Originally, the following piece was published on Kunc radio, covering Northern Colorado in the US, written by Tom Gjelten.
To wear or not to wear, that is the question. For an American Muslim woman, deciding whether or not to wear the headscarf called a hijab isn’t a fashion choice to be taken lightly. It comes with the added weight of a public declaration of faith: the burdens and joys of wearing one’s heart on one’s sleeve, or in this case, one’s hijab.
Recently, Larycia Hawkins, a Christian professor at Wheaton College, received flak for donning a headscarf to show solidarity with Muslim women. In light of World Hijab Day, we decided to shed some light on this incident by finding out what wearing the headscarf means to Muslim women in America.
Ironically, not wearing a hijab did more to hide Maryam Adamu’s true self from the world than wearing one ever did. Adamu, who was born in North Carolina to immigrants from Nigeria, started wearing a headscarf just three years ago. Before that, people had no idea she was Muslim until she told them.
Follow the story here …