Today, 1st of February on the world Calendar is the World Hijab Day!
This is a day set aside to create global awareness about the use of hijab (head cover) by Muslim women, to correct the wrong notion of it (the hijab) being a symbol of oppression, to stop the victimisation against its users, and to encourage women of all religions and backgrounds to wear and experience the hijab so as to show solidarity and help fight bigotry, discrimination, and prejudice.
Hijab is a common form of headscarf (worn by Muslim women) that covers the head, the neck, and some other parts of the body. Different from "Niqab" or "Burqa" that covers the whole body, leaving a slit or a mesh for the eyes.
Muslim women are required by their religious injunction to cover their body without revealing their beauty and nakedness. Thus the hijab is generally associated with piety and modesty.
There are two other similar events (related to the hijab) which must not be confused.
1. The Global Pink Hijab Day which was started by a high school student in Columbia, Hend El-Buri in 2004, and aimed at removing the stereotype of Muslim women in joining the campaign for breast cancer awareness with their pink hijabs. It is celebrated every last Wednesday in October.
And
2. International Purple Hijab Day started by the "Voice of Libyan Women" and celebrated every second Saturday in February. It is an international day of remembrance for those who have experienced domestic violence while using the hijab. The purple colour was chosen because it is associated with mourning.
The world Hijab Day started in 2013 by Nazman Khan, a Bangladeshi, who (being the only hijabi in her school in New York) experienced several forms of victimisation, oppressions and abuse, especially from her American colleagues and during the period after the 9/11 incident.
Violence, victimisation, discrimination and all forms of prejudice against the use of hijab has become a topic of global concern. Most Anti-Hijab activists eighter believe that Muslim women who use the hijab are forced to use it and thus amount to enslavement which goes against their right of feeedom, or that the hijab constitute a security threat as it is being used by terrorist to perpetrate evil acts, and thus the ban in many western countries.
Some Muslim women who do not use the hijab either feel ashamed of using it because they feel it signifies backwardness, lack of civilisation, etc or are restrained by circumstance prevailing in their society.
According to the Pew Research Centre, latest figures show that anti-muslim hate crimes in the US were the highest since 2001.
The Southern Poverty Law Centre reports that more than 30 of such incidents happened in the first five days after Trump's election.
In Nigeria, hate crimes against the hijab has heightened over the past few years. There are reported cases of violence, denial, attacks, media gang up, conspiracies, etc against the use of hijab.
The recent legal battle between The Muslim Students' Society of Nigeria (MSSN) and several anti hijab groups, as well as that of the sacking of a Lagos Television (LTV) newscaster for her use of hijab, and numerous other are examples of such discriminative acts.
The World Hijab Day, however, aims at correcting these wrong notions and stopping the victimisation. Thus the theme for this year (2017)'s awareness is:
The choice of February 1 perfectly aligns with this movement as it coincide with the American "National Freedom Day" - a day that celebrates freedom from slavery. February 1, 1865 was the day President Abraham Lincoln signed the 13th amendment to the U. S. constitution - a joint House and Senate Resolution that outlaws slavery in the United States.
The Day has gone global ever since, and is currently being celebrated in about 140 countries in the world.
