{UAH} World Hijab Day 2018: women across the world don Islamic headscarf
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World Hijab Day 2018: women across the world don Islamic headscarf
Muslims and non-Muslims encouraged to join initiative to reduce negative stigma
Muslim women adjust their hijabs before prayers to mark the end of Eid in Burgess Park, London, in 2014
Today is World Hijab Day, a worldwide initiative to fight negativity and discrimination against women who wear the Islamic head covering.
Women from 190 countries are expected to participate in the event, which encourages Muslims and non-Muslims alike to experience life as a hijabi (a woman who wears the hijab).
"I'm 18-year old muslimah representing the Philippines. The message I wanna convey to you is that, even you seem like a stranger in your own country, still hold on your faith. Because Allah is the real judge not the people around you."-Inna #StrongInHijab #WorldHijabDay
World Hijab Day is the brainchild of Nazma Khan, a US citizens who moved from Bangladesh to New York City with her family at the age of 11.
Khan told Al Jazeera that the prejudice and hostility she encountered as a hijab-wearing woman ramped up following the 9/11 attacks.
"I was chased, spit on, surrounded by men, called a terrorist, Osama bin Laden," she said.
After discussions with other Muslim women who had undergone similar experiences, in 2013, Khan launched the first World Hijab Day.
The annual event expresses solidarity with Muslim women who wear the hijab, which has become a flashpoint for tensions between secular societies and religious Muslim communities within them.
In addition to a spate of "burka bans" targeting the full-face veil, several countries, including France, Egypt, Syria and Turkey, have seen social and legal debates about the place of the hijab in public life.
A report last year by the Council on American-Islamic Relations found that out of more than 350 Islamophobic hate crimes in the US in the first half of 2017, "15% described a Muslim woman's headscarf as a trigger", Mic reports.
Women of other faiths or none are also encouraged to don a headscarf for the day to gain insight and empathy for women who wear the hijab.
"By walking in my shoes for one day on February 1, women would see that I am no different from them," Khan said.
Wakako san is actually not a muslim, but she is beyond happy to take part& try wearing hijab. She said tht she highly respected ppl who observe the teachings of a religion, just like the muslim women who fulfill the obligation to wear hijab.-Amaliah #stronginhijab #WorldHijabDay
Thank you @AnnieWellsMSP for donning the hijab to show solidarity with the #WorldHijabDay movement
Supporters of the initiative say it is does not push a certain interpretation of Islam or pressure Muslim women to cover their heads, but simply provides visible support and positivity to counter the stigma which surrounds the hijab in non-Muslim societies.
However, the event has been criticised within the Muslim community as giving succour to hardliners who see head coverings a mandatory element of Islam.
In 2016, Maajid Nawaz, founder of counter-extremist thinktank Quilliam, wrote in The Daily Beast that World Hijab Day ignored the complexities surrounding Islamic modesty codes which are enforced on millions of women, whether through legal or social pressure.
Nawaz added that progressive non-Muslim women were inadvertently playing into this agenda, urging them to remember that "their counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Iran, and under Taliban or Isis rule also require our solidarity in taking their hijabs off".
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