Muslima Maria is a Canadian blog which greets readers with the sentence: "Welcome to my hijab journey..." From her most recent post, it's clear that the decision to wear hijab, which she made nearly eight months ago, has indeed been a journey. She writes:
I don't know if this is the case for all women, but i think I discovered the core issue for why hijab is hard for most women - myself included. When you put on hijab you have nowhere to hide. You can't hide what you feel about yourself, all the things you dislike about yourself, all the character you feel you lack because you spend 25 years building a life revolved around beauty rather than building your character. You feel ugly, even though every woman I have seen looks better in hijab; your own feelings about your body, your face, your self esteem are laid bare before you. This is the challenge a woman has when she decides to take on hijab. She has the challenge of living in the world and not hiding behind her looks, her make up her hair, her clothes. There is nothing to distract the world from her character, from the words she says, the thoughts she expresses....and that is what is truly scary. It is scary to go from a world where you bat your eyes, toss your hair, and flash a smile and gain automatic acceptance, to a world where people are actually paying attention to what you say and how you say it. Its easy to hide all the things you think are bad about yourself behind fashion, make up, jewlery, and hair styling. When you wear hijab, you have to face yourself, your low self esteem, your poor body image, your feelings about your lack of character or how you think you are not interesting now that you don't use sexuality to attract attention. When you wear hijab you face your own demons inside – that's the hardest part.
Global: Hijablogging In Vogue'
by Jillian York
Hijablogging: Just another global trend taking the blogosphere by storm. All around the world, women who opt to wear hijab (the Islamic head covering) are also opting to blog about their experiences, as well as veiled fashion, lifestyle, experience, and the political and religious issues surrounding it.
The Hijablog is leading the movement. Based in Norway, the woman behind the blog writes about everything from political issues (such as the recent debate surrounding hijab-clad women joining the Norwegian police force) to Islamic wedding fashion in Malaysia. In one recent post, the blogger profiled Malaysian designer of Islamic fashion Itang Yunasz:
Itang Yunasz is a designer that used to create revealing gowns but then disappeared for some years, to return with a comeback collection designed for veiled women. His designs were featured on the latest Islamic Fashion Festival.
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