Hey Hijabi has moved!

Salaams to you all,
After much frustration and hard work, my blog has moved to its very own website! Please check out:

www.heyhijabi.com
www.heyhijabi.com
www.heyhijabi.com

Thank you so much for your support, MashAllah!

The Hijab Gets an Eco-Friendly Makeover

The Hijab Gets an Eco-Friendly Makeover

Muslim designer finds niche accommodating environmental concerns of observant women

January 23, 2009

Erin Kobayashi

My friend Rahma Shere uses public transit, participates in offshore clean ups and even picks through her family’s garbage to make sure nothing biodegradable is mistakenly put in the trash.

Despite growing greener every minute, there is one item Shere has worn every day since the age of 11 that has not changed for the better: the hijab. The fabrics available aren’t eco-friendly and designers seem oblivious that observant Muslims can be as concerned about the environment as anyone else.

“Most of the scarves are made in the Middle East as well as South Asia and China … I get very self-conscious because I know the only choice I have affects the lives of many people involved in the manufacturing of the hijab,” says Shere.

“It makes me frustrated that there aren’t many accessible and affordable eco options for Muslims.”

Enter Abeer Al-Azzawi. In a green marketplace, where eco pet accessories and organic baby clothes worn for mere months are offered to consumers in abundance, Al- Azzawi recognized that the hijab, customarily worn every day, was completely overlooked.

“From all of my research, I never found one eco hijab that was available,” the 25-year-old says from her home in Ottawa.

“It’s not just in the environmental area, the image of the Muslim woman in the media is not represented, period.

“If people don’t focus on the hijab, there isn’t going to be any trends applied to it, let alone eco fabrics.”

In 2007, Al-Azzawi – who doesn’t wear the traditional head scarf herself – created Queendom Hijabs and the line quickly gained popularity for its innovative sports hijabs and fleece designs that could be worn during the winter. After using soy- and organic bamboo-based fabrics for some styles, Al-Azzawi realized that going green was an important trend.

However, she had some obstacles to overcome.

“Enviro fabrics can be pricey and more expensive than conventional fabrics. It can be a little beyond the price point of the customer.

“Also, Muslim women do not wear tight clothes and require a lot more material to wear longer lengths and create draping.”

She found that going offshore was not the way to keep her line affordable.

“It’s easier and cheaper to manufacture in Canada, it’s less hassle, there is quality control and you can keep a close eye on it,” she says.

Now Al-Azzawi, a graduate student in international development at the University of Ottawa, has created the “Eco Hijab” collection, which will be sold online starting next week.

Many of her eco-conscious customers are in the United States (all her prices are in U.S. dollars) and she says there is healthy interest from women in the Montreal area.

“My goal is to make every hijab eco,” she says.

The Eco Hijab collection will be available for $14.99 (U.S.) at queendom-hijabs.com.

ecologicerin@gmail.com

Golden Blues.

Today I was walking through the snow and thought of a beautiful forest. The snowflakes would calmly fall and collect on my eyelashes. This outfit reminds me of a bird soaring through the snow.

Golden Blues by Hey Hijabi!

Hijab Photo of the Week.

Since it is a three day weekend here in America, I thought it would be ok to wait until today to post the “Hijab Photo of the Week”. This week’s photo is from Viks. It is absolutely stunning!

New Brisbane Hijab Ban Unfair and Unjust.

By Robyn Ironside

January 15, 2009 11:00pm

SHOPKEEPERS are demanding sunglasses, baseball caps and religious face veils be banned to guard against criminals trying to hide their identities.
The Queensland Retailers Association yesterday declared its members should have the right to ban customers from wearing any clothing that obscured faces.

But the proposed ban has outraged civil libertarians, Islamic groups and Queensland’s Anti-Discrimination Commission. They say the move would be unlawful and unfairly target Muslims and teenagers.

QRA executive director Scott Driscoll said retailers were increasingly concerned they could not identify robbers and thugs whose faces were hidden by headgear.

“This is about ensuring a more safe and secure retail environment for all and being able to readily identify any and all perpetrators of armed holdups or shop theft,” he said.

But critics – including federal Labor MP Graham Perrett, who represents the multicultural electorate of Moreton in Brisbane’s south – attacked Mr Driscoll’s call as unfounded and unnecessary. “Kids in hoodies, Muslim women wearing face veils, they are simply not an issue for the retailers I speak to,” Mr Perrett said.

Queensland police have no record of any robbery committed by a person wearing a Muslim face veil.

The Logan Hyperdome south of Brisbane already requests customers to “lower their hoods” but centre manager Anguna Singh said it was not a condition of entry.

Terry O’Gorman from the Queensland Council of Civil Liberties said it was fair to expect customers to remove hoodies or helmets but not religious headgear.

“The next thing will be you can’t wear a hijab in a public place because it prevents the CCTV from picking you up,” he said.

Queensland’s acting anti-discrimination commissioner, Neroli Holmes, said people had a right to exercise their religious beliefs in a “peaceful manner”.

“I don’t think people realise the consequences these sort of comments have for the (Muslim) women concerned,” she said. “They become the targets of abuse both verbal and physical.”

But Mr Driscoll said preventing customers from wearing some headgear but not others would not achieve the desired result. “If we ban hoodies and helmets but allow the niqab (Muslim face veil) people with criminal intent will just start wearing them instead,” he said.

Keysar Trad from the Islamic Friendship Association of Australia said it was “most unfortunate sections of Australian society would deny Muslim women their right to dress in the manner which is considered suitable by their religion”. The suggestion it was a security issue “is a furphy to hide the complainant’s personal fears about Muslims and the religion of Islam”.

A spokesman for Attorney-General Kerry Shine said there was “no evidence that the introduction of legislation against wearing a hijab would provide any greater protection to retailers or their customers”.

Muslimahs Unite!

Assalaamu Alaykum everyone,

I just wanted to post a picture from my friend Fatima of a recent Palestinian protest. These girls are so adorable: young and politically active, mashAllah!

An Orange Plum Wonderland.

Orange and Plum. by Hey Hijabi!

I love using bright colors in winter. It makes the cold less dreary! Bright orange and a deep purple look great together. I especially love this hijab, plaid is a great pattern for hijabis to experiment with, mashAllah!

Photo of the Week.

This week’s “Hijab Photo of the Week” is from Ferdinand Reus. What an interesting photo, mashAllah!

The Hijabi Monologues.

‘The Hijabi Monologues’ speaks to Muslims and others too
Chicago woman and her friends create a hit spinoff about life associated with the head scarf

By Margaret Ramirez | Tribune reporter
January 9, 2009

As she takes the stage and picks up the microphone, Sahar Ullah becomes the voice of Muslim-American women who wear the hijab, better known as hijabis.

At times, she is hilarious when ranting about Muslim men and their pick-up lines. Other moments, she is chilling when she portrays a Muslim wife who contracts HIV from her husband.

Using real stories from Muslim women, this performance goes beyond the much-debated head scarf and presents a deeper journey into the soul of the Muslim-American hijabi. In a twist on another popular production about women, the show is called “The Hijabi Monologues.”

Ullah, 26, who created “The Hijabi Monologues” with two friends in 2006 while she was a graduate student at the University of Chicago, has recited the stories in small venues across the nation, captivating Muslims and non-Muslims.

On Friday night, Ullah and Arabic television host May Alhassen plan to perform “The Hijabi Monologues” at the Busboys and Poets restaurant and book store in Washington.

Hoping to take their message to a wider audience, the show’s producers will hold a Saturday workshop at Georgetown University for Muslim women interested in performing the monologues in other cities.

When asked about the connection to Eve Ensler’s “The Vagina Monologues,” Ullah said both productions reveal an unheard voice. “The Vagina Monologues” took a private body part and gave it a loud, public voice.

“The Hijabi Monologues” takes the visible head scarf and allows the woman wearing it to speak in a personal way.

“The hijab, because of how public it is, it brings out a certain set of assumptions and a certain set of experiences that only women wearing hijab would go through,” Ullah said. “It’s such a public physical marker, and we’ve infused so many meanings to it, as if it speaks for the woman.

“Yet we don’t really get to hear a woman talk about her experiences and her views.”

Unlike “The Vagina Monologues” where the vagina famously speaks and says it is “angry,” the hijab never speaks and the veil is not the focus of any of the stories. The aim is to move beyond the stereotypes imposed by the head scarf and create a better understanding of the Muslim-American woman.

“There’s already so much about what my hijab says or doesn’t say,” Ullah said. “What they’re trying to do is show people what the woman is saying.”

“The Hijabi Monologues” was born on the University of Chicago campus through a friendship between two Muslim women, Ullah and Zeenat Rahman; and an Irish-Catholic man from La Grange, Dan Morrison.

As they became closer, Morrison found himself asking more questions about Muslim women.

After listening to Ullah and Rahman’s stories, Morrison said, “You know what? We need a hijabi monologues.”

Morrison told Ullah to start writing stories about her experiences as a veiled Muslim woman living in America. Many of the monologues come from Ullah’s personal life, including a hysterical story about a Muslim girl attending a University of Florida football game searching for a place to pray.

One of the most powerful monologues is based on the true story of Leena Al-Arian, whose Tampa, Fla., home was raided in February 2003 by federal agents when they arrested her father.

As Ullah began performing the monologues, she asked more women for their stories, finding one about a Muslim teen who gets pregnant and another about a mother whose son dies in a car crash.

Reaction to the monologues has been overwhelming, Ullah said. Muslim women have said they found the stories to be realistic and cathartic. Non-Muslims said they felt connected in a way they never imagined.

One predominantly African-American audience in California, for example, was moved by a monologue called “I’m Tired” in which a woman talks about feeling tired of being under constant scrutiny.

“When people came up and say, I really connected with them, even though I’m not Muslim or even though I’m not a woman . . . that’s why we continue to do it,” Ullah said.

Photo of the Week.

Every weekend, I will be selecting a photo relating to hijab and posting it on the site. This week’s photo is courtesy of El Gato Negro. Absolutely beautiful, mashAllah!