Notes

Hello, Miss. I hope all is well. I just wanted to say thank you for writing the post about cutting your hair and feeling free because of it. I desperately want to take my hijab off when I travel to study in Europe very soon (I will feel safe from the glares and constant "advice" from well-meaning family members, and also feel as though I'll be taken more seriously, as people often think that girls who don't like their hijab are shallow attention seekers, as if looking hot is the point. That being said, they can go fuck themselves because you can totally look hot in a hijab.) and, while I once thought that associating taking off your hijab with cutting off your hair would be perhaps unfair, your post has helped me to put things into perspective and making me feel much less alone. When you were describing how you felt when you had your long hair, you were describing how I've been feeling for a few years, quite perfectly. I do not hate my religion (yet), but the hijab has not been kind to me. It's a huge mask that's heavy to carry around and hides my entire body. I look in the mirror and it's all I see, I've shed so many tears over how out-of-touch I am with myself. How trapped and ugly I feel. I constantly hide behind it, the same way you hid behind your mermaid hair, and I am fucking sick of hiding, Miss. It makes me feel unimportant. My mother says I told her that I wanted it... I was 9 years old. All the other girls were wearing it and they looked at me funny. I didn't want a veil. I wanted friends. I have long, thick, beautiful hair that I want to set free, and I am absolutely terrified. This is not an attack on Islam or the hijab. This is an attack on a culture that considered the pressure to say yes at 9 years old was a rational decision forever. Thank you for sharing how you feel, Miss. It made an angry little Muslim girl more confident in herself, and just a little bit more brave. You have given me hope to give myself a chance, and not be so goddamn ashamed for wanting to be who I fucking am.