Participants of the #ADayInHerHijab event join in prayer. (Photo courtesy of The Daily Collegian)

Participants of the #ADayInHerHijab event join in prayer. (Photo courtesy of The Daily Collegian)

Early Friday, Emily Burke stood in the middle of her single dorm preparing to venture out into the chilly morning air.

She grabbed a pair of black heeled shoes and propped her foot on a plastic storage box to tie them.

Before turning out the light and grabbing her bag, she turned to face her full-length mirror tacked to the closet.

Burke's casual attire of black slacks and a blouse included a new article of clothing that day, one not typically found in her closet — or the wardrobe of any agnostic, for that matter.

Pinned and tucked around her black hair and glasses was a sand-colored hijab — a cloth garment worn by Muslim women.

"Do I wear this under or over my coat?" she asked, tucking the loose ends in and out of her lipstick red jacket.

She opted to leave it untucked.

Burke (junior–mechanical engineering and comparative literature) was about to step out into campus and participate in "A Day In Her Hijab," a campus event intended to give women of all religious backgrounds and race an idea of the social experiences Muslim women who wear a hijab face every day.

Her nerves were starting to settle in even before she reached the elevator to descend to the outside.

"I'm kind of nervous," she said, pushing the elevator's down button. "But excited."

That morning, Burke was headed to the library for a short study session before attending a luncheon at the Nittany Lion Inn — the event she was most anxious about wearing the hijab for.

Prior to leaving her room, she said she was planning her spiel in case anyone asked what was with her new headscarf.

"I want to stand up against the negative connotations against Muslims that are apparent in our political elections, especially," Burke said slowly.

She corrected herself as she processed what she was going to say.

"[The event is to] encourage solidarity with the Muslim community, in particular females who are Muslim. At least throughout the political debates that seem uninviting to Muslims, I want to show that I am supportive," she finally decided on.

Little did she know, her worries about other's responses would soon be settled.

Burke walked from her West Halls dorm to the library and found a place to study in the "Harry Potter" room on the second floor.

During her five-minute walk, she received no obviously odd looks and wasn't questioned about her new garment.

After studying, she made her way through campus to the Nittany Lion Inn where she met with a group of fellow young entrepreneurs from Penn State Harrisburg, with whom she won a hackathon competition with last year.

"I took a lot of time debating [whether I would wear the hijab to the luncheon]. I worried about the disrespect, that maybe by participating in an event that is not related to the hackathon and merging it in with the luncheon that I'm being disrespectful," she said. "But then I realized the point of [A Day in Her Hijab] isn't just about today's event, it is about [wearing the hijab] your entire life."

To her surprise, none of her teammates questioned the hijab during their lunch.

It wasn't until she mentioned it that they had any response.

"I brought it up while we were walking out and one of my teammates said that he just assumed I was Muslim. The rest of my teammates and one of the people that we met with, just nodded their heads after my explanation and continued their conversation," she wrote in an email later. "I think I learned that not everyone is as passionate about cultural and global issues as I am — like when my hackathon team quietly dismissed the concept."

Breaking stigmas

Though Burke's experience wearing the hijab was for the most part like any other day, with some added discomfort, the same can't be said for the many women of Islamic faith who are committed to wearing the hijab daily.

Hamsa Fayed, events coordinator for the Penn State Muslim Student Association and a self-described "Hijabi," said that there is an age-old perception that those who choose to wear the hijab are oppressed or not in control of their sexuality, a point that Fayed said is completely opposite.

"To me, it's about modesty and it's a symbol of my religion and the remembrance and recognition that there is a part of my life that I value a lot — my faith, and I should have respect to it," Fayed said. "I almost feel like the males in my religion don't have an empowering piece, like an empowering symbol of Islam. But I can attach [to my hijab] pretty quickly."

Fayed also hoped that this event would help others see that Muslim women are not any different than other women.

"(A Day in Her Hijab) normalizes the situation for non-Muslims. They realize 'Wow, they're just wearing a piece of fabric on their head,' " Fayed (senior-international politics) said. "They realize that it's the only difference between you and me. It's not like we are from an alternative world or hiding something under it."

The "A Day in Her Hijab" event was created in partnership with Penn State Triota, an academic women's studies honor society, and followed World Hijab Day on Tuesday, Feb. 1 where the groups set up a table outside of the library for students to try on a hijab and learn more about Islam.

"It is our third year doing World Hijab Day and for us, it's not enough that they come and wear the hijab and see what they look like for five minutes or maybe two seconds and then take that off. We didn't think that was effective," Fayed said. "So, we wanted to do a thing where people wore it for a whole entire day and then share their experiences, to spread the awareness and just understand the true meaning of the piece of fabric on their head."

Fayed and May Ayad, the president of the MSA, both stressed that the event was in no way intended to convert anyone to Islam and anyone should feel free to take off the hijab at any time. Their goal was only to give participants a better understanding of Islamic culture and to simulate the social responses they receive while wearing the hijab.

To do so, Fayed and other coordinators created a task list to give the girls structure and insight into their normal routine, including links to videos of Muslim prayers and their significance, an invitation to noon prayer at the Pasquerilla Spiritual Center and tasks like saying "Salaam" to other Muslims in passing.

The girls were also encouraged to blog the experience on Twitter and Instagram.

"Social media was very supportive throughout the day," Burke said. "A lot of my friends on campus and family were exposed to 'A Day in Her Hijab' through my Facebook pictures and thought it was a cool idea. A handful of my friends commented on my pictures saying that I looked very beautiful — something I don't believe that they would say on my everyday type pictures."

Reflecting

Underneath the McLanahan's on College Avenue, in the downstairs restaurant of Big Bowl Noodle House, a group of women wearing a rainbow of colored hijabs sat around an "L" shaped table.

"164. Shrimp Fried Rice" rang over the intercom, as patrons talked loudly over the babble of voices in the crowded dining area.

"That's me," a woman in a dusty blue and gold hijab said, standing to fetch her food.

The other women lined along the table either awaited the call of their order or picked at their tofu and rice dishes.

"Does anyone have another pin," Janki Patel asked as she adjusted her hijab.

She and the three women stationed at the last table traded tips about how they kept the hijab on their head all day.

"I watched millions of videos [of how to put it on]," Patel said. "It's not something I ever thought about."

Of the nearly two dozen women meeting to reflect on the day, only a few had removed the hijab and called the experiment quits.

The women gathered together with some of the coordinators of the event, including Fayed and Ayad (senior-graphic design), to talk about how the day went and eat some Friday night grub.

"People kept looking at me like they wanted to ask and didn't," Patel (senior-energy business and finance, Spanish) said to a few of the women. "I wanted them to."

At the other end of the table, the woman in the blue and gold hijab said she couldn't wait for her Islamophobic dad to see a picture of her in a hijab. Everyone at her table laughed.

Others chatted with their new acquaintances about how their classmates responded. Most said that no one asked questions.

Amanda Strassler (sophomore-film) sat quietly observing the group.

She said her day wearing the hijab had went well and that she was more surprised about her own reaction to wearing the hijab than those of others.

"When I was wrapping the hijab around my head, I was overwhelmed with this sense that I was going out in the world as someone I wasn't," she said. "I felt like people were looking at me but maybe they weren't and it was my own perception."

Burke agreed that she felt as though people stared more than usual.

"I think that some people stared longer at me throughout the day — when you walk across a room and a couple heads follow you as you walk. Despite the long stares, I found the hijab to be comforting," she said. "Although it took a while for me to feel comfortable wearing something so visible and unusual for my everyday life, it eventually made me feel more secure and beautiful."

Strassler, like many of the other participants, said no one asked her why she was wearing the hijab and she was especially surprised that no one did in her classes.

She also added she would definitely partake in an event like this in the future.

"We're being offered [a chance to learn more about a religion and culture] and they taught us how to do it and what it meant," she said. "Part of educating people about something is immersing them in it."

As the women scraped their plates into to-go boxes and embarked into the cold night, it was clear that the day was not only successful in educating them about Islamic practices, but also in bringing together a group of seemingly mismatched women from various majors and backgrounds.

For some, the event had become more than a social experiment or symbol of solidarity; it was a lesson in understanding that the hijab was the only thing that differentiated other women from themselves.

For many, it was a lesson that came as easily as accepting a Facebook invitation and opening their mind.

This story was written by Carley Mossbrook and was originally published by The Daily Collegian[1].