The Face Behind The Veil — Suppression or Liberation?
By: Tamana Ahmed
Tags: Hijab, Modesty, Niqab, Muslim, Islam

Photo by Hasan Almasi on Unsplash

I was in 2nd year of my university, when I met an accident during a trip, I was about to die that day but Allah(swt) showed His mercy and saved me from any kind of harm.

That accident shook me completely. After that incident I started analyzing life and started questioning myself;

“What if I’d have died in that condition?” While missing my prayers of that day and wearing a dress against Islamic code of dressing, “How would I face Allah(swt)?”

After that incident, I decided to take my religion more seriously and promised myself to fulfill every command of Allah(swt). Among fulfilling many other obligations, I also started wearing hijab (head-covering) and I never took it off after that because I was aware that any moment can be the last moment of my life and I have no guarantee to grow old enough to start taking my religion seriously. Before that I was a completely different Tamana Ahmed, who was careless with her hijab.

Initially, I started covering myself with dupatta (long scarf) and then soon I shifted into a proper headscarf along with abaya (long dress).

Alhamdulillah! After my graduation, I got the opportunity of studying Quran and after learning about the opinions of scholars on Hijab/Niqab, I got interested in doing Niqab (Face Veil) as well but I had so many fears, fear of rejection from people, fear of a difficult life, fear of not being pious enough for this great act. I badly wanted to do it because there was always this feeling of becoming a better Muslimah.

So, one fine day I shared this struggle with my Quran teacher (Taimiyyah Zubair d/o Dr. Farhat Hashmi) and her reply was:

“Why should a believer be so weak not to do things which can please Allah in fear of people? You don’t need to qualify a certain level of piousness or reach perfection in order to start wearing niqab, it is not only for the perfect ones, rather it is for the ones with flaws, who are just trying to please their Creator”.

Her words lifted up a huge burden from my chest and I started wearing niqab after that and wearing it without any regret till this day.

The fact is that I don’t belong from a very religious family and as a result, I faced a lot of criticism from everyone, even from those, who used to appreciate me for dong Hijab and one of them was my own mother, she tried in every possible way to stop me from wearing it but I didn’t and eventually, she accepted this new version of me.

Alhamdulillah! Allah(swt) made my siblings and my friends my greatest supporters. I can proudly say that I’m the first Niqabi in my whole family who paved this way for our future generation, who might find it easy because they have someone to look up to.

I wear Niqab because it is an obligation from Allah(swt) and I can’t miss this opportunity of pleasing my Creator. It helps me to be more careful of my actions and behavior. Wallahi!! It has made me more stronger.

Finally, I want to close this article with this beautiful saying which states:

“When the verses of hijab revealed, the most pious women- Sahabiyat (female companions) covered themselves from the most pious men- Sahaba (male companions) on earth.”