Written by: Kanika Liburd
Kanika Liburd, senior legal studies major, is the vice president of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Beta Tau Chapter. Liburd participated in a social event that called for non-Muslim students to wear a hijab for a few hours and has decided to share her experience.
On Feb. 10, an undergraduate organization called the International Muslim Association (IMAN) had their annual Hijab-A-Thon event. At this event, the members placed hijabs and scarves on students and asked us to wear them until their dinner later that evening. At the dinner, we were to share any experiences that took place throughout the day. After hearing the options, I decided to wear a full two-piece light-green hijab that covered most of my head, except for the front of my face.
I consider myself an Afro-Caribbean American citizen. I also consider myself a non-denominational Christian. In college, I have learned that many religions and cultures wear different forms of head scarves, including some sects of Christianity and many African cultures. I am also a part of many multicultural organizations. These organizations have placed me in many positions in which I had to interact with people of different ethnicities and religious backgrounds. I naively thought that NSU students, faculty or other non-collegiate visitors would not treat me differently. But my theory was drastically incorrect.
After placing the hijab on my head, I instantly felt more regal; however, wearing the hijab did take some getting used to. In the four hours that I wore the hijab, I received many dirty looks, some people walked off sidewalks as I approached them, and one student even followed me through the UC Pit just to ask me if I knew Jesus was my “Lord and Savior.”
Those people riled me up a bit; however, the final straw was when an older man called wearing the hijab, which is just a piece of fabric, stupid and ridiculous because Muslims did not wear it where he was from. I took great offense to this because a few of my friends, who are Muslim, highly revere their hijabs. The statement that that older gentleman made catapulted our conversation into a discussion of its meaning and significance. Sadly, that man ended the discussion with the same opinion that he started it with.
That day, I got first-hand experience of some of the discrimination that Muslims experience every day. I took my short four and a half hours as a learning experience. When I placed the hijab on my head early in the afternoon, I felt like I was wearing royal garments, but, by the end of the day, I wanted to hide away from the world. It still surprises me that just wearing something on my head changed the world’s perspective of me.
This experience made me realize that every person, NSU students or not, should respect each other’s religions and beliefs because, at the end of the day, no matter what religious sect or belief, we are all human, and we all deserve respect.
