if i'm choosing to dress the way i dress and that does not hurt anyone else i don't think i'm going to go to hell for [Music] it [Music] for a woman the hijab just pretty much stands for being modest with your appearance and letting people see you for who you are your personality and not just your looks when people think about hijab they think of a piece of cloth but to me it's like my identity i just haven't worn it yet because i don't think i've found a connection with it i took off my job probably almost a year ago when i decided to take it off i kind of escaped from the muslim community a little bit some of us are upbringings our mosques made us have difficult relationships with hijab that's something that i had i do think that there are certain groups that wear the hijab that think that if you don't wear it that you don't connect with islam a lot of hijabis would pick on people who are not hijabis they think that we're lesser than a reader not as religious or we're not praying five times a day like no we're doing that too can we be equal and not judge so much [Music] my name is fatima i am a student at ucla studying anthropology and film i'm shaam i'm also a student at ucla but i'm studying international development my name is jenna and i also am a pre-med biology student and i work in a medical field too i'm saba or saba depends on how you want to say it i'm a senior in high school i'm lean and i'm a business analyst for a healthcare company i'm marwa or marwa and i do a lot of journalism and fundraising and really random things on social media i want you to step forward and take a seat if you agree so the first prompt is a hijabi woman is a better muslim oh i'm shocked i'm sitting here when we read the quote on we get our own interpretations of it but it does say that in there to only show your hands face and feet if god says it then i definitely think that is better but i don't think the behavior of acting like you're better than someone that i don't see that's right i actually have so much to say about this so far it's dark okay i think a lot of people think that it's like a point system oh yes hijab ding you know like next level and i don't think god is like this person wears the hijab you're good to go versus this person doesn't so and you're out i think everything else that you do weighs in i do know many hijabis that like do not follow anything else and i know a lot of non-hijabis that are the most religious you know women that i've ever met i have a friend on like instagram who dresses however she wants to dress and she could rock it she has a body for it but she goes to every friday prayer and i'm like she's a better person and i do find that like when it comes to behavior on the muslim community i find that ritual takes precedent over behavior a lot of the times to the point where like people are just outright mean to each other but they don't realize that that's a sin too you know and when people say you're doing this wrong it kind of like does deter your relationship a little bit you know you you second guess even your relationship with allah which should be there should be no complications it should just be pure there's so many things that are disregarded essence because they don't seem like even like with interest or whatever they're like it's technically a thing that people just overlook when it comes to hijab that's like everyone's main focus the scrutiny behind it is like insane i think the muslims create chaos around it because they want to feel like they're the right ones doing it the right way but to your point like you're if you're talking let's talk about hijab for example you don't do that do you yeah i'm sitting right now i'm i know that if you have to say well i'm more rebellious you know you're doing something wrong and that's shaytan trying to get you to normalize it a lot of sins that we're doing we're being normalized we're in america is the most sinful country probably ever i so disagree with you about something i disagree about making excuses i'm not saying that this thing is okay and like in america it's all right actually god didn't say it no but i am saying i don't think i'm going to go to hell for it i am saying i'm aware that i'm acting like this but i just don't think of god as a punisher because i think that affects my relationship with him i think of him as a very like loving kind of like don't do this because i want to protect you but i get why you have the temptation to do it so do you think people are going to hell if you don't think he's a punisher i think if your actions affect other people personally you are going to hell and i know this can be nitpicked because like a man can look at you i understand that but you know if i'm choosing to dress the way i dress and that technically like does not hurt anyone else you know it's just my personal choice i don't think you're going to hell i think it's such a personal relationship between me and you know god although you know that kind of thing it frustrates me when people get involved because i'm like it's none of your business right let me do me you know i have not worn a hijab i do think it's like a very loud image of islam i think it's a very clear representation of it it can be terrifying because it's like you're a walking symbol at all times but i also think it's a very clear symbol of strength i think it takes a lot of strength to wear it i don't know if i personally have that strength as of right now the hijab was created to protect women that's what they said in the quran it said only show your hands feet and face and it's supposed to protect you from the opposite sex yeah no just like reflecting back not just like wearing it as a head scarf but like wearing long sleeves and like just dressing more modestly in general i've like protected me from a lot i think it is like a two-way street i think you know there are a lot of things mentioned for the other sex lower your gaze and all that but i do think it was meant as a protective measure in a certain way i do believe that the hijab does provide protection in some ways but i don't think it was created for the purpose of protection so like if you had to say it was created for something would you say it's more of a modesty thing or what to you what do you think it really represents then well i think that hijab is so complicated he also uses the word which literally translates to headscarf this isn't called the hijab this is called is the actual translation for the head covering that covers your chest and there's a lot of translations that came in that have called this a scarf and that's where the confusion has set in and so they're like well it doesn't have to cover it's just a veil or it's just a piece of cloth well i think of the hijab i think a bit more like the principle behind it modesty and humility and just like not being too outlandish and so i don't think it's super gendered i feel like the hijab is something that men in their way should be also observing yeah no that that's definitely true a dude should not be checking me out like i think the hijab like prevents that like for example without my hijab i go to like a solid like eight out of ten appearance like attraction-wise and with the hijab i'm like you know a two and i think it does a really good job like when it makes me uglier i feel like good job hijab you know i think we should just preface it like islam isn't the one dictating all this it's literally like muslim culture exactly exactly like the way you wear hijab like for example the way that i'm wearing it right now is like a no-no to many people yeah like they're like oh my god like you know that little chin is showing i don't know like i can't wear pants yeah yeah yeah by my sister actually i wore it up in a bun like combined to then she actually was talking behind my back in a muslim community talking like oh she's crazy she's a [ __ ] and i'm like but you have stories too like i don't get it women are headed to higher standards of modesty than men can i run where do i start where do i start can we talk about how guys can like go out clubbing drinking but go out and have girlfriends and that's totally fine don't even that's an eye when it comes to girls in the same thing it's like oh they need to experience life yeah they're going to experience like kids they have to get it out of their system before they get married yeah yeah no one is like oh don't marry that guy because oh my god yeah a girl gets caught at the mall having a conversation with a store associate and then someone's mom sees that girl and she's like nobody marry that woman's daughter she saw her at the mall with a boy i just want to say i've never gone to a guy's photo and looked at the comments no one's calling him a [ __ ] or a [ __ ] or you're going to hell for what you're wearing or your your ankles are showing just the basic line of like clothing we experience so much more i want to know what they think i know i'm so curious oh yeah i disagree completely because it's more of a cultural thing i think i took the prompt very literally and applied to islam i don't think islam necessarily lets guys get away with more i mean at the end of the day like if they're gonna go out like if they're gonna go live their best life let them allah is the final judge it's none of my business i'm gonna stay out of it and i think it's more cultural than religious right so that's why i 100 degree but if it's cultural i'll be here all day long i i agree with you i don't think it's religious at all i was thinking culture oh i was thinking of purely religious i think that throughout history it's a patriarchal history there are parts of the religion itself that are different for men and women in a way that it seems like it's because the men are the ones who are saying these things people say look there's no female prophets i'm not sure about that i don't know there could have been female prophets and just never had their stories told the understanding of religion that we have as humans is purely based on the fact that humans are the ones telling us these stories about religion i would say that i've seen a lot of like gender things very gendered to the point that we don't even explore people who are not fixed in those binaries you know we don't talk about queer muslims we don't talk about anything like that i feel like there's just like people just too afraid to talk about that because their afraid is going to be questioning the religion before 2016 i never thought i would be wearing hijab anytime soon in my mind i was like oh get married i'll have kids and then like some point in my life i'll throw it on and i think i was being guided in a wrong way when it came to the conversation around hijab wearing hijab is a promise between you and god a more difficult level of faith but the struggle is part of the devotion i think personally it depends i know some like christian women argue that the hijab is technically instilled in the bible and that they want to wear it and i feel like in that case it's totally okay when it comes to like fashion purposes or just wearing it just for the look i feel like in that case i would disagree well i think that's actually awesome if a non-muslim tries to wear hijab and they try to cover or be modest i think that's amazing because it is considered a good deed and if that's what you want to do and it maybe leads you into islam alhamdulillah you know you're better than me right now so good job i think i was looking at it more like um if i had a let's say a non-muslim friend that wanted to come with me to let's say the mosque and they put it on i think that's acceptable yeah it's to be respectful yes exactly i actually took this as more of a cultural appreciation versus appropriation type of topic i think we can all agree we're going to define hijab as a lifestyle and cultural everything wise type of statement so i took it as that and like i think someone brought up the friend coming to the message that's appreciation yeah not appropriation like like netflix shows they have a hijabi take it off no babe i have such an issue with that because like again it goes back to this whole idea of like we have no freedom we are in this closet 24 7. we're in a bubble we live on i know no no no just because you like a boy you're not going to take off your hijab for him every hijabi come on dude we are so much more than the girl who's trapped inside of her house she's like screw my religion muslim women are like misrepresented all the time there was a thing with rihanna where she just put it on for a photo that is something that frustrates me i didn't have a problem with that really we do that like we come on muslim women do that why can't rihanna do it that's appreciation to me she's wearing it out of respect for being out of my [ __ ] and she's not her job he's do that yeah we do that like i put scarfs on when i want to i pose for it when i want to sometimes i do it because i'm around hijabis when i want to well i was just going to say it's just because they have such a privilege where they can take it off whenever wow i just remember the greatest example of all time because okay so mia khalifa that one video of her i don't like obvi like you know from that i get called mia khalifa all the time i can't believe that i don't want to do it and i don't like that it goes back to the whole fetishizing thing and i think it's been like oh are you on some like mia khalifa type i'm like no no miya khalifa did it so you can't no no no no like this this this this goodness is not for anyone to see it's for it's for the person that'll love me it'll it's for the person that will respect me it's for the person that i will have kids with insha allah that's what it's for it's not for any of y'all uh the boston bombing had just happened and uh i was really young i was supposed to go to a field trip to a mosque and i remember that people started growling outside my school because i went to an islamic school and i just saw all the hate and i realized that that's not what islam is and i need to represent it and the first thing that i could do to represent it is start by wearing my hijab i have been harassed for wearing a hijab there's just been so many cases at school i've had multiple times where people would you know come from the back and be like boot and then take off my scarf pull it off that's like taking up a person's clothing exactly the way that i feel naked without it like i felt so ashamed and i think that's just not right especially because i had to go to such a young age but uh i i wish that there are so many advantages of being a non-hijabi than being a hijabi tsa airports oh yeah i'm just in the other girl what about the hand stuff do the hand stuff you go through the thing and they're like can you see your hands and they put it on them like oh what is this for they're like we're looking for bomb residue and i'm like yeah they've said that that's you yeah and um the red city i live in they're not openly racist they're kindly racist oh my gosh this woman i encountered at the grocery store i was reaching for milk she's like sweetie you live in america now you don't have to wear that yeah she thought she was doing me a favor that's the weird thing disappearing the superiority it was the white savior thing yeah hearing your guys's stories i feel like it like hurts a little because i've heard them so many times it's always the same like go back to your country this is america i've never worn the hijab so i can never say i know the experience but i have seen it does it discourage you like our stories at all for you to like be scared to like try it on or um no i don't want fear to control me the reason i don't wear it is just more personal reasons i guess more than it is the society's effect on me you know i have to be honest like i experienced privilege not wearing hijab people don't see me as muslim first and i've lived my whole life being seen as muslim first so when people say like why would you take it off or whatever sometimes like it happens whereas like you're tired of all of that and you want to like not be identified or you whatever hijab is definitely a struggle and a lot of hijabis struggle with hijab every day and then we got the hate from the right wing we got the hate from inside the muslim community even yeah the super progressive left feminist not just all feminists but like you know the exact ones i'm talking about and then we have every single other kind of person on the outside like take it off and you're like i want to you know but i'm not going to because because for me it's like if i take it off what am i really looking for i'm looking for a convenience but i shouldn't care about those things when i die none of that will matter like going to your point when i work job like i actually liked me wearing as like a you know few to like western beauty standards to like all of that and so when i was thinking about like whether i wanted to wear it or not i was like i'm going to be kind of like giving in to the you know what people see as like beautiful or what people see as like normal or whatever but um i guess for me it was becoming harder for me to to understand like my purpose between wearing the hijab because i never got the ability to choose to wear it my parents just put it on me so i think for myself like i'm taking a break the one thing that you were saying about like you know your parents put you in it i'm so sorry that happened because that discourages so many people to wear it and that is not right because i am my own individual and that's what the hijab allowed me to do like i think what it did for you is the exact opposite case right because i got that choice but i hope you stay on to your faith and i hope you stay on tier stay strong straight down ladies [Music] there's a lot of pressure to wear from people and there's a lack of an informed decision based on your own ideals i just wanted to get a clean state and find out for myself if it was my choice because i didn't get that opportunity i don't think there could be a time where i could ever remove the hijab i'm in a really comfortable place with it now i always want to normalize just muslim women in general because there's always like a negative stigma towards muslim women that wear hijab especially it's really frustrating that i hear that we're oppressed so it's really important for me to wear it and show people that we are normal people we're just like regular girls we just happen to wear it for our religion modesty in islam should be redefined for the 21st century oh ah don't know thank you [Laughter] it has to do with lifestyle choices and things like that so for example like women didn't start working until when not very long ago yeah a couple of decades ago life was very different than culturally speaking we should change but religiously speaking how come how much can you really change like islam gives women so much it allows us to be whoever we want act however we want do whatever we want and keep our income and stuff like that modesty is just a really broad term i totally understand where you're coming from but i definitely think that um staying stuck in the same mindset can be very damaging you know i can't be like it was done like this so we have to keep doing it like this and i also think it changes from country to country so like i personally lived in syria for seven years and the things that i can get away with here are not the same things that i can get away with there and so what they consider modest is different than what we consider yeah i think that the human in us the sinners in us wants it to change so we can do more i think low-key we all want to address a certain way so we can be attractive and how you want to present yourself to be attractive is sexual attraction from the opposite sex if you want that that's fine but i think that's what it is loki i feel like a lot of islamic scholars sort of just try to relate it to this generation i think people just try to make it easier based off of how other people are dressed here yeah but it's still super clear and i don't think it should be like altered based off of the year we're living in i would say i don't think it's super clear even within the quran there's so many interpretations of every single text so we don't know exactly what allah meant when i said cover this in that because people had interpreted crazy different ways we should move the conversation away from specific physical clothing acts and rituals and focus on the lifestyle i think we should focus on both i think yeah but why do you want it to change off of i don't think we need to redefine modesty because i think that modesty in itself is not a dated or archaic kind of like concept i think modesty is like the holistic way that we treat each other and obviously like the different acts that we do to portray modesty has differed but i would say modesty as a whole is like same from the beginning of islam or to now alhamdulillah we did it yes you