The way anyone chooses to dress is not something I’m entitled to have an opinion on. We are all on our own journey.
But as this may be a question relevant to so many, I’ve been asked this question multiple times. Why modesty? Why hijab?
I have been born and raised in a non muslim country, I don’t have a family that enforced religion or directed me to wear the hijab. Yet I’ve been doing it to the best of my ability from age 10.
I’ve powered through judgments and stereotypes and having a growing community of like minded women has been my ultimate support.
A couple of years back, I finally landed a corporate managerial role. Ultimately, I felt like I made it in life. I’m trying to follow my faith, I got a stellar education, in my own mind I was killing it and was a visible Muslim while doing it all.
One day in a meeting with my senior director she asked me how old I was when I came to Canada. She was well intentioned but I caught the gist of where this was headed. I simply told her I was born and raised in Canada. I saw her face change.
She opened up to me that she had never had someone who wore the hijab work with her and that learning that this was something entirely voluntary on my part was shocking to her. So she asked me… “So then why do you do it, if no one is forcing you?”
This is a question that every conscious modest dressing or hijab wearing woman will have a different answer to. However my immediate initial response to her was what brought me to this so many years ago. If the One who made me wants this from me, there’s no other way about it for me. May Allah keep me close to him and guide me. I’m am not a perfect person and Allah does not require that of me, but he requires me to strive and do my best. Dressing modestly and wearing a hijab is just a part of my effort in doing my best.
What are the ways in which you strive for your faith?
