Alhamdulelah Alhamdulelah it was a very successful event mashAllah :) I am sooo proud of everyone and of everyone's efforts. It definitely paid off with great results mashAllah! Let me start with a quick brief of the event, just in case anyone was not listening for the past few weeks ;)
Hijab 101 is an all day event answering as many questions about the Muslim woman's head covering as possible! Speakers attended to talk about topics such as culture vs. religion, modesty in behavior, hijab in other faiths, and the big question of the "double-standard"!
The afternoon portion was awesome! It was a bit slow at first, but alhamdulelah after a while we started rolling! The boards were all so interesting and beautifully done too. I really feel like people benefited a lot from them. A lot of them came with really nice questions and I feel like they were really satisfied with the answers they heard. Some of them were surprised to learn about things that to us may seem like "what you didn't know this", such as a woman can take off her hijab at home; a woman can still be successful even though she wears the hijab; a woman pretty much do anything with her hijab, maybe just a bit differently, but it's never a barrier between things we want to do. A lot of students working for the school newspaper or journalism majors came and covered a story through our event. I was so proud! Also, some other people asked to record us for projects and such. So cool!! Made me feel important ;)
The evening portion was soo awesome as well!! I thought all four speakers were amazing mashAllah! I really enjoyed and learned so many things myself as well. The best part was the fact that some of the girls took on the challenge of wearing the hijab all day and experimenting what it feels like to wear it for a day. I really thought they were very brave to do that and was so proud of them. I loved hearing how their day went and about reactions they got. The best part is when you hear someone say "Oh I feel like I learned so much today and I really appreciate and admire you girls now". Alhamdulelah, it really makes it seem as if we met our goal of trying to stop misconceptions and stereotypes as well as send out a message to everyone about how beautiful and peaceful Islam is.
Coolness!! SUMA is mentioned in the Tampa Tribune and tbo.com. Check it out!!
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2010/oct/21/usf-muslim-students-teach-quothijab-101quot/
Check out this other article written by a USF student about her experience wearing the hijab:
http://hercampus.com/staff-blog/day-muslim-woman
I thank Allah (SWT) for making this event successful and looking forward to many more successful ones inshAllah :)
