World Hijab Day on Twitter! Celebration, Pride & Contested Notions of Freedom

Annam Lod­hi

4th Sep. 2013 marked the World Hijab Day. With myr­i­ad prob­lems fac­ing the Mus­lim world, how could hijab be left unat­tend­ed? #WorldHijabDay4Sep2013 was pop­u­lar trend with­out a doubt. The tweets wide-rang­ing in their thoughts, taste, and ide­o­log­i­cal propen­si­ty were all voiced out quite enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly. So this ques­tion came up nat­u­ral­ly:

World Hijab Day! Cel­e­bra­tion of free­dom for any­thing! #Hijab­NotJust­For­Re­ligon

— Kish­mish (@Choc0L0ver) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

MT“@SaadLakhani12: #Hijab is as much for men as for women.It’s nev­er a one-way street.Excuse me while I low­er my gaze #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— My Bit for Change (@MyBitforChange) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Some were total­ly defen­sive for it!

Each reli­gion has a moral­i­ty &the moral­i­ty of Islam is Haya & Bash­ful­ness is from belief, &belief is in Al-Jan­nah.#WorldHijabDay4Sep

— VU cybarien (@VUCybarien) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

#WorldHijabDay4Sep Our sec­u­lar lib­er­als r always furi­ous when it comes to Islam­ic sym­bols, I won­der why? Does lib­er­ty mean bash­ing Islam ?”

— Dr Samia Raheel Qazi (@srqazi) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Mus­lim fem­i­nism erupt­ed:

I cov­er my head not my brain … #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— Syn­tax Error (@MujahidaRani) Sep­tem­ber 2, 2012

Of course every­one was not for the con­cept:
Though Hijab can­not be asso­ci­at­ed with Mus­lims and being moral alone – but well it is what Mus­lims are main­ly noticed by. Not sur­pris­ing­ly most Mus­lims men chose 4th Sep. to show their utter respect for women – one won­ders where is that respect on oth­er days… *pfft*

they call our sis­ter those who wear hijab as illit­er­ate and back­ward but who will tell them it is real respect #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— Tahir Majeed (@tahirwahla) Sep­tem­ber 2, 2012

well some may agree in their own way that it’s a right, but of dif­fer­ent sort. :X

#WorldHijabDay4Sep when women are free to expose and reveal their body than why are they not free to cov­er it?? Hijab is my right

— Irsa Ghazal_Rainbow (@Roshan_Rainbow) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

#WorldHijabDay4Sep pic.twitter.com/2bBEANwbOm

— Athee3’ ♒ (@Atheenaa_) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

I’ve nev­er seen a hash­tag quite as dom­i­nat­ed by slut sham­ing and vic­tim blam­ing as #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— Geoff Shorts (@geoffsshorts) Sep­tem­ber 5, 2013

Since it is impos­si­ble to dis­tin­guish between a hijabi ter­ror­ist and a real hijabi any­more, I wont be endors­ing #WorldHijabDay4Sep tyvm

— silent_sparrow (@sanaaaaaaak) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Some well Hilar­i­ous (Par­don me laugh­ing at this aus­pi­cious day)

Pardey mein rehney do, Par­da na uthao, Par­da jo uth gya tou, Tau­ba meri Tau­ba, Allah meri Tau­ba… #WorldHijabDay4Sep pic.twitter.com/r0B0A9YZ6i

— Ali Salman Alvi (@alisalmanalvi) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Make your choice, are you a chick­en w/ feath­ers or w/o? A ludi­crous attempt to shame women = #WorldHijabDay4sep pic.twitter.com/Q8EqqGW6dj

— Ex-Mus­lims Forum (@CEMB_forum) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

#WorldHijabDay4Sep: “Hijab was my choice. I don’t know why did they catch me.” ~ Mul­lah Abdul Aziz of #Lal­Masjid pic.twitter.com/QhhUd1NHcB

— Ali Salman Alvi (@alisalmanalvi) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Dr. Shahid Masood’s pearls of wis­dom:

Wear­ing Hijab Does­n’t take you to Pre-His­toric Days , But Half Naked­ness Does! #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— Dr Shahid Masood (@Shahidmasooddr) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Oth­ers chose the day to show that hijab isn’t all that a per­son needs to be pure:

If a girl wears jeans or smokes she is a slut but if she wears a Hijab she is pious! #Pak­istaniSta­te­Of­Mind #WorldHijabDay4Sep

— Christy Con­fuz­cius (@Confuzcius) Sep­tem­ber 4, 2013

Though we could not fol­low the whole dis­cus­sion & argu­ments on this trend but don’t for­get to fol­low us on twit­ter & be part of the lat­est trends. You might be caught by us next time!
Stay tuned to this space for more every now & then!