The Huffington Post recently asked women from all over to share pictures of themselves in a hijab with an explanation of what the hijab means to them. The images are stunning and the descriptions are powerful. These women talk about their agency, their freedom, their ancestry, their faith and their evolving relationship with the headscarf.
The headscarf has become a fairly loaded symbol, at times associated with extremism. It is a time when we need more voices, more stories, to make the symbol as complex as the women who choose to wear it.
The thing I find most refreshing about the campaign is the diversity of women and diversity of story. Chimamanda Ngozi’s TED talk “The Danger of a Single Story” warns us against hearing one story of someone who is different from you and then applying it to all people in that group. This single story phenomena is part of what is being Islamophobia, and this campaign is one step toward peace.
Keeping Faith Today 