The government of Bosnia recently banned the wearing of hijabs in courts and government institutions. For nearly ten years, French public employees have been banned from wearing the headscarves at work. Meanwhile, non-Muslim women are donning the hijab out of solidarity, to mixed reviews. Check out this article about solidarity hijab-wearers in my own Twin Cities.
What does this have to do with me and my bicycle? Read on.
I get most everywhere in town by riding a bike. But bike commuting is not good for my hair style. On wet and windy days (which, in Hannover, are most of them) I arrive to school or to wherever I'm headed with hair that frizzes and flips in all the wrong directions.
I could put on a hat, but it here's what it does to my hair:
When your workplace is a school full of teenagers who scrutinize you daily, this is not a good look. So in the last few months, I have started to take a big scarf and wrap it around my head before I ride away. Not only does it keep my ears warm and my head dry, it doesn't smoosh my hair down like a hat. It doesn't block my peripheral vision like a hood. And when I get where I'm going, I can pull it down around my neck. Very practical, right?
Except I attract some stares as I pedal by people on the street. Maybe they just think I'm weird, but I think some people stare because my scarf kind of looks like a hijab. While head scarves are more common around Hannover than they were a few years ago, newcomers from Islamic countries certainly stand out.
A real hijab-wearing Muslim woman would probably just laugh at me, since I don't know how to wrap the scarf right. I couldn't wear one in solidarity if I tried. Maybe there's a YouTube video to show me how.
But if people do think I'm wearing a hijab, that's okay. I don't think there's anything oppressive about a woman covering her head, whether it's for religious, cultural, or even fashion reasons. In Cairo I saw women wearing hot pink leopard print hijabs and satiny black ones with lacy edges. Along with red lipstick and high-heeled boots they looked anything but oppressed. I worked for years with a Somali woman named Samira. She never covered her head but after her daughter was born she showed up wearing a hijab. I'm nosy so I asked her about it. Samira explained that she wanted to be a good example to her daughter and that meant wearing a head scarf.
Sure, a hijab makes a statement about what you believe and how you want to be seen. So does a Donald Trump bumper sticker, yet no one seems to have banned those. So while the bikini made news for revealing a woman's body, the hijab is famous for revealing a woman's beliefs. And in this part of the world, it takes guts to wear one. I don't pretend that my scarf is anything but a way to avoid hat hair. I also don't mind if people on the street think otherwise.
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