Stop Asking If I’m Hot in My Hijab
Your curiosity is offensive
I remember when I came to school wearing a hijab for the first time. A scarf, a simple piece of cloth wrapped around my head, caused people to react very strangely.
“Ermm, you look… kinda different.”
Yes, Sherlock, I’ve realized that too. When another classmate sits down in a ridiculous new puffy bomber jacket they bought from an after-Christmas sale, no one bombards them with questions and awkward looks and comments about how they “look different.” But when a Brown Muslim girl, now wearing a hijab, sits in her seat, it makes the whole class feel, look, and act awkward.
(And it’s not just White people who are less familiar with the hijab who are guilty of this. Brown Muslim boys whose mothers wear a hijab and Muslim girls who now also wear a hijab will comment and tease: “Oh, so you, like, wear a hijab now.”)
I get it. Change creates curiosity. When people see something different from what they’re used to or something they don’t understand, they want answers. But their curious questions cause me a lot of anxiety.
When you wear a piece of clothing that represents your religion and a stranger wants to talk about it, I anticipate the worst.
