Has World Hijab Day accomplished its mission?

Do we still need a World Hijab Day? Have we, as a collective humanity, achieved its purpose? Well, that depends on what its purpose is.

According to WHD founder Nazma Khan, whom I interviewed a few years ago, the mission of WHD is to "create a more peaceful world where global citizens respect each other through religious tolerance and understanding. The message is consistent and will not change until we break the stereotypes faced by those wearing the hijab."

Khan, who moved to the United States from Bangladesh, founded WHD in 2013 after she faced harassment for wearing her hijab in college, a few years after 9/11.

"I figured the only way to end discrimination (was) if we ask our fellow sisters to experience hijab themselves," she told me.

Sadly, hijab-wearing women continue to face discrimination around the world. Last fall, French public schools banned students from wearing the abaya in class. It was the latest move in a series of clothing and hijab-related bans targeting Muslim women in the country.

And in the last three-plus months of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, there has been an uptick in harassment, discrimination, doxxing, and violence towards visible Muslims, including women who wear hijab.

So 11 years after its inception, has World Hijab Day put any sort of dent in it or sufficiently raised awareness of what it means to be a visibly Muslim woman? The answer is complicated.

Going back even further and drawing on my experience of coordinating coverage of Muslims in the US for nearly 23 years, content such as news stories, op-eds and blog posts on the politics of the hijab has always been a hot-button topic. This has held true in the public at large and within Muslim communities.

The policing of what Muslim women wear or don’t wear is still deeply embedded in the zeitgeist of our post-9/11 landscape. Why? Because choosing to be visibly Muslim is a powerful decision and statement (regardless if that is a Muslim woman’s intention).

Hijabis are often in the crosshairs of targeted harassment. They can draw unnecessary attention, and suffer from constant stereotyping.

As my Haute Hijab team member Noor Suleiman writes, "I’ve grown to *love* being visibly Muslim – and I recognise that this is partly because of my personality and environment, and that isn’t the case for every woman.

"It can absolutely be exhausting to feel like you have to represent an entire (extremely diverse) religion, especially in our post 9/11 post-Trump world where bigotry runs rampant. It can certainly be unsafe in some areas."

World Hijab Day seeks to mitigate such challenging experiences and the targeting (whether through microaggressions or worse) that many Muslim women face through one of its key activities: inviting non-Muslim women to temporarily wear hijab.

Khan said this act marks the beginning of tolerance and understanding. "When someone voluntarily wears the hijab, she is choosing to break the antiquated shackles of bigotry and climb inside the skin of this person she wishes to embrace."

Is all that possible just from choosing to see what it's like to wear a hijab? Has this and other awareness-building activities that occur on World Hijab Day around the world moved the dial on public perception around visibly Muslim women? This is difficult to quantify.

But what isn’t hard to understand is the genuine spark of appreciation and friendship that can build from acts of solidarity, like a non-Muslim trying on a hijab.

It is a positive gesture. While a non-Muslim wearing a hijab for a short period of time may not experience the deeper connection to God or some of the challenges of wearing hijab, the solidarity can spark a pause.

It can be a step towards understanding or even just thinking about how visible you become when you wear hijab.Yes, it’s a somewhat performative gesture for some, but often well intended. And, I do appreciate it.

It’s also worth noting how many milestones have come about from World Hijab Day. The New York State Senate recognised February 1, 2017 (and other years since then), as "Hijab Day" for the State of New York. In the same year, the parliament in the United Kingdom hosted World Hijab Day with Prime Minister Theresa May.

In 2018, the Scottish Parliament hosted a three-day World Hijab Day exhibition, during which many politicians, including Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Scotland, showed their support for World Hijab Day.

In 2021, the Philippines’ House of Representatives declared Feb. 1 as World Hijab Day And last year in Michigan, State Sen. Stephanie Chan sponsored a resolution officially recognising Feb. 1 as World Hijab Day, saying she was honoured to sponsor the resolution because it helps to highlight an event of cultural significance.

"It doesn’t necessarily change policy, but it’s an important recognition in a state body that makes policy," she told me in an interview last year.

This type of recognition from government and community leaders helps validate a woman’s right to wear hijab, especially in non-Muslim countries.

Rebeka Islam, executive director of APIAVote Michigan (Asian Pacific Islander Americans) approached Chang to sponsor the resolution last year, told me in an interview that "wearing the hijab is a choice, a freedom, and a blessing – a message that leaders in the American Muslim community have tirelessly worked to convey.

"It’s a blessing for me. That’s what I want people to really know. I take pride in it. I believe one of America’s strengths is to embrace different cultures and faiths and to freely express themselves."

So today, as we celebrate and honour World Hijab day, the mission remains relevant, and our work continues.