Every year, on the first of February, women across the globe commemorate World Hijab Day, a movement that was started in 2013 by Nazma Khan. She wanted people to understand its religious significance by inviting non-hijabi Muslim and non-Muslim women to wear hijab for a day. A veil that covers the head and chest, a hijab is worn by certain Muslim women to retain their modesty. 

With this initiative, she hopes to break the stigma surrounding hijabs and the reason Muslim women wear them. “Growing up in the Bronx, in NYC, I experienced a great deal of discrimination due to my hijab. In middle school, I was ‘Batman’ or ‘ninja’. When I entered University after 9/11, I was called Osama bin Laden or terrorist. It was awful. I figured the only way to end discrimination is if we ask our fellow sisters to experience hijab themselves,” Khan says.

Hijab-wearing women claiming back their power

Many women who have experienced discrimination due to wearing hijabs are now taking back their power and embracing their identity. For instance, Rawdah Mohamed, a Somali-born model whose family fled her native country to Kenya when she was a baby. At eight, her family had to again move from Kenya to Norway, where she experienced racism. She was bullied in school for wearing a hijab, but she insisted on wearing it. “We came to Norway, and for two years, we lived in an asylum camp, which was in a very small town. That was very hard because the people there were extremely racist. They didn’t want any refugees there because they thought we were dangerous and we were there to take their jobs,” says Mohamed in an interview with Araba News.

Seruna

Launched in 2012, Seruna is a Cape Town-based modest wear fashion brand owned by Unaizah Toffar. Solely produced in South Africa, the brand specialises in classic, timeless, and elegant modest wear fashion and hijabs. Toffar says growing up, she used to play a lot with needles, fabric, cotton and ribbons – which resulted in her making outfits for special occasions. “Seruna is a collection that I dreamt of starting since I was old enough to use a scissor. Having a role model like my mother, who designed and constructed garments as well as started her own clothing business from scratch, gave me insight from a very young age into the world of clothing design with exposure to fabrics and the construction of garments,” she says.

 After high school, she studied for a business degree which helped her start the brand. Combining the degree with her passion for fashion, it was evident that she would strive to embrace her identity through fashion.

Abaya Lagos

What started out as a hobby for Salihat ‘Rahaman in 2012 became an established brand in 2014. To glamourise modest wear and inspired by Arabian, Ottoman and ancient African cultures, Abaya Lagos prides itself in creating stylish garments for women who want to stay true to their modest identity while remaining fashion-forward. “Our designs also carry a message of inclusivity, where all of our pieces are quite adaptable to all shapes and sizes,” says ‘Rahaman. 

Jude 

Jude is an Egyptian brand that was founded in 2018 by three young women; Sara, Yara and Yasmine. They were inspired to launch the brand after they couldn’t find patterned scarves to complete their hijabi looks. Through dedication, they managed to come up with over 60 unique designs and created more than 15 collections within two years. “Jude was created out of a desire to revive modesty, and continues to exist in all the ways that it does because of you, our beloved lady in Jude, and we couldn’t be more grateful. After all, Jude is more than just an online brand. We are a community,” explain the ladies. 

Nefeesah Hijab

Ghana was one of the African countries with fewer Muslims, and that made it hard for Muslim women to celebrate their identity without discrimination. Today, there are more than three million Muslims in the country. Sisters, Sekina and Nefisa Abam, saw a gap in the market when they realised that most hijabs thry found in the markets were not made in Ghana, and that’s how their brands, Libaas Hilaan and Nefeesah Hijab, were birthed. To make them stand out, they add African prints to their designs as prints are a big part of Ghanaian fashion.

 “A woman naturally wants to look beautiful, and coming from an African setting where is Islam is minimal like in Ghana here, it’s difficult for her to wear black or something that is print-less, design-less. A Ghanaian Muslim woman wants to fit in, but she also wants to try to obey God a bit. So I decided to come up with these designs that would meet such needs,” says Sekina.

Moderne

Ameena Abdul started as a fashion blogger before launching Moderne. Inspired by the ambience, fashion from France, and the fact that she couldn’t find the unique clothes she was looking for, she then made a decision to design custom modest apparel in Kenya. “I couldn’t find the kind of clothes that suit my style, and I realised there were a lot more people who felt the same way. We wanted something different to wear aside from the everyday abaya, and I wanted to fill that gap,” she says. Abdul describes modest fashion as dressing in a manner that is still within the bounds of what her religion sees as the correct dress of a man or woman.