Hijab
Cloth spun over the head under the neck
A pin placed there and here
Hair and neck covered
A shirt that reveals nothing
Pants that cover everything
Within these actions lies freedom
& within these words lie dignity
She walks the streets modestly
A stare from him, a stare from her
But she walks with her head raised proudly
For she chose
She chose to hide what is hers
She chose to let people hear her voice
She chose to shy away from attention
She chose that in order to be seen, she must be hidden
She chose not to show what her husband should only see
She chose not to bring attention to herself
She chose not to let her body parts speak louder than her words
She chose not to be seen by her image, but by her actions.
If only the world let her do this quietly
If only people would understand that the way she dresses is not a means of oppression
But a means of freedom
A means of expressing oneself in the simplest of ways
But sadly we have not reached that time
For a woman with a scarf on her head is “forced to by her father”
& a woman that wears a veil is “forced to by her extremist husband”
But we have reached the time
When liberation is when a woman wears nothing
& when she walks out of her house so freely she is indeed the definition of free
In my mind’s eye this world has everything twisted, turned, and rotated 360
For isn’t a woman that decides to cover by her own choice the same as a woman that decides to wear nothing at all?
The Hijab isn’t a tool to cover one’s head
Its purpose is modesty
& to me it is the decision that “what I say is more important, then what I have to show”
- Aisha Birani