David Douglas helps celebrate World Hijab Day

Posted Feb. 14, 2022

By Farhiya Mohammed

Staff Reporter

David Douglas celebrated World Hijab Day on Feb. 1, a day when Muslim and non-Muslim women wear, and learn to wear, the hijab to know what it is like.

Nazma Khan was a refugee from Bangladesh who immigrated to New York City. During her time there, she faced discrimination for wearing the Hijab. She created the annual event in 2013 and called it ‘World Hijab Day," and it has taken place on Feb. 1 every year since. World Hijab Day has inspired women of all religions to know what it’s like to wear the Hijab for a day, as well as acknowledge why the Hijab is worn.

The David Douglas High School MSA (Muslim Student Association), led by seniors Naima Ahmed and Nadiya Abdukadir, organized the event this year. This is the fourth year DDHS has celebrated this event. It has meant a lot to MSA leaders because they are Hijabies themselves, a person who wears the Hijab.

Ahmed and Abdukadir felt it was their role to represent this event at David Douglas.

“I think it was a success because for a moment people truly got to experience what it feels like to be a Hijabi, even though they will never be able to experience the lifetime of questions and staring we constantly get,” said Ahmed. “For just a second they get to experience it’s not so easy, how it’s not so easy to wrap your hijab perfectly every morning. It’s not so easy to make sure to correctly adjust it every second of every day. And I think that’s so important because now they have a chance to sympathize. For me, that’s a huge success.”

The Hijab is a symbol of modesty and privacy in Islam. Women wear it to cover their beauty. Wearing the Hijab doesn’t mean to only cover their hair but their chest, too.