Choice
Sobia
- "I see wearing a hijab as a choice, and I know for some of my hijabi Muslim sisters, it is a choice that brings them closer to their faith and to other Muslims. I think that’s great for them, but for me, the choice has never carried that kind of weight or appeal.
- "But now it’s more like my personal choice because my parents aren’t here to like make me go to church every Sunday and they don’t like make me be apart of the MSA and stuff, so it’s more of a personal choice now."
- "Covering should still be someone's choice, especially in modern countries like America."
- “Hijab is a choice, right? No one pressures you...at least I was lucky enough not to be pressured into wearing it and so yeah my family is huge and everyone is at a different level of faith, everyone interprets Islam differently. Just because we’re from the same family doesn’t mean we are all practicing the same way. So yeah I definitely have cousins, aunts, my mom doesn’t cover all the time so that’s a choice. It doesn’t mean that they’re not practicing Islam properly it’s just however they interpret it. It doesn’t mean that they don’t dress modestly, it’s just their personal choice and you can definitely see that in my family and friend circle. There are people that don’t cover.”
- "So covering is already a choice which is the opposite of oppression because covering is a choice that we make. Obviously there may be cases in the Middle East, extreme cases, where it’s not a choice for them but for the most part, especially in America or there could be pressures if you come from a specific family, but I don’t think the hijab implies oppression at all-it’s a connection to your faith. "
- "So I know that in the Quran it says not to drink but it’s my choice to drink or not but I’m going to make that choice later in life. I think it’s great for you to have your kids grow to have a community and learn their morals growing up but at the end of the day you’re going to come to a point where you’re an adult and those are your choices and you can interpret things the way you want to and you can make religion a part of your daily life the way you want it to be."
- "It's usually a personal choice and it's never something that should be forced in our opinion, or maybe in the Lebanese culture."
- "It's my choice whether or not I want to cover and I don't care what other people do or say about it."
- "It's a woman's choice and the whole point of feminism is about letting women choose. So it's not oppression because number one, the woman is choosing to cover herself."
- "I think no one really influenced me, it was just something that for me that I chose a different lifestyle because our religion is not just like we're going to go to church on a Sunday, it's how you live your life and practice life, how you eat, how you shower, how you do all these things so for me it was just something, a personal choice between me and God that it helps me to be more humble, so it was just kind of like, just my choice."
- "No, and my sisters didn’t either. They came to me to talk about it saying like, “Hey, I think I want to cover.” And I was always like, “That’s great! But make sure you have a sound reason for it, not because someone is telling you to or because you’re like peer pressured.”
- "And I would say that feminism is more about free will and free choice rather than either, or. And like, yeah, I have encountered people in the past who say like, “Isn’t that an oppressive symbol?” And I say, “Well, not really to me. And not really to thousands of other Hijabi women who have chosen to cover and are happy. You know, it’s only oppressive to you because your idea of freedom is to not cover and like openly embrace your sexuality, which is totally okay.” But I think that like the opposite should equally be accepted and appreciated."
- "Yeah, it definitely makes me angry. I kind of just want to wear it even more, like in their face. Yeah, I am afraid, but at the same time it’s kind of burned a fire in my belly to do more activisty things and advocate for Muslim women who wear the Hijab and don’t have the ability to advocate for themselves. And so that’s really important to me. Especially right after the election, I think I was really afraid to go out and I talked a lot about it with my friends, and my mom was like, “Oh you’re just being stupid, like don’t let them win,” you know. But I understand that it was kind of silly, but at the same time it was a legitimate concern. But it’s very important for me to still be myself and I’m not going to change.
- "For me, definitely number one is it's between me and God and I feel this is something that pleases God and I'm gonna do it and that' enough reason for me. The other aspect is I feel it's a very strong statement of - I don't want to say feminism but - it's a statement that says, tells the others, the people dealing with me that I will decide what to show and what not to show and you will respect me as I am. You will respect my intelligence, you will respect me as a person, not as a pretty thing. You will not dictate on me how much skin I should show in order to be accepted. What my hair should look like in order to be accepted. So I feel like I'm making a statement on the secular level, not just the religious level."