces for us to talk to each other and to share our experiences, to get strength when we're feeling weak is so important.
And this is one of the most things that I'm very passionate about, about encouraging women to try to get together as often as they can. And I always hear from sisters that it's difficult, you know, that they feel intimidated to start circles of study or even just to get together to have halaqas or, you know, just discussion groups because they feel that they have to be qualified to do that. But I really want to stress that that's not true. We don't need that. You can absolutely get together and with other people, with other, you know, community members, however small or big you want to do it, and just reflect on the beautiful teachings of our faith. You don't need to be a scholar to do that. Of course, if there's issues that come up and they're complex and they require more expertise, then you can always defer to those people in your community. But just to have gatherings in the first place does not require a scholar or someone, you know, really just advanced learning to do it. So I really encourage you, if you feel like you're struggling with whatever it is in your life wearing hijab or practicing your faith in general, to really consider starting something up and to take that initiative and not to be intimidated by that. Because we can never underestimate the power of the jama'at we add. This deen, the entire faith is based on jama'at. We need each other and we need to lean on each other in times of, you know, tribulation and in times where we're tested. The last piece of advice I'm going to give actually has to do with really focusing on the spiritual giants of our tradition and there are just so many amazing women that we can learn from. But I wanted to really just focus on one in particular and that is Maryam alayhi salam, the mother of Isa alayhi salam. She was an absolute force of strength and high iman and a fortress. Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, refers to her in the Quran as the one who guarded her
chastity and the word for guarded, ahsanat, has the same root word in Arabic as fortress, which is hassan. And when I say fortress, I'm not just talking about modesty and chastity here. Because you know, we know that Maryam alayhi salam, this is what she's often, you know, we usually refer to her modesty and her chastity. But I'm actually talking about the fact that she was so strong and she stood tall. She had command and she did whatever she needed to do to protect herself. Her story I think is one of the most inspiring stories throughout the Quran because what happened to her, I mean subhanAllah, the fact, again if you focus on what happened to her, a story where the Quran sort of just, you know, picks up, that's one part of her story. But before she was even born is such an incredible part of her story because it really gives us hope as women. Her mother for example, again just relating the story, her mother saw one day before she had Mary, before she was expecting her, she saw a bird, a mother bird with her chicks. And this just inspired this deep yearning for a child. So she made a very very sincere dua and she asked Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala to bless her with a child and that she would devote that child to the service of Allah. So Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, he accepted her dua, mashaAllah. And when she found out that she was expecting, she said, my Lord indeed I have pledged to you what is in my womb, consecrated for your service. So accept this from me. Indeed, you are the hearing, the knowing. So this for me was like subhanAllah, how many of us who are mothers, did we make such a dua before we were expecting? And I always find that accepted anyway, but it's such a beautiful intention, right, that your child is really, you want it not just to have a child for the sake of having one, but really for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. Such a beautiful dua.
Now what's even more amazing about this dua is that, and something that we as women should be especially focused on, is that at that time it was customary, more customary, for boys to obviously be in the service of the masjid or of Allah. And it wasn't really something that girls did. And so when Hannah made this dua, she was expecting that she would be blessed with a boy. But Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala of course, knowing her intention, knowing her dua, did not bless her with a boy, he blessed her with a daughter. And even she was stunned when she delivered and she said, my Lord, I have delivered a female. And this is in the Quran and Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala says, and Allah was most knowing of what she delivered. And the male is not like the female. And then she says, and I have named her Mary and I seek refuge for her in you from shaitan, the expelled. So again, this beautiful, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala gave her something that she wasn't expecting, but why? There's wisdom in that for us as women to reflect on. Why? Because Mary turns out to be not just your average girl. She's not someone who, I mean her story, mashallah, again, when you really think about it and how much she's beloved in the world, we're not just talking about our tradition. In my estimation, I think she's probably the most beloved female in the entire world from every corner of the world in every language, people praise her, they turn to her. So she's not your ordinary girl, but what happened to her? Again, from a very early age, there were signs there. Her father passed away before she was born. So her mother decided to send her to her sister's house. Why? Because her sister was married to Prophet Zakariya. So again, subhanallah, how amazing that she was going to have this life of being basically
under the tutelage of a prophet and to live essentially in the masjid. Now when she got there and she started, she was obviously growing up in this environment, she didn't just sit back and just kind of assume that she had it made and she didn't really need to do much for herself. No, she actually went beyond and requested a separate chamber in the masjid for herself. So this is again, just a beautiful, for me, very inspiring part of her story because it tells me that she took initiative and said, yes, even though I'm here, I'm in the masjid, I'm in the service of the community and of her uncle and everybody else who was around her, the adults in her life, she also really wanted a very private relationship with Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And that's what her chambers were for. It was a time for her to go inward, to reflect on Allah. And I think a lot of times as women, we tend to always be doing for everybody else around us, whether it's our parents or our children, our spouses or our community. We don't really take that time to really look inward and say, this is my path. And especially when it comes to hijab, I really want to encourage all the sisters out there never to let anybody interfere with this part of your, this is part of your path. This is part of what you do for the sake of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And nobody has a claim on it. Nobody has a right to tell you how to do it or what to do. You have to take ownership of that and really claim that for yourself. And so this is what she did. She had her own quarters. And another incredible thing that we can learn from her story is that she was so inspiring to the people around her, again, before her real story that we know of begins, we're talking about before that. But Prophet Zakariya, for example, he would witness her and he just became so enamored by her spirituality and her love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala because he witnessed her always praying and being in the secluded state with Allah that he actually felt inspired
by her strength and her high iman to make dua for a child of his own. And so Prophet Yahya alayhi salam is actually the result of that dua. But he made that dua by witnessing the beautiful, again, just display of love of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala that Mary displayed. So this again is encouragement for all of us sisters out there that we can stand on our own, that we have to really just accept that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala created us and we have our direct path to him and we don't need to always measure ourselves up to anybody else. And so another quick story and then I'll wrap it up here is one time when Prophet Zakariya he entered the chamber and he found Mary worshipping, he also noticed something remarkable that he was stunned by. He looked around the room and he saw plates of fruit that were out of season and he just was astonished like, you know, what is this? So he asked her, oh Maryam, from where have you gotten this? And she said, this is from Allah, verily Allah provides sustenance to whom he wills without limit. And so I want again to just stress this is a verse that we really have to take from her strength without limit. Whatever concerns and worries and fears that you may have out there, and this is the message to anybody who's watching, but especially my dear sisters, that the fruits of your labor, the efforts that you're putting in every single day, day in and day out, inshallah, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala has a reward ready for you. And they will come, the fruits again will come without limit inshallah. So just hold on, you know, in summary just remember, accept that circumstances are difficult right now and don't lose hope. Hold on to your faith no matter how difficult it becomes by leaning on your community, by
leaning on the jama'a, and be grateful constantly for the blessings of Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala. And then look to these icons of strength and resilience like Mary and all the other incredible women of our history and see how they dealt with the different challenges they faced. And remember that they were human just like you, but they were able to rise above whatever difficulties they had by again having that real, just that identity of strength and knowing that they were created by Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala with intention. We were all created with a beautiful intention, we have to own that intention. So alhamdulillah, jazakumullah khayran again to all of the organizers and to all of you who are watching. May Allah bless all of my fellow panelists for all of your efforts and I'm looking forward to hearing the rest of the talks inshallah. Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh. Wa alaikum assalam. Thank you so much sister Hussain, jazakumullah khayran for your inspirational and motivational words. Before we introduce the next speaker, I just want to remind everyone again, please do continue to ask questions in the chat box on YouTube or Facebook or wherever you're watching. We are collecting these questions, we have a team behind the scenes collecting all the questions and we'll be answering them at the end during the Q&A session. And if you're watching this and sharing on social media, I want to encourage you to please use the hashtag behind the veil so people can follow along. So on to our third speaker, sister Aisha Prime, converted to Islam more than 20 years ago. She has extensively studied aqidah, Quran, Arabic, hadith, fiqh, Islamic law, and purification of the heart, and is an educator, activist, public speaker, educational consultant, and fashion designer. Sister Aisha is the founder of the non-profit organization Sisterhood in Action and is the
executive director of Barakah Inc. empowering women and youth with the foundation of Islam. Sister Aisha. Assalamu alaikum. Wa alaikum assalam. Go ahead. Alhamdulillah. So the question I was asked was about the intersection of hijab and social, the intersection of hijab, race, and social justice. And I want to, you know, it's interesting, as I listen to all of the speakers talk about, of course, the root word, the root words in the Quran that are related to hijab and the experiences that women are having, you know, I begin to, of course, reflect on my own personal story. So I would like to start there. As a teenager, I converted to Islam. As a result of being a youth ambassador, and I remember the first time, subhanAllah, that someone explained to me about hijab. And it was something that was for me personally so empowering that I wanted to be a part of that. But even more importantly, I remember I got into it this one particular day. I had a job interview, like most women. So I decided, you know, this day I'm a new convert. I'm not sure how it will be perceived. So this day I actually won't wear hijab and, you know, go to this job interview. So as I got into the taxi, I, you know, read the taxi driver's name. His name was Mohammed something. And so I said to him, salamu alaikum. And he looked in the rearview mirror at me and he didn't respond. And I remember thinking, I said it again, salamu alaikum. Looked in the rearview mirror and didn't respond. So I said it the third time. Finally, he said, are you a Muslim?
And I remember I became less concerned with whatever his opinion or whatever moment he was experiencing, and more concerned with I never wanted to be that person where someone was actually questioning my identity, where I wanted it to be known that I was a Muslim and I didn't want that to ever be in doubt. Right. And so as I think about particularly in Surat Al-Ahzab, for example, I wanted to talk about this for a minute, where Allah tells us, hawdhu billahi minash shaitanir rajim, bismillahir rahmanir rahim. That, oh, prophet, tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to bring down their garments over them. That is more suitable that they will be known and not be abused. And Allah is forever forgiving and merciful. I want to talk about that because the particular part of this ayat I want to focus on is that so that they may be known. And that's extremely significant, especially for someone who was a convert. And not only that, that other Muslim women take the position of wearing hijab as a position of before you make assumptions about my job or my level of academia or lack thereof, about my economic status or about whatever position I may or may not hold in society, you will first acknowledge me as a woman who believes in God.
And that in and of itself is so that I may be known as that, which is to say that many Muslim women take hijab as the opportunity to say, I belong to a higher purpose and I'm responding to that call to be to be amongst those women who are honored, who are in a place of being being spoken about as these believing women. Right. And so when we talk about the intersection of it as it relates to race, for example, I found it as a convert something where there might be language barriers between me and other Muslim women. There might be other economic barriers between me and other Muslim women. There might be a variety of cultural barriers. But one thing that for those who chose to wear hijab, what became what became kind of a badge of honor was to say that we have all made this choice. Right. And this choice that kind of joins us in this sorority of a more or less like a religious sorority was that we had made that decision that we would unite on that, that we would unite with this higher purpose in mind. And I think about it as it relates to many people when they first think of hijab, non-Muslims and many times, sometimes Muslims based on how it's how it's taught to them. They look at the hijab as something that is an act of oppression. Right. And I find it very interesting when we have to be very careful about when people put their ideas of what does it mean to be oppressed and to then reflect that onto someone else. Right. So, for example, I look at a nun and I don't think that she was oppressed.
I think that she made that I think she made that intelligent that intelligent decision based on the information that she was given and based on a calling she felt for her own life and a desire to worship her Lord. I don't look at a Jewish woman who decides to cover her hair, that this is a matter that she is under the brainwashing of some religious cleric who has convinced her into kind of a sheepish, you know, a sheep like submission where she didn't make that intelligent, informed decision. And so looking at Muslim women, many of them, the choice to wear hijab is the opportunity to claim that narrative. It's the opportunity to say, I choose to represent God and I choose to not be defined by your definitions of beauty, by your definitions of even race, by your death, by your cultural definitions. And more importantly, your definitions of femininity, that what femininity looks like for me is going to be defined by my Lord and how I choose to interpret that based on my dress. Now, another thing, and I find that interesting because many Muslim money, people who look at Muslim women thinking, well, they're oppressed because they lack the ability to have, you know, by wearing the hijab that they lack the ability to have culture, have creative expression. Right. And, you know, considering now, subhanAllah, what has flipped that narrative on its head is that hijabis are changing the world from the runway. Right. And not just New York runway.
We saw the International Islamic Fashion Festival happening in Malaysia and Indonesia founded in Paris. Then it, of course, went to Dubai. Then, you know, we see in Muslim women in America, especially African-American Muslim women have been doing fashion shows, you know, to show their cultural and their individual expression of hijab. They've been doing this for decades. So, you know, I find it interesting that people begin to think of it that she has been duped into some lack of expression as opposed to taking her own narrative by taking control of her own narrative. Another thing is that hijab is very empowering for women from a business perspective. Right. Because what it also says is that we will that we will be the makers, the producers, the designers, the sellers of our own clothing. Right. And not let someone else always define what that what I should dress like or how I should look. And so many Muslim women have also find economic empowerment inside of the hijab. So I you know, I want to actually go back to an article in December. It was in The Washington Post. I'm here in the Washington, D.C., airing the DMV in Virginia. And in December 2015, there was an article in The Washington Post where they basically it was a commentary on hijab day. And we have, you know, a number of these many times. They have it on college campuses. Sometimes they have it at the mosque where Muslim women are encouraging women of other faith to wear hijab for a day, particularly to wear a headscarf for the day.
And in order for them to more or less feel some level of camaraderie with Muslim women, but also so that they may know what kind of pressure that that would endure. And I from what I understand and times I've been involved in with this is that I feel that it's an opportunity for Muslim women to share their story with other women from an experiential standpoint. But in this article, it was actually taken as, well, why don't Muslim women just take off their hijab and then they can kind of experience this camaraderie and sameness as the rest of other women? And then it goes back to that verse that we talked about. Right. Or it goes back to the definition of hijab in itself, that there is some level of there is some there is some level of saying I choose to be different. I choose to be known. I choose to be defined by God almighty. And so, you know, as I thought about that article, it's interesting how we begin to reflect on otherness. That we have decided that a piece of cloth, whether it's just draping her head or draping her head and her chest or whether it's draping more of that, we have decided that that somehow puts her in a negative category. Right. As opposed to the category that she defines what that is. So I also want to think about there are several here in Virginia, there have been several conferences of women talking about pretty much like this means that these women have become radicalized.
Right. Like if they are choosing to wear hijab because they're choosing to identify with this radicalization. And I think this is a responsibility absolutely of Muslims and Muslim women in particular to begin to educate the public about, of course, what Islam is to be an excellent representative of Islam while wearing hijab. Also, in opportunities to engage so that they do begin to understand that it's this, the radicalization that has happened is not a political radicalization. Radicalization is actually a radicalized, a radicalized empowerment and a radicalized feeling of I control my own narrative. Also a feeling of femininity that says I will not be defined by the tightness of my calves or my bum. I want my beauty will not be defined based on how much of me my male counterparts can look at. Right. That that doesn't that that demeaning aspect, I'm not going to sell myself or open myself up for the whole world to see that I choose to cover. I choose to say my body is my business. And so it's especially as we begin to interact with society and saying, you know, women have always called for recognize my intelligence, you know, speak to my mind, recognize me for my talents and my assets that are not physical. Right. And and asking for that level of equality. You know, so I wanted to point make those points. Also, there's several articles, Mashallah, that are mentioned in The Huffington Post.
You can find actually these days you can find an array of articles from The Huffington Post, from The New York Times that are actually addressing Muslim women in hijab, whether it's from like we talked about, whether it's from a business standpoint, whether it's from the perspective of in the sports industry, women saying I have I have talent, I have ability, I have skill and I'm going to I'm going to compete and I'm going to be effective in and I'm going to be excellent in my arena without choosing to dress like you. Right. So it's also redefining strength, what strength looks like. There was another point I wanted to point out last year. I'm sure in the beginning of this year, in January, there was the National Women's March here in Washington, D.C. And there was an image that became very famous. And that was the image of a Muslim woman clad in the American flag, like the hijab being the flag being her khimar, the covering on her head. And that just kind of created this, you know, this cacophony of voices around this image because it was such a very striking and powerful image. On one hand, you had women who were excited to do it, to even, you know, be in the march wearing that flag as a hijab to saying I'm a part of the American fabric. And on the other hand, you had people to say to say I'm like you, I'm a woman like you. Right. That I have that I have that I have thoughts and feelings and desire the same things you want. I want good education. I want excellent health care for my children. I want safety for my life.
And there was women who chose to wear this flag said I, you know, what other women of the world to identify with me in this in my human in my humaneness in my humanity. And then you had the other side of Muslim women who said I absolutely will not put an American flag on my head. If that if that is the only way you can accept me that the only way you can accept me as a Muslim is if I am dressed in your flag, which is then to say, are you, are you. Do you need to remove my cultural expression. Do you need to remove my ethnicity. Do you need to remove even my political views, maybe about the American flag. Right. And some of the oppression associated with that. Do you need to remove that in order to meet in order for me to be accepted by you. And so this this diversity of voices created a wonderful conversation where again I looked at it on both sides of it saying these Muslim women are saying identify me as for my humanity and the other Muslim women saying, but you will not be little who all of the wonderfulness that makes up who I am. Right. And all of that cultural, social, economic, political understanding and for all of the diversity that is associated with me as a human being. I will not whitewash that with the American flag.
I will not simplify that for you with the American flag. And so, again, both sides of the equation are these wonderful opportunities where Muslim women are claiming their own narrative. Right. And standing up and saying, I'm beyond my, you know, beyond even my clothing. You're more obsessed about the clothing, which speaks to a shallowness in and of itself. You're more concerned about my clothing, then less concerned about what it represents. Right. And that in and of itself creates a fear in people. There was a few years ago. There was an article published called The Fear of Hijab. And part of that fear is if you define yourself based on Allah and his book and you choose to and that's a part even of your self-expression, then human beings who have a sense of a desire to control begin to feel like, well, I don't have the same hook in your psyche. Well, I'm able to control who you should be and how you should think and how you should dress. Right. And so that feeling of if if if God is the guide of your life, where does that leave those who seek who seek power? Hey, especially they find that very dangerous for women to be free thinking. Right. Because part of the when I look at this same verse in the Quran so that they may be known and not molested or not harmed. Part of that is to say, I cover my head, not my not my brains. Right. And so did my decision to wear hijab.
Is it is a decision that's based on free thinking? I that's based on I will not be a slave to your idea, your ideas of beauty and fashion and politics and all of that. I will not be a slave to that. I that I define that for myself. And we see Muslim women just kind of representing that all over the globe, whether it's the new president that of Singapore, who's big article president of Singapore's hijabi. Right. Or of the woman on Halima Tauria on CoverGirl who said, yes, I will be a cover girl and I will be a true cover girl. I will be covered. I will be a cover girl. And, you know, those who are making just great strides in sports and in business. And I just find it extremely significant that Muslim women recognize that it is it does matter and that it is it is beyond just her control, but that it is a statement of her intellectual freedom, her intellectual rights. It is a statement of a global, universal sisterhood. And it is a statement of freedom and empowerment. Jazakum Allah khair. Honored to be a part of this wonderful discussion. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you so much. Jazakum Allah khair, Sister Aisha. That's a great segue into our next speaker and our next question. Before we move on, I just want to say it's great to see so many questions coming in from the audience. Please keep them coming. Also, make sure that you're answering the polling questions that we have set up. And finally, before we move on to our next speaker, I just want to give a shout out to the people who aren't just watching this alone, but have actually organized some watch parties all around the country so that they can watch this webinar with a group and tune in that way.
So we've heard of this happening in different states. And I want to ask. Everyone to let us know how many people you're watching with. Are you watching with your friends, with your family? Let us know in the chat box. And again, make sure to keep asking the questions. And finally, before we move on to our final speaker and our final topic, at Yaqeen, we rely on funds to keep our content free for everyone. We're a nonprofit institute, and we'd like to hold more events like this one in the future. So I just want to ask you to please support us by clicking the info icon at the top right of the screen or visiting yaqeeninstitute.org slash donate. And finally, our last and most patient speaker is Sister Dalia Mujahid. Dalia Mujahid is the director of research at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, where she leads the organization's pioneering research and thought leadership programs on American Muslims. She has authored several books, served on many councils, including President Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships in 2009. Our question for you, Sister Dalia, is how can we begin to reclaim the narrative on hijab? As-salamu alaykum. Bismillah ar-rahman ar-raheem. Salatu was-salamu ala Sayyidina Muhammad wa ala alihi wa sahbihi ajma'in. Thank you all for being a part of this webinar. And it's indeed a pleasure and an honor to share the virtual stage with such amazing women. I know that I've learned a lot from the previous speakers. What I've been asked to talk about today is how do we reclaim the narrative on hijab? How do we talk about hijab, explain hijab,
and really frame hijab for ourselves and for those around us who are often asking us about hijab? And I guess I just want to start by saying that going back to the very first speaker, Sister Amina, I think we have to start with a law. I think the narrative on hijab needs to truly be, first and foremost, a spiritual message, that this is an act of worship. This is an act of religious devotion. And it's important to do that for at least two reasons. The first reason is that it's what we believe. It's what we are taught in our fiqh and what really there is a religious consensus about. So if that is your understanding and that is why you're wearing, practicing hijab, you need to share that and make it about a devotion to God. The second reason that I think it's important to start there is actually to protect our right to wear hijab. If we start to rationalize hijab in other ways, it can then be rationally taken away from us. So unless it really is what it, unless we talk about it as it truly is, which is an act of religious devotion, then it actually can be threatened and our ability to practice it freely in our country, and I'm talking about the United States, can actually be threatened. So I think that that's just an important point to put out there
in terms of the narrative on hijab, is that we start with the spiritual core. But in addition to that, I think that when it comes to the rhetoric about hijab, and when it comes to the way that people try to frame hijab as a symbol of oppression, it sounds to me, I mean, it sounds so cliche, so passe, like haven't we had this conversation for hundreds of years? Hasn't this argument already been made? But yet it still gets made over and over again by both people who either don't understand or have some kind of agenda that we're marginalizing Muslims is in some way an advantage. And I think for this, we need to really be able to respond coherently and proactively. So I want to start by saying that we need to confidently and unapologetically declare to the world that giving people access, visual access to our exterior beauty is not rent, is not the rent that we pay to exist on this earth. That like so many of the other speakers said, as women, we are so much more than that.
And nobody is owed access to the way you look when you're not wearing hijab. No one is owed that, no one deserves that except for the person that you choose. What hijab allows us to do as a secondary benefit to obeying God and acting and carrying out this act of religious devotion is that it brings that control and that choice back into your hands. You decide, not male gaze. It's not up to those who want to look at you to decide how much access they should have to your beauty. You get to decide who has that access. So I think the first thing is around taking back that control, taking back that choice. But the second thing I always really challenge folks on when this tired trope of hijab being oppressive is I turn it around and I really ask what does that mean? Rather than simply defending ourselves against this accusation, I think we need to unpack the assumptions, the implicit assumptions underneath that accusation. So any statement is usually, any statement in any debate is made up of three components. And if you learn what these three components are, you can break down any argument
and be able to address it and engage it critically. So any debate or any statement is made up of these components. One is a premise. A premise is simply facts that you believe to be true. So a premise, an assumption about that premise, it's sort of the bridge, and then the assertion, what you're actually claiming. Hijab oppresses women. If we break that down into its components, let's do that together and see what we actually find underneath. What is oppression? Let's ask people that. What do you think is oppression? What is oppression? Oppression is the taking away of somebody's agency. It's the taking away of somebody's power. If I take away your right to vote, if I disenfranchise you, I'm oppressing you because I'm taking away your ability to influence your political reality. I am taking away your power, and in so doing, I'm oppressing you. So if you say that hijab oppresses women, that means what you're in fact saying is that by women covering their bodies, denying free access to what they look like to anyone who wants to look at them, by simply privatizing their exterior, they are without power. Their power has been taken away.
Now, interestingly, when a man dresses exactly the same way with his head covered in long robes, nobody says he's oppressed. Many men dress this way, right, all over the world, especially in very warm climates, by the way. And so we're saying that by being covered, a woman is oppressed, but by being covered, a man is not oppressed. What does that say about the source of a woman's power? You know, I actually think we need to be very clear that the claim that hijab is oppressive to women is incredibly misogynistic, because it is the underlying premise of that claim is that a woman draws power from her looks, while a man doesn't. And I really take this point further by asking people to just imagine. Think about what pops into your head. If I were to say to you that you're an ad executive, you're creating a commercial, and it's a commercial for a perfume called Power, and there's a feminine and a masculine version of this perfume, one for men, one for women. And this perfume is called Power, and you're trying to find the right model and figure out what they're going to look like in this commercial for this Power perfume. What would the man be wearing?
Would he be in a Speedo or an Armani suit? Power, in our minds, when it comes to men, is a man who's fully covered in a nice suit. Now, what would the woman be wearing for the feminine version of this perfume, Power? And if we were truly honest, we would know, we would admit that in our societal cultural convention, she would be gorgeous and have a great body and very generously exposed. And so it is this that we have to respond to. The problem isn't that we, if we choose to wear hijab, are oppressed, but the fact that our society has been so socialized to accept that sexuality is where women draw power, and when a woman decides to privatize that, that we actually think she's oppressed. That accusation is built on oppression. And we have to be able to articulate this perspective and make people think. The second thing that I often hear when hijab is discussed is that some women are forced to wear it, that there are countries in the world where women are forced to wear hijab. And because it is sometimes forced and sometimes even
forced at the threat of violence, it is oppressive. It's oppressive overall to everybody. And again, this is an interesting assertion, because what we're saying is that when, if something is sometimes forced on women, even at the threat of violence, or if it's politicized, then it is inherently oppressive, even when someone freely chooses it as an expression of their spirituality. If we were to apply the same logic to something else that is forced on women way more often than hijab, which is actually sex, right? Women are raped. There is an entire industry of human trafficking. The rape is a weapon of war. So if we were to actually, if we were to apply the same logic, that means that because it's sometimes forced violently and politicized, that even when someone chooses it within the boundaries of a consensual loving marriage, that it is inherently oppression. It doesn't even make any sense. Is this view progressive or draconian? I think we have to always come back to two points, that hijab is about agency. It's about choice. It's about women deciding that this is how they want to express part of their spirituality.
And that being threatened and becoming defensive by someone choosing a different way to be a woman is actually not dismantling patriarchy. It's joining it. If someone's feminism is to recreate the world in her image, she is not dismantling patriarchy. She is strengthening it. And I think we should be very clear about that. I find that the most hostile people, unfortunately, tend to be other women more than men. And what I feel is underneath a lot of that is insecurity. They can't fathom the possibility that someone would choose to do something different from them, that they are the normative standard to which we all must aspire. And when we don't, there must be something wrong. We must be brainwashed. We must be oppressed. We must have someone forcing it on us, because why else would we be insane enough to not want to be like them? So at the heart of a lot of this, unfortunately, is white supremacy. What I find very interesting is the intersectionality. We talk about intersectionality in terms of communities that are impacted. There's a lot of intersectionality on the other side in terms of Islamophobia and white supremacy. They are two branches on the same tree. And when you trace the Islamophobic rhetoric
to its core, it is white supremacy in so many ways. The idea that you are oppressed if you decide to not be, to conform to a certain dominant culture means that that dominant culture is obviously superior and normative, and everyone should want to be that way. And if they don't, something must be wrong. Somebody must be preventing it. And calling these things out are things we have to just do and be pretty strong and clear about it. I do think that the time for a defensive or apologetic response to hostile accusations against hijab is so over, and we just need a lot more moral clarity around it. At the same time, a lot of people just have questions and aren't hostile. And in fact, they are maybe afraid to ask. And I think that having really honest conversations about what hijab means to you if you wear it personally, what it's done for your struggles and your triumphs with it, I think, are great places to start. I know, for me, on a very personal level, that being in environments and spaces which are very male-dominated, whether it's policy spaces or corporate spaces, they're not only hostile to Muslim women or hijab or whatever, but to women generally. They're dominated by white men, essentially, whether it's the corporate world or policy circles.
And when I'm in those spaces, in hijab, this unexpected impact of that, the unexpected side effect, if you will, or fringe benefit of being in those spaces in hijab is that I have already broken such a high threshold of fear just to be in that room. I have already overcome that. I have overcome such a high threshold just to walk out the door in a climate that's so politicized and hostile. That being in that room, once I've already done that inner work of overcoming that fear, is like a cakewalk. I'm not afraid to ask questions because that's just so minor compared to what I had to deal with just walking out of my house. I'm not afraid to speak my mind because I've already made a conscious decision just by putting on my hijab to put my conscience over conformity, to put pleasing God over fitting in. And once you do that, once you've made that active decision, that active, you've gone through the process of making that deliberate decision. Smaller decisions that require the same muscle in your day are so much easier. And so you're the bravest person in the room, not because you're any better or any more naturally confident, but you've just already had such a hard workout
that this five pound weight of speaking in a classroom or in a meeting is so easy for you. And so what hijab has done for me, when I say I feel empowered by it, I literally do because I've often been in spaces where people are like, wow, I can't believe you're always the person that just raises your hand and asks the question and none of the other women do, like a business class where out of 150 people in my business class, 120 were men. So I was one of a small minority of women in my MBA program, but I was always the one asking questions. And I was asking questions because I was so far beyond caring if I looked stupid. I was already such a freak just sitting there in hijab that having someone think I asked a stupid question was like the last thing I could care about. And so I just wanted to learn and I would always ask the questions. And so people, their impression is that I'm this brave person who actually, they think I'm smarter than they are, which I'm not, just because I'm asking questions and they're too afraid to. So hijab creates this reality for you. It creates this opportunity for you where you've already made that hard decision right up front to put God above conforming, to put your conscience over conformity and then you're able to apply that same pattern of thinking and in other situations. And finally, I think that the idea is,
and I think others have made this point. When we deny people certain access, when we make certain things more private, it also forces them to focus on what is relevant. And that is what we are actually saying. What is what we are thinking, what we are contributing intellectually. Every single woman, even if she's naked, deserves that, deserves to be taken seriously for her mind. Being covered just forces that rather than makes it a choice for the listener because they just don't have any other information to go on. Your voice and your mind is really all they can see. It's all they have access to. And I think that that's a huge benefit for women in the professional realm. I mean, the idea that hijab keeps women back is a little strange to me because you're only wearing it when you're in the public square. You're only wearing it when you're out. So it means that Islam assumed women would have an active role in the public square because it stipulated what they would be wearing while they were out engaging the world. And in my experience, it has been a huge benefit in that regard. Thank you. Jazakallah khair, Sister Dalia and all of our presenters.
So on that note, we're going to move in to the most anticipated part of the evening, which is the Q&A session. Thank you to everyone who's been posting questions as we've gone along. We have them all collected and now we're ready to start with that. Also, please keep your questions coming throughout via the chat box on the right side of this video. So we'll start with a question from the audience and I'll just ask the question and inshallah, the speakers, whoever feels comfortable answering can go ahead. So the question is, are we contributing to rape culture when we discuss hijab as a way to protect women from rape or sexual assault? Can I answer? Please go ahead. Yes, we absolutely are. Because we're still talking about sexual assault and blaming the victim and asking what she was wearing and what she was doing. No one ever asked to be sexually assaulted and it's taking the onus on the perpetrator that is actually doing the sexual assault and putting it on the victim. It is, subhanAllah, it is the definition of oppression. Hello, Adam. Can I add to that? I wanna add to that by making a clarification. I don't really know if the person asking misunderstood what I said, but I wanna make sure that it's very clear that I was not ever saying that hijab protects you from rape. Can you hear me? Yes, I don't think that was, alhamdulillah, I didn't get that from what you said at all. Mashallah, you were totally on point and I loved everything you said. I think it's unfortunately is something that is shared often when we talk about the ayah talking about protection. And I think Sheikh Aisha had actually mentioned that ayah. And then unfortunately, again, it's another one of those spiritually abusive explanations
of like, oh, it protects you from sexual assault. It does not. There's no piece of clothing that can possibly protect anyone from sexual assault. The best way to protect people from sexual assault is to remove the perpetrators of sexual assault and to punish them. I completely agree. And I just wanna, the ayah about protection is actually protects you from lots of things, protects you from being judged, protects you even spiritually in terms of, while wearing this, you may be more reminded of God consciousness if it's something, it's an act of worship that could re-inform and reiterate for you your purpose. But I just wanna make it completely clear that my analogy with rape was not saying that hijab prevents rape. I'm actually saying when rape occurs, we are not saying that sex in general is oppressive, of oppression to women, just because it's sometimes forced. In the same way, even though we sometimes see hijab being forced on women, choosing it freely does not mean you're oppressed by it. So just wanted to clarify that. I actually think as it relates to that particular ayah, that it's actually kind of a call to men. Because part of it is about that first section as we mentioned, says that, so she may be known. So there's a responsibility to Muslim men to say, hey, these are my sisters that I have a responsibility to have some level of protection because they have made the choice to be visible. And so if they are in a position where they might be harmed,
they recognize, the men recognize, that's my sister. And this is a woman who believes in God. And so there should be kind of a more or less a hyper vigilance. That's part of what I've learned about that. As the first speaker said, it definitely will not necessarily protect you from rape. There are some metaphysical protections that are happening. There are some spiritual protections that are happening. But I think the biggest method by which that we can begin to unravel some of the rape culture we have is that we have to re-educate humanity about the roles of women and particularly about the honor and what is truly femininity. Thank you. Thank you all for your excellent responses. So there's another question and I think it relates to something that sister Amina talked about, if you wanna answer or if anyone else would like to. The question is, the viewer wrote, I live in France. If my hijab is preventing me from getting a job that I desperately need to sustain myself, what should I do? SubhanAllah, may Allah protect you from every form of oppression, protect all of us from a form of oppression. You are not allowed to not have food. I mean, even if you can't wear a hijab, then really just do your best. Even simple things go a long way because at the end of the day, this is an act of worship and something we're doing for Allah. Simple things like, yeah, Allah, I'm gonna tie my hair up. I'm still gonna wear long sleeves. I'm still going to dress as modestly as I humanly possibly can. May Allah allow us to be able to remove that oppression. Telling women what not to wear is no way more progressive than telling women what to wear. It is still the same form of oppression of telling women
that they don't have agency over their bodies and they need to be told what to do. Sister, may Allah protect you. I think you just need to get a job. Also for the Muslims in France, if there ever was a call to action, SubhanAllah. Thank you, sister Amina. Sister Hussain, I don't wanna call you out, but did you have something to say to that question as well? Alhamdulillah, I would just say to the sister, and I agree with everything sister Amina said, but also that, you know, Allah Subhanahu wa ta'ala, he's witnessing your efforts. And so if in one capacity or one place you can't wear the hijab, maybe inshallah, you can wear it in other instances. I've known actually people who've done that. They might not be able to wear it at school or at work or around family, but then the rest of the time they make the effort. So that is an option for some people. If you feel like it's a struggle in one place, then maybe inshallah, just to, for your own peace of mind or your own just sense of, you know, this is something that you want to do and you wanna exercise that right, that you do it in places that are safe and you are able to do it. And inshallah, your deeds will be accepted. You know, I think sometimes we look at things very black and white and we think it has to be all or none, but I think that's why, you know, intention matters. And Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la is of course, you know, he's pleased when he sees us struggling to please him. And so the harder you have it in one area, the more reward you get. So inshallah, I would encourage the sister to consider that as an option as well. Thank you, sister Hussain. If there are no further answers to that question, we can move on to the next one. Can I just add something about intention? Because again, because we talked about it as an act of worship and Jazakumullah khair, sister Hussain, I didn't think of that, that's an awesome suggestion. But because again, we talk about it
in terms of intention, we talked about force. If you're locked in a room from sunrise to sunset, you're not fasting, unless if you made the intention to fast. Our relationship with Allah is never gonna be a checklist. If it's a checklist, we're all doomed. The Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself said that it wasn't his actions that took him to Jannah. It's the mercy of Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala. If you're in true and your intention, again, this is why I'm saying, it's based on your relationship with Allah. Allah sees it and he knows. May Allah increase you, Subhanallah. You might be getting more reward than any of us. Thank you, sister Amina. So the next question is from a viewer in the audience who asked, how do I answer people, particularly people of other faiths, when I'm asked, why did I choose to wear hijab while my sisters do not? And maybe sister Dalia or sister Aisha, both of you touched briefly on similar topics. Do you have any thoughts on that? I think it's really, this question actually comes to all of us. Sometimes we'll be on a panel or we'll just, it always comes up and it's like, well, how come you wear hijab and this other sister doesn't? And I think it's important to just talk about your own personal experience and your own personal understanding. I wanted to wear it because this is my understanding and this is what it does for me and this is how I feel about wearing it. And not refer or project or compare yourself to anyone else. And I think doing it that way is usually the best way to approach it. It's really important that we not allow hijab to become like a wedge issue,
even though it sometimes is in our community. We have amazing sisters who wear it, amazing sisters who don't, and we should not let it be something that divides us. And so we can assert our own commitment to it without diminishing anyone else. Thank you, Sister Dalia. Sister Aisha, oh, perfect, you're with us. Did you have something to add to that question? Dalia answered the question perfectly. You know, when people ask that question, you can only speak from your own narrative. You can only speak from your own conviction in terms of what made you make that decision. And they have to ask other people if they choose to be so brave as to why didn't you choose not to wear hijab? And begin to recognize, I think it is extremely important also that women who do wear hijab, that it's not a veil of judgment. It shouldn't then become a matter of, because I have more faith than she does, right? Or because I have a better, you know, because I'm stronger in my Iman than she does, or because I'm a better person than she is. I think this becomes dangerous when we begin to assume that because a person wearing hijab, you know, may have certain, they do have a certain level of strength and a certain level of conviction and a certain level of adherence that is fitting of their Iman. And there may be someone who chooses not to wear hijab, may be stronger in other matters, right? In matters with a person who's wearing hijab, they may struggle with the other things, maybe struggling with fasting, or maybe struggling with other, you know, other aspects of their deen, or someone who's not wearing hijab.
You know, we just have to look at each act of worship with its own value in merit, not kind of just lump all of faith equals this, right? Can I add something as well, Inshallah? Hello, can you go ahead? Yeah. I just wanted to say, I actually agree with everything that's been said. And also I've been in this position many times because my two sisters, they actually don't wear hijab. So people do ask me that a lot. And I actually use it to highlight the fact that it is a personal choice, that you will see Muslim women wearing it and who don't wear it. And that's because we have every right to have agency and to make these decisions, you know, and that we're not oppressed and we're not forced into doing these things that it really is up to every individual woman. So they usually, you know, respond positively to that because it's, you know, again, dispelling this idea that we have no, you know, we can't do anything on our own and we're always told what to do. But when you actually show them that no, if someone chooses not to wear it, it's her choice, then I think it helps to dispel some of those myths. That's a great point. Thank you, Sister Hussayn. So we have another couple of questions that are kind of asking the same thing. So I'll just ask one of them and put it to whoever feels comfortable answering. So the question is, what is the difference between khimar and jilbab vis-a-vis the asbab al-nuzul of the ayat in Surah al-Nur and Surah al-Ahzab? And I guess I'll, I mean, the second part of the question or a separate question that's similar, can you please elaborate on the khimar? Some argue that the covering prescribed in the Quran is specifically only for the chest and not implying the head covering. So interestingly enough, when you use the term jilbab, for example, it was mentioned in Surah al-Ahzab, verse 59,
that we had just talked about. If I were to give a definition of a shirt, and we know that that shirt, without a doubt, you know, it should cover some of the upper part, my chest portion, you know, it may or may not cover my stomach, but it's gonna cover my chest and possibly part of my back. It's gonna cover the upper portion of my body. If I were to use the term pants, you know, that's gonna cover some of the lower part of my body, right? And so when we use the term jilbab, it actually has a definition of what should be covered. And literally jilbab, the covering that fits within that framework would literally be from the head down to the feet. And then the Prophet, Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam, when he was asked about even clarification of these, he said, two things can be seen of a woman, her hands and her face, right? Then when we use the term khemah, khemah actually is the one that would cover, if I were to use the term khemah, it wouldn't just be the chest area. It would actually be something that covered the head and would then flow to the chest to cover the bosom. And a lot of this comes from culturally, many Arab women of the time, when this verse was revealed, it was actually normal for them, many of them to already cover their head. So this specific, the specificity that was given as a result about covering the chest wasn't because they already had a veil on their head, so there was kind of like in addition to, right? And so these are the two things as it relates to that. Well, Allahumma ta'ala ala. Thank you, Sister Aisha. Sister Amina, do you wanna say something or we can move on? And Mashallah, she did great, jaza, I agree.
Okay, great, so the next question, hold on, let me just go through them. Okay, so this is a question that I think a lot of us get often, and it is actually related to the one that was just asked, why is covering the hair a sign of modesty? Doesn't wearing modest clothing suffice? I'll open it up to whoever wants to take that question. I'm sorry, I didn't hear you. Something happened and I wasn't able to hear the question. Could you please repeat? Yeah, so the question is, why is covering the hair a sign of modesty? Doesn't wearing modest clothing suffice? Were you able to hear me? Yes, thank you, thank you. I don't want to speak for everybody as it relates to this, but I think about, for example, if we look at a few years ago, there was this commercial, it was a horrible commercial, I think it was herbal essence shampoo, right? And it had to do with this woman kind of flinging her hair and she was basically washing her hair and it was like a big deal. I think everyone, I don't think that there would be any difference of opinion as it relates to men in terms of what a woman's hair does, right, in terms of it moving with her, the different styling of their hair. I mean, this is a billion dollar industry, the styling of women's hair and the different ways that she's going to wear it, if it's up or if it's down, if it's revealing her neck, if it's in her face, if it's, I think there are a variety of things that without a doubt,
that hair would be a part of the attractiveness of a woman. And not seeing the hair, let's keep it, let's do the flip side of the narrative. If it were not an issue, we wouldn't be having this conversation, right? Hijab would not be such an issue, people would not be so obsessed. Why can't I see her hair, right? No one's asking that about her arms. They're asking that about our hair. That's just my brief opinion on it. Not a big deal. Thank you, Sister Aisha. So we have a lot of questions coming in, which is awesome. Before we move on, I just want to remind everyone to please do fill out the polling questions as they're coming and keep asking questions in the chat box. And finally, please do try and donate to Yakhin, support our work. This is a not-for-profit endeavor and we try to make our content free for everyone. So however you can support in ways big or small, that would be fantastic. So the next question is actually very interesting and very relevant. The viewer asks, in this age of constant exposure to Insta fashion that sometimes uses hijab as a prop for trends, how do we create a balance between wearing hijab as a narrative of reclaiming what's been stolen and reclaiming what femininity is, as Sister Aisha Prime said, and feeding into societal expectations of femininity? Since I brought this up, I will actually at least address this question. I think that there's a misnomer that in order to be Muslim
and even be empowered means that you don't like fashion. Right? And fashion is an art, it's a living wearable art. And in addition to, it speaks to a time and it speaks to culture. And so with those trends, I think to say that Muslim women would not necessarily want to be a part of those trends is to mix apples with oranges. And I find that deeply problematic and I'll tell you why. If we were to look at, for example, the very normal, Jill Babb that we, well, I wanna say actually the abaya, right? This kind of black abaya that's long, it's flowy, it drags in the back. This is a very Arab style method of wearing hijab, right? Or Jill Babb. This will be an Arab definition of that. And it was actually, it's a design, right? It's a design that meets those requirements that we talked about. If I were to, let's say I were a Sudanese woman or a woman from India who chose to do it based on a sari, which is to wrap multiple times, right? Layers and layers of fabric where I'm still, I still have covered those same areas and the fabric is still loose and flowing and you still don't see the shape of my body, but I've done it according to a certain culture, a certain way that appeals to the people of that region or other regions and that type of, that style appeals to them for a certain reason based on their expression. So again, as time changes and different trends come out
to think that Muslim women aren't going to be attracted to certain trends or certain styles, I don't find that problematic. It only becomes problematic when those trends compromise the definitions of the terms by which we said that we're going to cover our bodies. But I mean, there are countless of designers these days. I mean, honestly, too mentioned to name where Muslim women are still meeting the requirements of their faith without compromising what appeals to them, what appeals to them in terms of customs and styles and designs and shapes. I don't think they're mutually exclusive. Saka, okay. Thank you so much for that. The next question I'm gonna direct to sister Dalia and sister Husay if that's okay, because I think both of you touched on similar topics. So the question is, there is so much pressure on us to perform as Muslim women who wear hijab. We're judged by non-Muslims every time we walk out of our homes and we're judged by other Muslims on how we choose to wear our hijab. How do we manage this without draining ourselves? Bismillah, thank you for that question. And I think it actually touches on something that's really important, which is the idea that hijab is a badge of perfection. That you wear hijab because you're perfect. And if you wear it and you're not perfect, then you should be more ashamed than if you weren't wearing it and did the same thing. And I completely disagree with that. Hijab is an act of worship. Like salah is an act of worship. Fasting is an act of worship.
If I pray and I commit a sin or I make a mistake, is that worse than had I not prayed? I mean, is it worse for me to be someone who prays and makes that mistake than if I weren't praying and made the same mistake? It's such a ridiculous concept that wearing hijab requires perfection or else just take it off, right? That's always the response. Like, you're wearing hijab and you're doing that. Well, why are you even wearing it? Just take it off. Like this ridiculous concept that unless you're perfect, you're not allowed to wear hijab. So I had this problem myself. That's why I speak about it so passionately. When I first started wearing hijab, I was 17 years old and I was starting college at that age and I was wearing hijab and I was one of the only, I was the only woman in my engineering college who wore hijab. And so I felt like all this responsibility to be perfect and to like show everybody that we were awesome, that Muslim women were great at engineering, this male-dominated field. And like, it was so stressful. I mean, college is stressful by itself without this added burden of representing 1.7 billion people. And then one day I just had to say, I represent myself. I am one human being and I represent that person. I represent Dali Mogahed. And when I do terrible on a school project because I didn't understand it, I did not let down the Ummah, okay? Because everyone saw that I had done bad and I, oh, I wear hijab or whatever, whatever mistake or, you know, many, many shortcomings that I can list aside from that. But I'm just explaining, take, you have a choice whether or not to accept that burden. You have a choice.
I had a choice. Even when people were trying to put that burden on me, I had a choice whether or not to accept it. And then one day I said, I'm not gonna accept it. I refuse to accept it because I couldn't bear the weight. And that's why people get burned out and take off hijab. So many of my friends have said, I just was tired of representing all the time, responding all the time. I get it. I get that stress. So, just stop. You don't have to be anything but yourself. That's the only thing you're gonna be held accountable for. Hijab does not make you, you know, our national spokesperson. It does not make you a mascot. Even when people expect it of you and even when people are enforcing it on you, whether they're from other faiths and they're looking at you in that way or they're from your own community and they're looking at you that way, you don't have to accept it. And I am strongly suggesting, strongly encouraging you to reject that burden. You are accountable for yourself before God, period. No matter what you decide to do or what you wear. Thank you for that, Sister Dania. Do any of the other speakers wanna comment on that? Sister Hussain? Sure, Alhamdulillah. JazakAllah khairan, Sister Dania. I agree with everything you've said and I've had very similar experiences to you in terms of just feeling a lot of pressure all the time. And I really wanna just highlight the importance of really focusing more on the inward than the outward. Although hijab is obviously a very outward display, it's more important that you have peace of mind and really just keep focusing on intention and sincerity. This is the most important thing. And I'll share a story that happened to me. Again, many years ago in college, similar to Dalia,
I felt the same pressure to always be perfect and I was the president of MSA, so people had a lot of expectations for me. And I dressed in a way that I really wanted to, you know, just basically display how proud of a hijabi I was. So I used to wear all black sometimes and I would walk around kind of with a scowl because I wanted to show people I'm strong. And it was so, the focus I had was so much on my outward. So one day I was at the airport and I was actually waiting for someone to come and pick me up for a ride. And I was, while I was waiting outside for, you know, for the ride, I saw a car pull up and this woman gets out of her vehicle and she is basically almost half naked and she's wearing like a tank top and really short shorts. And again, just to show you what can happen when your mind isn't, you're not focused on the right thing. I sat there and I completely judged her. I was looking at her going, astaghfirullah, look at her. This is so lewd, it's so inappropriate what she's wearing. It's not even that hot outside. And I just had all these terribly negative thoughts about her. Now, I kid you not that this happened. By Allah, she, all of a sudden I look at, she's coming directly towards me. And I kind of panicked because it almost felt like, astaghfirullah, she was listening to my inner thoughts. Like I just felt very exposed, like oh my God, does she know what I'm thinking of her? Because she just directly started walking towards me. So I, you know, got ready to, maybe for a confrontation. I didn't know what to expect. She comes to me and she says, salamu alaykum. And she's so incredibly embarrassed by the way she looks. And she says, please forgive me for the way I'm dressed. I know, this is so inappropriate. I'm actually a convert to Islam. I'm very, I'm clearly not in the right place right now. But I saw you and I thought, like maybe this is a sign
that Allah wants me to, you know, come and talk to you because I really wanna make a connection again. And I have a child, I have a son. And I want to, you know, teach him more about Islam. And I thought maybe you could help me, like, you know, with books and recommendations. And she just kept talking. And I had just like this out of body experience. Like I'm there, but I'm not there. Because my heart was beating so fast. And I felt, just it was an epiphany for me. Because I realized, you know, as we continued talking and eventually she left, just how, I mean who, in that situation, if you really think about it, I was outwardly doing everything right. But my inward state wasn't matching my outward state. And that's why I think it's so much more important to focus on the inward. The hijab is, yes, it's an act of worship. But you have to be, we have to be constantly working on our inward state. Because here she was, she wasn't dressed modestly by any means. But she had humility, she had sincerity. She wanted to connect with Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la. And here I was, outwardly looking, you know, like the perfect example of what a hijabi should look like in terms of full cover, like head to toe, loose clothing. But look at my inward state. And so for me, that was one of the most powerful experiences of my life. And I'm so grateful to Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for humbling me in that moment and making me realize that my focus, if it's always on the outward and not on the inward, that this is the danger, that I can, you know, astaghfirullah, if I had continued that way, I don't know where I would have been. But it was a time for me to really do that inner work and realize, like, I have to just accept that Allah wants sincerity, He wants intention, He wants, that's what He expects from us. We're not gonna be perfect, we'll never be perfect. And that's not, that's why we're encouraged by the beautiful hadith that constantly remind us that the tawwab, the one who's returning, always in asking Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la for forgiveness, is dearer to the one than the one who's perfectly worshipping. We're reminded of this, you know,
sins as far as the skies or foam of the ocean, why were these hadith there? To remind us that Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la isn't looking for perfection, but He's looking for sincerity. So I really encourage the sister and anybody who's out there to constantly go back and to really look at your effort. And even if you're not, you know, you're making mistakes along the way, like Mashallah, Sister Darya said, Alhamdulillah, this is okay, you're a human being. But to really surround yourself by people who support you, who uplift you, jama'ah, that's so important, so if you have people in your life that are holding you up to impossible standards, you need to put distance between yourself and them. And you need to surround yourself by people who are always encouraging you, and positively reinforcing you, not making you feel inadequate, not making you feel inferior, not making you feel insecure, because like Sister Darya said, they're comparing and contrasting. No, we need to uplift each other, and stop the judgment, stop this negativity that's just sweeped across our community of always picking on people. People are suffering, there are people who are leaving this deen, there are people who are suicidal, who are seeking, you know, they're struggling with deep, deep pressures, because they can't fit someone's mold, whether it's society, their family, the imam in the masjid, whoever it is. We have to stop this, it's insane, and just focus on the inward, and remember, all Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la asks is sincerity, just be sincere. Jazakumullah khair. Thank you so much, Sister Hussayn. Oh, would you like to add something, Sister Amina? MashaAllah, everything that's been shared is very beautiful, but that's actually, I just wanted to say that that's one of the oldest tricks of shaitan, that he will do this where he'll tell you, you're not good enough to make du'a, you're not good enough to pray, you're not good enough to wear hijab, you're not good enough to do any act of worship, and really, this is one of his oldest tricks in the book, and we need to recognize that that's one of the tricks of shaitan, and not fall into it. In Surah Al-Najm, Allah Subh'anaHu Wa Ta-A'la says, wal-al la taziru waziratun wizaru ukhra,
that no soul will bear the burden of another soul. You're only responsible for yourself in front of Allah. And there is, if you can't carry, I just, I love how Sister Darya said, if I can't carry the ummah on my shoulders, nobody's designed to carry the ummah on their shoulders. The only person that could have possibly carried the ummah on their shoulders is the Prophet Sallallahu Alaihi Wasallam himself. Even the sahaba were not able to do that, and there's just, to expect a Muslim woman to do it is insane. Thank you, Sister Amina. So, we're gonna try to fit in a couple more questions. We're running out of time, but we're having a great discussion. So, the next question is, some sisters object to the quote, wear a hijab for a day events, because some non-Muslims will leave with the belief that they understand the Muslim experience, which leads them to not listen to actual hijabis. What are your thoughts on this? And I'll open that up to whoever wants to take it. I think Sheikha Aisha had actually talked about that a little bit, so I think. I wanna make sure I understand the question, and that was that some people object to the wear hijabi day, because non-Muslims would leave without actually listening to the man himself, and of course wait through that. Which he spoke about it in a great way, with him mentioning it, I feel I understand why some people would leave, but what I can say is the non-Muslim act is not a muslim act. Not that nothing is against some personal feelings of Islam. So, some people will go with the message. But there is also bound to be men feeling that they understand the life of a hijabi and then not listen to hijabis. Yes, so I think the complaint is that people who will wear hijab for a day will feel like they now understand the experience of what it means to wear hijab, which is not necessarily representative. I believe that people are more intelligent than that. And what I mean by that is, if I visited a hospital for a day and were to shadow a doctor, I may get a glimpse into a day of his life, but would I think that now I fully understand
what it means to be a doctor? No. And so, I'm a little bit confused about thinking that then they would no longer listen to hijabis. I'm not sure. I'm actually thinking that, for example, people who usually walk a day in someone else's shoes, they usually become more inclined to listen and to say, wow, this takes more, usually people who wear hijab for this as well, this takes more courage than I actually thought, or I didn't realize how many people were judging you, or I didn't realize that, what a beautiful experience or that you may be having. I mean, I think it's in, people walk away with a variety of different experiences, but I've never heard of, and I'm not saying that's not the case, that someone walked away saying, so I will never listen to a hijabi. I've done a lot of hijabis, not necessarily participating in them, usually there are kind of some lectures that are being given, there's some discussions that are being had, but there is an opportunity for them to talk to other hijabis and kind of engage with them. I think the main point of the event was to be engaged. I just wanna say that I've read reflections by women of other faiths or no faith who participate in wear hijab for a day in solidarity with Muslim women who wear hijab visibly Muslim women. And the reflections are really,
they're very, they're born out of experiential empathy. And I think that these are things we should encourage. We should encourage calling people into our spaces rather than shutting them out in fear that they will replace us. That's how we are good, compassionate, generous, sharers of our wealth, the wealth of Islam. At the same time, allies should be good allies. And a good ally is not someone who seeks to replace the one that they are supposedly trying to be an ally for. So while there is always a danger of allies seeking to replace your voice rather than passing the mic, that is not a good enough reason to shut them out because there's so much good that has come out of people experiencing just one day of what it feels like to be visibly different in some way. And I think we should welcome that rather than push people away. Thank you, Sister Dalia. So sadly, we have time for one more question and then we'll have to close for the evening. And I just wanna say that we are compiling all of the questions that are coming in and inshallah we'll be able to gather answers for those and send them to our viewers via email or on the Yaqeen website. So don't worry, your questions will be answered. But for tonight, we'll have one more question and that is, how do you respond to people that believe that hijab is an outdated form of obedience to Allah
and that we need to quote, stick to our times? And any of our speakers can take that, whoever feels comfortable. I think there's an assumption in that, that the human experience has changed. Women were the more beautiful gender 1,400 years ago and they still are. And we have not fundamentally changed as human beings. And if that were the case, if we had fundamentally changed as human beings in need of new revelation, then we would have had a different prophet by now. And we don't because the Quran still works and it's still working in so many different parts of the world. That is, I feel like that's us trying to impose our own ideas of the time on a timeless religion. And subhanAllah, we're still the more beautiful half of humanity. And my question would be, what is the value of hijab that causes people to then see that that value is no longer necessary? Like who's dictating the agenda? And so for the Muslim woman, the one who's dictating the agenda is the Almighty. And based on verses that have been quoted already so far, we recognize that the Almighty of then is the Almighty of today. And the one who was speaking to us then is speaking to us today. That the Quran is not something that was, it is, you know, Sister Aamina just mentioned, it wasn't something that was written and that was the end of it. It is, the Quran is a living miracle that speaks to us, you know, very pertinent today.
You know, it's still relevant. It still rings and breathes true. I mean, I think about for myself, someone who was from Jacksonville, Florida, Duval County, the first time that I, initially I had never heard of the Quran, didn't know a Muslim. However, when I picked it up in the late 90s, it was something that answered my questions. It was something that quenched a thirst in my soul. And so I say that to say, if it was relevant, if it shared that same relevance for someone in Arabia, in, you know, more than 1400 years ago, and yet it could still address that in, you know, in the 21st century, then we have to have a shadow of a doubt because there's still people coming to Islam because it answers their questions and solves their problems because it speaks to the soul of humanity. And that is still present. Jazakum Allah khair. Thank you, Sister Aisha. Thank you, Sister Aisha. So I think there was a tiny echo. I'm sorry about that, but perfect timing, because with that, it's time to conclude our webinar. I just wanna say, again, thank you so much to our speakers for joining us and to our viewers for tuning in and engaging in this really important discussion. And inshallah, we are going to keep it going over the next few weeks through the Yaqeen page. We hope that you benefited and that you'll continue to follow and support Yaqeen's work. I just want to remind everyone to please do support us by clicking the info icon at the top right of the video and or visiting yaqeeninstitute.org slash donate. So with that, I'm going to ask our speakers to just stay on for a few more minutes, but for everyone else, thank you so much for joining. Jazakum Allah khair.
Good night and wa'alaikum salam.
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