Lifestyle & Culture

To Wear Hijab or Not?

By Hannan Abdul-Kadiri

Staff writer

Fatima Hussari, 14, has her reasons for donning a hijab every day. “Wearing my hijab helps me remember to be good,” she said.

Noga Lo, 45, has her reasons for not doing so. “Any religion that you follow, you should follow with your heart. And if I wear the hijab, it won’t be from my heart,” she said.

Deciding to wear the hijab is a personal choice. Some see it as a sign of religious devotion, while others see it as a needless rule. Clearly, it’s an issue that can divide.

”As for the women who don’t wear their hijab, I feel sorry for them. And I feel so bad because they aren’t obeying God’s command,” said Imam Suraju H. Yahuza, of the Yankasa Masjid in the Bronx.

However, Waseekah Rizwan, a Muslim woman said, “Wearing a hijab is a personal preference.”

Born in Sri Lanka, reared in Saudi Arabia and living in the United States since in January 2001, Rizwan stopped wearing the hijab after the September 11th terror attacks because she feared someone who opposed Islam might attack her in some way. “Things were a little different,” the wife and mother of four said,. “Everything I did was associated with being bad because I had a hijab.”

Yet, in August 2018, Rizwan felt that she was safe enough to wear the veil again. An American citizen, she has not forced her ideology on her children, including her two daughters. They can make their own decision about the hijab.

For Lo, a Senegalese woman who sells African clothes at Union Square, being Muslim does not solely depend on how often any Muslim woman wears the hijab. “I’m Muslim, born and raised. But that doesn’t mean I have to cover my hair,” she said.

Like Lo, Anika Rahman, a Bronx High School of Science senior, does not don a hijab daily. In high school, Rahman decided to only wear her hijab at events hosted by her father’s side of the family. “When I was in middle school, I was forced to wear a hijab every day. It was very hard for me to make friends,” she said. “Now that I don’t wear my hijab daily, I get treated normally. People are not hesitant when approaching me.”

But Imam Yahuza thinks there are no excuses when it comes to wearing the hijab. “Life gets crazy,” he said. “No matter how crazy things get, there’s still no reason to not follow Allah’s word.”