Juma Thoughts: Non Muslims Wearing Hijab

Women who do not follow Islam as their religion but feel drawn towards hijab often ask me if we Muslims will feel disrespected by them wearing the hijab. No, we do not.

Modesty is a right God-given to all womenkind, that we should be valued for more than our curves or features en Vogue dictated commercially.

I was once a non-muslim hijabi. I wondered the same thing, a day at a fair in Oman when I was wearing an abaya. Since I was not wearing a headscarf with it, I wondered if I was disrespecting the garment, so I kept tying the front-open abaya up above my knees so it was like a long tunic top, rather than a beautiful floor-length creation. They probably thought I was wearing the abaya very odd, but they definately didn't find my love of their clothing to be disrespectful.

In fact, my quest towards understanding Islam, began with the hijab, which I used to find oppressive, before, when my plane first touched down upon the Seeb airport in Oman. I stared at the Omani girls in their bulky chin wrapped hijabs and black silky night-gown flowing abayaat (abayaat is plural of abaya), and thought they were jealous of me and my mother and sister. LOL, if I had only known what they were wearing UNDERNEATH their abayaat:D

At first, since my extra long linen tourist shorts still caused men to gape at the grocery but girls to smile kindly and patiently with me, I ventured out into wearing salwar kameez outfits, which confused people entirely, the pakistani population especially. But I found them comfy and wore my shalwar suit alot. Even though the top part of the suit left my arms bare, in the hot sun, I often wore the dupatta over my hair. I saw girls in their abayas but the fancy abayas in the mall cost too much, and my parents told me it would be disrespectful for me to wear one anyway, I didn't buy one until near the end of my stay, but once I got it, I put it on after I left the house, and even put on hijab, and felt... completely safe. Still sexy, but secure and safe.

I didn't feel comfortable wearing my abaya because of my misinformation soooo, I wore the cotton jalibiyias and a headscarf and all the Omanis we knew actually seemed sooooooooo happy about that. The girls would talk to me in Arabic and I would talk back and we couldn't understand a word of what the other was saying but we'd actually talk for a whole half hour at a time LOL. The three boys who policed our neighborhood (who we annoyed all the time because they were the only men who would speak to us without hitting on us) laughed so hard when they saw me start wearing jalibiyias but that's probably because when I first met them I had run onto the road out of our walled garden crying and without shoes onto the burning pavement. Yeah, so the jalibiyia was probably a big improvement:D

If you want to wear something, go ahead. As a Muslim, I have reasons I can't wear certain things to certain places but if you are a non-muslim and like hijab, who is stopping you from feeling comfortable and safe and secure in your clothes and skin?

Honestly, I respect more covered women more than uncovered ones (if we are talking about physical first impressions---it takes me a second to recover from a woman's breasts shoved in my face or seeing her thong) but it is the woman's morals, ethics, and her way of dealing with people that keep my respect. If you wear hijab, because you respect yourself, I am proud of you for your sake. Hijab is an issue one has with one's self.