HIJAB PART 3 SABIHA

Happy New Year!!

So we begin another year. I've never been one for resolutions, i'm more into adventures, so I guess it will be another random year for me. However I couldn't start 2012 without treating you to another part of the Hijab project. Part 3 is Sabiha.

One of the wonderful things about doing this project is getting the chance to meet such inspirational women. A few months ago somehow and I do not remember who added who my path crossed with Sabiha on Facebook. During our interactions I got to know a little about this amazing sister, what she did, what she believed in and stood for. For me it was also brilliant to be able to converse with another Muslim female photographer. There's a few of us about and it's starting to become a little sister hood. So another member was more than welcome. So I was estatic when Sabiha agreed to take part in the project and I was just as excited to meet her as to photograph her. It was interesting to talk about how things were the same for us regardless of the difference on wearing of the hijab, it was noteworthy that regardless of this difference we are both facing similar barriers and stereotypes. Sometimes as Muslim females we forget that these are small differences that do not divide us, we all face the same struggle.

So anyway back to the story.

Sabiha is a freelance photographer/journalist, speaker/activist, she runs her own online business, she's also a mother, and a wife. As well as all this, and as if it wasn't enough Sabiha main work is heading a war wounded children’s charity in which she helps bring children via medical visa’s who have been injured severely. They are provided with plastic surgery treatments to reconstruct limbs and facial features which were mutilated as a result of war.

1) What made you decide to wear the Hijab?

When, how, where and why I decided to wear the Hijaab I don’t think I know or perhaps I was too young to remember (however there is a photograph of me wearing hijaab when I was 4 years old).

I never really knew the significance of it or why I was wearing it. Until September 11^th. when I was aged 16. I was travelling home from Sixth Form on the same bus that I had taken, with the same old faces that I had seen day in and day out.

Earlier in the day during my lesson a student had barged into the classroom yelling ‘Twin Towers have been hit by a plane’ from that point onward until the moment I stepped on that bus there was somewhat of an eerie silence amongst friends, non-muslim and muslim alike.

The bus was completely full of passengers, three Caucasian men and a young lady boarded the bus. They made their way down towards the back. She walked up beside me and the next feeling I got was a tugging at my hijaab, the young woman was pulling at it and I asked her to let it go, she tugged it again and I felt like a dog on a leash. I held on to hijaab really tightly, I’m not sure why, I never knew what it meant...she tried to tear it off and I screamed ‘LET GO OF MY SCARF’ she lunged at me and her punch landed in my throat, gasping for air...I fell on the floor and she held me down by my throat whilst the three men surrounded me, kicking me wherever they could find room on my body to do so and punched me until I couldn’t quite see straight ...I asked for help ‘THEY’RE RIPPING MY CLOTHES OFF, MY HIJAAB I CANT BREATHE, DO SOMETHING’ ...nobody bothered to get up, perhaps they wanted to see what would unveil beneath my hijaab, the men shouted at the girl ‘GET HER RAG OFF, GET IT OFF THE FILHTY TERRORIST’...no matter how hard she tried it didn’t unveil. An old lady stood up I could just make out her feet and walking stick, she raised it up and with a fit of anger began to wave her stick about over me hitting one of them on the head. The bus came to a sudden stop and the driver had made his way, we were all haled off, waiting for police to arrive. Thankfully they were severely punished for what they did to me. I was escorted to hospital to the waiting comfort of my family’s arms, all torn and broken and I remember the very first thing I wanted to do was to take off my hijaab, it had suffocated me, chocked me, brought me agony, the pin left a cut in my throat but I took a deep breath ‘it didn’t unveil’...’I’m alive’ I thought...God protected my modesty to the very end and that is when I decided what wearing the hijaab meant to me, I chose instead to let the experience strengthen my belief in the hijaab and educate myself.

2) How does wearing the Hijab make you feel?

I feel extremely exhilarated, liberated, on top of the world, fearless, confident, free; words you wouldn’t think to associate with the Hijaab. How refreshing it is for me when I can slap ignorance in the face and show that I am not what you think I am. I somewhat love the feeling of controversy and the feeling that I get when walking into a room knowing that a million questions are flying/whizzing around in the minds of the people seated. I hold the key to their questions, they just have to open their minds and I promise they will feel exhilarated too when they search me for answers. Oh and you know that feeling when your hair sticks to your lip gloss, you're forever searching for the miniscule hair and it’s so frustrating well, I don’t have to worry about that anymore thanks to my handy hair trap, my hijaab.

        3) What have been the positives and negatives of wearing the Hijab?

My non-muslim friends found this insatiable quest to try to uncover the latest problem with my newfound love for the hijab, after that horrid day they couldn’t understand why I still bothered to wear it, but all their negativity empowered and made my resolve stronger. Negativity can go take a flying jump because I do not have the time to stop and listen to it from anyone. The positive events in my life and believe me my life is quite eventful are all done whilst wearing my hijaab, it does not burden me with any limitations and it has become a fusion of my head now. The list of positive reasons of wearing the hijaab is endless but I found a new positive reason about hijaab the other day whilst I was walking to my car, it served as a good protection from bird poop!

So that's the end of part three. Below you will see the word comment, if you click on it you can leave me some comments about the project so far. It would be really great if we could use this as a starting place for some discussions on the subject xxx