A hijab worn voluntarily from childhood becomes inseparable from self-identity.

Evidence

YASMIN WAS BORN IN BROOKLYN and attended two private Muslim girls’ schools in New Jersey until the seventh grade. She has been covering her hair since she was five years old, when it was an optional part of her school uniform, and says she could never now imagine not doing so. “I would feel like I’m walking around naked,” she says. She has always lived the life of a religious Muslim, praying five times a day, fasting during the month of Ramadan, and abstaining from dating, alcohol, and pork. (Once, when we were setting up a place to meet, she wrote me an e-mail suggesting we go to a midtown Manhattan eatery she frequents. It’s owned by Moroccans, she explained, and the bacon they serve is made from turkey meat. “We can sit by the window munching down on what appears to be pork, lol!” she wrote.) Ismail, her father, is an Egyptian Muslim, who married Jeanette, a Filipina Catholic, after they met in the 1980s through a mutual friend in New York. Their union gives Yasmin her unique looks—a sandy complexion, puffy lips, and black currants for eyes. Her aunts on her mother’s side have Bibles and crosses all over their houses, but her mother converted to Islam when Yasmin was a little girl. Her parents are both professionals, and when their girls began growing up and the parents’ jobs began swallowing too much time, they made a decision that one of them would remain at home. Ismail, who had also been a teacher, said he would stay, and he started up a small business that he could run from his house while he looked after the welfare and schooling of his four daughters. Like many immigrant parents, they believed that nothing is more important for their children than a good education. — Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem? Being…, 342

Categorization

• XREF: Relates to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ article on how veils and dress function as identity markers rather than mere religious rules.
• SHARE: The detail that a Muslim girl describes uncovering her hair as ‘like walking around naked’ inverts the familiar modesty discourse — worth sending to anyone working on hijab representation.