VEILED: PERSPECTIVES
“In the summer, my friend and I would go to parks that were
pretty quiet and secluded and take off our scarves, have a picnic,
and relax. If anyone was coming we would be able to see and hear
them, so before they came by we would quickly put something over.”
Everything has its negative sides, but if the positive outweights the negative and you feel good,
then it’s the right choice. Swimming and working out for instance are slightly harder to engage in
if you wear hijab because of the public mixed-sex environment. However, with everything, there
is always an alternative route.
At times Ifrah feels she stands out because of the hijab and it makes her feel nervous, such as when
she is going to interviews. She sometimes wonders maybe if she didn’t look like this, she would
appear a certain way. People may let their personal judgements make up a personality for her and
think she is overly religious. At home she looks like everyone else, but in public in her hijab, it’s
an entirely different appearance. She wonders at times if her opportunities are sometimes justified
by her appearance in the hijab (mainly in the workforce). First impressions are so important and
people quickly make them and it’s hard to change those impressions. It’s difficult to think that the
hijab could potentially be that barrier or impression. It is a part of her, but it does not define her
as a person. Hijab has changed the way she presents herself over the course of time; it has made
her become more extroverted.
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