In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
How old were you when you started wearing the hijab?
I converted to Islam February 2013 when I was nineteen. In September of 2013 I started wearing hijab when I was alone to get used to the feeling, and from then on I occasionally wore a scarf. I started wearing hijab full-time in June or July of 2014, not entirely sure when it was. It took me quite a while to get used to it myself, that’s why I waited so long before I became a full-time hijabi. I didn’t want to make the choice to wear hijab to take it off later because I don’t feel comfortable with it. I didn’t want to take a step back.
At first when I converted I just tried to cover up my body first, because of course that’s a very important step as well. Then I felt like I didn’t know enough yet, so I didn’t allow myself to wear hijab outside because I didn’t want others to get the wrong idea. I didn’t want to misrepresent Islam. I kept reading and learning about Islam, my behaviour changed and eventually I felt good enough with myself to wear hijab outside.
I tried it out first, started wearing it when I was at places nobody knew me. After a while that felt good enough so I switched to wearing full-time.
What/who influenced you to become a hijabi?
There were (and still are) several things influencing and encouraging me to be a hijabi. Firstly there is of course the Qur’an and Hadith telling me and encouraging me to wear hijab. Then there also are the islamic lectures I saw and listened to on YouTube, people like Mufti Menk. And while we’re talking about YouTube, there also are other people on there that inspired me quite a lot: ChelseyHijabLove, Emoshe Boutique and The Sewist.
Besides these quite obvious influences there was also this girl I used to see in the bus when I went to school. It was just an ordinary girl, always wearing a black abaya, a nice scarf and All-Stars. I saw many people wearing hijab, but she was the first girl that stood out to me. I remember that I was thinking ‘Masha’Allah she looks so beautiful wearing those clothes, insha’Allah I will be like that one day’. I am quite happy that I am able to tell you that alhamdullilah I have changed into a girl like that.
How has hijab changed your life?
Before I converted I was not the best of people. To be honest, I was far from being a good girl. I never really knew who I was, what I should do or how to be happy. Converting to Islam changed my entire personality for the better. But when I started wearing hijab I changed even more. For the better, of course.
Now that I have been wearing hijab for a while, I feel more confident. I no longer try to get attention from people, I don’t provoke people, I try very hard not to lose my cool even though that’s hard sometimes. I feel calm, I smile a lot more, overall I just feel like a better, happier version of myself. I finally found myself, alhamdullilah.
What does hijab mean to you?
For me, hijab means many things. It means covering up your body and your hair, covering your beauty out of the goodness of your heart, out of respect and belief in Allah (swt). It means being modest, both in my looks and in my behaviour. It means that people can’t judge me on my looks but have to judge based on my actions and the things I say. It means saving my beauty for my husband. It means that every moment of the day I am reminded that I am Muslim and I should do good. It means that other people recognise me as being Muslim. It means that I feel comfortable with who I am and what I stand for. It means peace and it means love.
How do you deal with the rude comments/stares you get due to being a hijabi?
I haven’t found a perfect way to deal with this just yet. In the beginning I noticed a lot of people were confused, surprised and sometimes even annoyed when they noticed me wearing hijab. Women were giving me nasty looks, men were staring and boys my own age wanted to talk with me. I learned quickly to ignore rude comments because they were only making me feel bad and it might just be that I got really good at it or the rude comments have stopped altogether.
People are still staring quite a lot though, I have talked to some people about this and they think it is mostly because people are surprised to see me wearing hijab in a time where more and more people choose not to wear hijab. My skin color might also be part of the reason people are staring. Sometimes I just ignore people staring, sometimes I greet people with a smile to let them know I’m not a strange occurrence, and sometimes if it really gets too much I cover my face so people don’t know that they should stare. It surprises me that there are fewer people staring at a niqabi in a western country than they are staring at a convert muslimah.
What is your favorite thing about wearing the hijab?
My favorite thing about wearing the hijab is the comfort and joy it gives me to wear hijab. You can wear a different style every day when you feel like it, you can experiment, you can choose a different color each day without having to dye your hair, it adds some sort of mystery to your looks and it’s very comfortable. It also gives you an excuse to shop for new scarves whenever you feel like it.
A nice extra is the shelter it gives from all weather circumstances: In the winter it can get quite cold, and wearing a scarf on my head protects me pretty well from the cold. When it rains I barely even notice because it doesn’t fall directly on me, which is great. When it is extremely sunny I tend to get sunburned within 30 minutes - it’s quite difficult to get sunburned when you’re completely covered. When it’s really windy my hair doesn’t fly all over the place, as long as I keep my scarf tucked in my coat it will just stay in place.
What is your hijab must have accessory?
Accessories I can’t live without are my underscarves, tie-back bonnets, straight pins and security pins. Without those my scarf just doesn’t stay in place the way I want it.
Besides those I also really like are those decorated hijab pins, they are so pretty and can totally complete a look in my opinion.
What advice could you give a newbie hijabi?
Practice until you have a couple of go-to styles you like that are easy to do when you’re in a rush. When you feel like you don’t have a scarf to wear, buy new ones. When you want to give up, don’t, hold on just a while longer and insha’Allah you will notice that you feel better about it soon.
When you haven’t made the choice yet: make sure you feel comfortable with hijab before you decide to wear it full-time. Don’t haste your decision to wear hijab. Insha’Allah eventually you will feel that it is the right time to make the decision to wear hijab.
What is one hijab trend you never understood?
Pairing hijab with wearing leggings. Or wearing a scarf but leaving part of your hair covered, although that might be a cultural thing for the women who choose to do this.
What question do you get asked the most due to wearing the hijab?
The number one question I get is: ‘What is your ethnicity?’, followed by ‘Where are your parents from?’, ‘Is this some sort of cultural thing?’ and ‘Why did you do this to yourself, or did someone else do this to you?’
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