Hijab Quotes

“There is a face beneath this mask, but it isn't me. I'm no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it, or the bones beneath that.”
― Steve Moore, V for Vendetta

“I have always thought that if women's hair posed so many problems, God would certainly have made us bald.”
― Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis

“What do you see when you think of me,
A figure cloaked in mystery
With eyes downcast and hair covered,
An oppressed woman yet to be discovered?
Do you see backward nations and swirling sand,
Humpbacked camels and the domineering man?
Whirling veils and terrorists
Or maybe fanatic fundamentalists?
Do you see scorn and hatred locked
Within my eyes and soul,
Or perhaps a profound ignorance of all the world as a whole?
Yet . . .
You fail to see
The dignified persona
Of a woman wrapped in maturity.
The scarf on my head
Does not cover my brain.
I think, I speak, but still you refrain
From accepting my ideals, my type of dress,
You refuse to believe
That I am not oppressed.
So the question remains:
What do I see when I think of you?
I see another human being
Who doesn’t have a clue.”
― Uzma Jalaluddin , Ayesha at Last

“With my veil I put my faith on display—rather than my beauty. My value as a human is defined by my relationship with God, not by my looks. I cover the irrelevant. And when you look at me, you don’t see a body. You view me only for what I am: a servant of my Creator.
You see, as a Muslim woman, I’ve been liberated from a silent kind of bondage. I don’t answer to the slaves of God on earth. I answer to their King.”
― Yasmin Mogahed, Reclaim Your Heart: Personal Insights on Breaking Free from Life's Shackles

“Too many people look at it as though it (the hijab) has bizarre powers sewn into its microfibers. Powers that transform Muslim girls into UCOs (Unidentified Covered Objects), which turn Muslim girls from an 'us' to a 'them.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Hijab adalah pembebasan dari ketergantungan kosmetik dan topeng. Hijab adalah pembebasan untuk jujur pada hatimu. Hijab adalah pembebas jiwamu dari rantai-rantai duniawi.”
― Mahdavi, Ratu yang Bersujud

“I dressed the way I did not because I was trying to be a nun, but because it felt good—and because it made me feel less vulnerable in general, like I wore a kind of armor every day. It was a personal preference.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“If a woman had a right to wear a miniskirt, surely I had the right to choose my headscarf. My choice was a sign of independence of mind. Surely, to choose to wear what I wanted was an assertion of my feminism. I was a feminist, wasn't I?

But I was to learn that choosing to wear the hijab is much easier than choosing to take it off. And that lesson was an important reminder of how truly "free" choice is.”
― Mona Eltahawy, Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution

“I want women like Aunt Michelle
to understand
that it is not only women who look like them
are free
who think
and care about other women.”
― Jasmine Warga, Other Words for Home

“Instead, I’d been counting the number of dipshit things people had said to me today. I’d been holding strong at fourteen until I made my way to my next class and some kid passing me in the hall asked if I wore that thing on my head because I was hiding bombs underneath and I ignored him, and then his friend said that maybe I was secretly bald and I ignored him, and then a third one said that I was probably, actually, a man, and just trying to hide it and finally I told them all to fuck off, even as they congratulated one another on having drummed up these excellent hypotheses. I had no idea what these asswipes looked like because I never glanced in their direction, but I was thinking seventeen, seventeen, as I got to my next class way too early and waited, in the dark, for everyone else to show up.
These, the regular injections of poison I was gifted from strangers, were definitely the worst things about wearing a headscarf. But the best thing about it was that my teachers couldn’t see me listening to music.
It gave me the perfect cover for my earbuds.”
― Tahereh Mafi, A Very Large Expanse of Sea

“The Anti-Stereotype Sonnet

Black is not evil.
White is not trash.
Brown is not illegal.
Muslims don’t crash.
Women ain't weak.
Jews ain't greedy.
Men ain't playboys.
Queer ain't sickly.
Hijab is not oppression.
Hourglass ain't beauty.
Faith is not delusion.
Atheists don't lack morality.
Assumptions only reveal shallowness.
Beyond stereotypes lies humaneness.”
― Abhijit Naskar, I Vicdansaadet Speaking: No Rest Till The World is Lifted

“All these young women these days who describe the veil as a signifier of their identity. I tell them they are suffering what the presently unfashionable philosopher Karl Marx would have called false consciousness. In most of the world the veil is not a free choice. Women are forced into invisibility by men. These girls in the West making their quote-unquote free choices are legitimizing the oppression of their sisters in the parts of the world where the choice is not free.”
― Salman Rushdie, Quichotte

“Le voile est essentielle pour le monde, soit par l'organisme, ou au moyen de la connaissance”
― AainaA-Ridtz A R, The Sacred Key — Transcending Humanity

“Oh—don’t worry,” he said quickly. “I’m like eighty percent gay.”
“That’s nice,” I said, irritated, “but this isn’t about you.”
― Tahereh mafi

“We accept and willingly support the subjugation of our sisters to the East, even though we would never accept that for ourselves or our sisters in the West. Here, we demand that women be able to "free the nipple," but we support those in the East who demand that women "cover their head."
It is devastating to see this disconnect. ... As much as women in the Muslim world are fighting back, we will only succeed if we work together. Women in the East must work together, and women in the West--please reach back your hand and pull women in the East up the road to equality with you.”
― Yasmine Mohammed, بی‌حجاب: چگونه لیبرال‌های غرب بر آتش اسلام‌گرایی رادیکال می‌دمند

“I want women like Aunt Michelle to understand that it is not only women who look like them who are free, who think, and care about other women.

That it is possible for two things to look similar but be completely different.

That I cover my head like other strong, respected women have done before me, like Malala Yousafzai, like Kariman Abuljadayel, like my mama.

That I cover my head not because I am ashamed, forced, or hiding.

But because I am proud and want to [be] seen as I am.”
― Jasmine Warga, Other Words for Home

“Hijab and Habit (Sonnet 1185)

Hijab and Habit are both
symbols of sacred humility,
Yet the latter receives respect,
while the former faces cruelty.

Christ is a revered figure to the muslims,
Yet muslims are frowned upon by christians.
Most christians are plain unchristian,
They are the cause of Christ's crucifixion.

In the world of animal holiness,
Crucifixion continues in different form.
Bigotry once killed a vessel of love,
His pupils continue the hate and harm.

I have zero tolerance for intolerance,
whether from intellectual atheists
or mindless fundamentalists.
Facts and faith both gotta earn admittance,
by causing not crippling humane uplift.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“I'm not fucking fighting to defend women's right to wear the veil, the hijab, the niqab, whatever," she declaimed. "All these young women these days who describe the veil as a signifier of their identity. I tell them they are suffering from what that presently unfashionable philosopher Karl Marx would have called false consciousness. In most of the world the veil is not a free choice. Women are forced into invisibility by men. These girls in the West making their quote-unquote free choices are legitimizing the oppression of their sisters in the parts of the world where the choice is not free. That's what I tell them and they're very shocked. They tell me they find my remarks offensive. I tell them I feel the same way about the veil. It's exhausting. I've become embittered.”
― Salman Rushdie, Quichotte

“Listening to my tutor tell me the story (of Khalid ibn al-Walid at the Battle of Mu'tah), I was overwhelmed with such pride in my history that I decided in that moment that I wanted to wear a headscarf, as a public marker that I belonged to this people. I wanted it to be so that before people even knew my name, the first thing that they would know about me is that I am a Muslim. I told myself that upon my return to the States, I would wear the headscarf with pride as my outward rebellion against the Islamophobia that had seized me and suffocated me for most of my life. With that decision, I inherited the entire history to which the hijab had been tied, and carried it on my head like an issue for public debate.”
― Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, Muslim Girl: A Coming of Age Story

“Help me understand the mindset of a society that implicitly denies a woman her right to choose her attire if the said attire leans more towards modesty than towards exhibitionism.”
― Yasmina Diallo, From Catwalk To Freedom

“I felt safe that people weren't judging me and making assumptions about my character from the length of my skirt or the size of my bra. I felt protected from all the crap about beauty and image. As scared as I was walking around the shops in the hijab, I was also experiencing a feeling of empowerment and freedom. I know I have a long way to go. I still dressed to impress and I took ages to get my make-up, clothes and hijab just right. But I didn't feel I was compromising myself by wanting to make an impression. I was looking and feeling good on my own terms, and boy did that feel awesome.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big In This?

“Maa! I'm not a kid! I've spent every last minute in these past four days thinking through every single potential obstacle. I've predicted all the smart-arse comments people can throw at me. Nappy-head, tea-towel head, camel jockey. and all the rest. Yeah, I'm scared. OK, there, happy? I'm petrified. walked into my classroom and wanted to throw up from how nervous I was. But this decision, it's coming from my heart. I can't explain or rationalize it. OK, I'm doing it because I believe it's my duty and defines me as a Muslim female but it's not as . . . I don't know how to put it.. it's more than just that”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah

“I've been injected with the formula for confidence and butt kicking. Not in spite of my hijab but because of it Because I want to prove to everybody that it's just a piece of material and that I'm here, representing my school, supporting my team, kicking some serious rear ends.”
― Randa Abdel-Fattah

“By painting the suffering of the Iranian people as a rage against Islam the Western media is not only misrepresenting these brave protests but demeaning them.”
― Aysha Taryam

“The hijab-related deaths and death sentences in Iran show that breaking the attire laws is more dangerous adventure than breaking the nudity laws.”
― R. N. Prasher

“Remember, in our tradition, a mother’s scarf is passed on to her daughter.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“De islam misbruikt de mensenrechten, onze tolerantie en liberale democratie om het totalitaire systeem van de Islam te installeren. Onder het mom van zelfbeschikkingsrecht wil men hier de hoofddoek toelaten terwijl in de islamlanden vrouwen 0 rechten hebben!”
― Filip Dewinter

“Hijab and Habit are both
symbols of sacred humility,
Yet the latter receives respect,
while the former faces cruelty.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“My hijab has come to shape everything about me - how I am perceived by others and even how I see myself. It negates my biology, eclipses my upbringing and supersedes all other aspects of my identity.
At times, it feels like I'm made of chiffon and jersey, metal pins and social expectation instead of flesh and bone.”
― Nadeine Asbali, Veiled Threat: On being visibly Muslim in Britain

“I’m sorry for sisters in France who have to deal with this. And I hope that you won’t compromise. I mean, anything that you’re going to learn in those schools you can learn from home anyway. I would tell the sisters in France that you are already greater teachers than your instructors in those classrooms. And the lessons that you are teaching to the people of France, to the society of France, by your continued compliance with the dignity and the modesty of Islam, those are far more important and far more beneficial lessons for your society than anything they want to teach you.”
― Shahid Bolsen