By: Habiba Ghanem & Salma Amer
During the first week of my freshman year in college, I was waiting for my friend when I saw a girl pass by. I had recognized that girl from the sports club that I went to, her family usually sat near where my family used to sit. That day something was different about the girl, she was wearing hijab. I went to her and I asked her if she just started wearing hijab, she was surprised that I had noticed and she said yes, I congratulated her and she seemed touched and happy. A couple of minutes later I went to my last class of the day, and that same girl was in my class. Salma Amer and I have been friends ever since.
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A couple of weeks ago, Salma and I met at a cozy café in Zamalek where she started telling me the story behind her decision to wear the hijab. I got out my little notebook and started taking notes. I couldn’t help but smile really hard as I listened to her story.
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Salma explained to me that she started considering taking the step of wearing hijab when her best friend started wearing it. She started to change the way she dressed, “I started wearing long sleeves, even though it was hot outside,” she said.
At her cousins wedding Salma wore a spaghetti strap dress with a green and blue pattern, the dress came with a matching shawl. “I was wearing the shawl before I went to the wedding and I was planning on taking the shawl off once I got there,” Salma recalled. However, when she got there she didn’t feel comfortable taking her shawl off. One of her older relatives ended up taking the shawl from her but Salma was persistent to get it back.
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During the summer right before her freshman year in college, Salma started trying wearing the hijab at home. Before her older sister went off on a vacation to Spain and Italy, Salma had asked her to get her some new clothes. When her sister would call her and tell her what she had gotten her, Salma would start to imagine what would work with hijab and what wouldn’t.
When Salma and her family went to the North Coast, Salma would swim at Le Femme or Yashmak. Both of those private beaches are places were women, hijabis or not can go swim.
One day Salma was switching through the TV channels when she stumbled upon Mustafa Hosney’s show “Khadaou’k Fa Kalou’’the episode was called Ana A7san Men Gheeri and it was discussing hijab. “I found Mustafa Hosney tackling the things that seemed to always cross my mind,” Salma exclaimed to me. “Things like; what will people say, I can wear it when I am older, I don’t want to change the way that I dress.”
Mustafa Hosney responded to all of these thoughts and questions by asking; “If you are working at a place and there is a dress code, would you abide by it or not?” That is what hijab is, it’s a dress code for us Muslims, it’s a dress code sent to us from Allah, yet we have a hard time following that dress code but we can easily follow a school’s dress code, or work dress code, or even a party’s dress code.
“And concerning the 'I can wear it when I am older'excuse, I told myself that if I had any guarantee that I will still be alive by tomorrow then I can say I can wear it when I am older but unfortunately I had not. Also, I thought that having this idea in my mind and wanting to wear hijab means that Allah wants me to get closer to Him and I will honestly be very stupid to miss this chance and get closer to Allah , who knows when will this chance come to me again and whether it will come to me again or not,“ explained Salma.
Mustafa started answering emails from viewers, one viewer sent an email that said, “I want to take the step of wearing hijab but I can’t take it, I need advice.” By coincidence the viewer that sent that email was also named Salma.
At that point Salma’s heart started racing. Nothing had braced her for what was about to occur. That other Salma person was going through what she was exactly going through and she needed a push as well. Mustafa Hosney looked at the camera and started saying, “Ya Rab tet7agbi ya Salma.” His voice kept getting louder and he kept saying the same line over and over again. Tears flowed from Salma’s eyes as she heard his words.
“I remember yelling out at the TV screen: but I am in the North Coast right now, I don’t have the right clothes” Salma explained to me. At that moment, she couldn’t escape the signs and desire to wear hijab, “Allah was telling me, I chose you, I couldn’t say no,” she told me.
On the first day of the holy month of Ramadan, Salma went to her parents and confronted them with her decision. They had asked her if it was a sudden decision but she told them that it was something that she had thought about a lot. Her parents were supportive with her decision and didn’t have any doubts that her decision was very sincere. They sensed that this was a step that she really wanted to take, and they didn’t try to stand in her way. Later that day, Salma told her older sister. Her sister was thrilled with the news and she took Salma shopping for new clothes. They got cardigans that would go with the new clothes from Spain and Italy, and scarves to match her new outfits.
The next day Salma, went to Taraweeh prayers wearing hijab. She ran in to her second grade teacher and an old friend. Both of them praised her decision and were genuinely happy for her. Their reactions gave Salma a boost of confidence, and she was filled with joy.
A couple of days later, Salma and her family were invited to suhoor at their relatives’ house. This would be the first time her relatives would see her. Salma’s stomach was in knots. When she first walked in, the grownups were surprised but very happy and they all congratulated her. A younger relative had seen Salma walk in and ran to Salma’s two cousins who had not yet seen her. The little cousin started yelling to the girls “Salma ithajibit.”
“Salma who?” They kept asking. They then walked outside only to find that the girl the younger cousin was referring to was their very own cousin Salma. They looked at Salma with awe and they were ecstatic for her.
“Everything was going well, until one of my guy cousins walked in,” Salma said. He started cracking mean and uncalled-for jokes. But Salma didn’t let him get her spirit down. Thanks to God, she was calm and nonchalant to the jokes. What bothered her about the jokes was that she didn’t want to be labeled as an extremist, she was still the same person. She was just on a path to improve herself. She prayed to Allah to keep her on the right path and keep her firm on her decision.
The next day while she was checking Facebook, a friend of hers had written on her wall. She had congratulated Salma and she broke the news to her that she had also taken the same step. Her friend’s name was… “Sarah Nabil Saad,” Salma said to me.
I looked at her, “Omg Sarah! Our friend, Sarah!?”
She smiled at me and nodded her head. “After seeing that wall post I felt like I was given a push, someone that I knew, not only took the same step but on the same day! It was unbelievable,” Salma exclaimed.
Salma also recalled that she wanted to enter university wearing her hijab, she didn’t want to change her mind. “If I hadn’t taken the step then, then who knows what would have happened,” she said. From that day on Salma has worked hard to keep on improving herself. She always asks herself what the next step is, after figuring it out, she works at it. She checks to see if her actions in this world will correspond to deen (faith). Hijab to her and most girls is not just covering your hair, it is a way of life.
Before ending the conversation, Salma told me a line that she heard Moez Masoud say. Upon hearing that line, Salma was already a hijabi but the line was a reminder to stay firm on her beliefs. Moez Masoud was saying that when someone has the desire to improve an aspect of his deen (faith) that person should have the intention and remember that, “It really means to spend from what you love for the sake of Allah. True love is when you take out something you love and say I love you more and the proof of it is here.”
