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World Hijab Day highlights issues of micro-aggressions, multiculturalism

Students spread awareness about Muslim experience

<p>Discussion moderators and speakers addressed the participants in this year's World Hijab Day event.&nbsp;</p>

Discussion moderators and speakers addressed the participants in this year's World Hijab Day event. 

The University’s second annual World Hijab Day celebration saw an encouraging increase in participants. Widespread discussion on a global scale has helped bring attention to the event here at the University.

“Now, because of recent events, people are starting to really hone in on the fact that [Islamophobia] is a big problem in our community,” second-year College student Attiya Latif said.

This year, everyone was invited to wear the Hijab for a day from Feb. 1 through Feb. 5. The week culminated with an event in Newcomb South Ballroom where moderators led discussions and participants talked about their experiences wearing the Hijab and Islam in general.

“We need to start talking about the best way to make Muslim students feel at home here, and maybe one of those ways is even to use this very narrow conversation about not just the headscarf, but freedom of whatever you want to wear, to talk about religion and to talk about why it’s so hard to be Muslim in America today,” Latif said.

Latif and third-year College student Lauren Stroupe said it is even more difficult to be Muslim at a place as homogenous as the University.

“I wore the Hijab all day Monday,” Stroupe said. “I found myself feeling more self-conscious than I usually do walking around, and I found myself searching for people who were also wearing the Hijab and not finding a lot of people.”

Stroupe, who moderated one of the discussion tables at Friday’s event, chose to participate in World Hijab Day after interning at the Center for Politics and witnessing micro-aggressions displayed towards a delegation from Afghanistan she led around Grounds.

During the discussion Friday, students recognized the choice to wear the Hijab and education's key role in stopping these micro-aggressions.

“We’re not here to have a conversation about why women should or shouldn’t wear the scarf, because it’s a state of being,” Latif said.

During the dialogue, attendees were assigned a table where moderators shared their own experiences and prompted discussion on topics like micro-aggressions, cultural appropriation and appreciation, feminism and the choice to wear the Hijab. One speaker shared an anecdote about his mother, who spent two years looking for a job while wearing the Hijab to interviews, only to be offered a position on the first day she interviewed without wearing it.

“We wanted to motivate people to move past blind solidarity and question their assumptions and figure out ways that they can be allies beyond just sharing an article on Facebook,” Latif said.

Latif said it is not enough just to use the term multicultural to describe a community without engaging in real discussions surrounding multiculturalism.

“The word ‘multiculturalism’ is really fun to use and sometimes people will throw statistics around, but in reality a community’s not multicultural unless we’re actually having conversations,” said Latif. “I just think we have to have a larger conversation about what it means to be a community of trust if we’re going to use that word.”

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