By Bukola Hameed
Hijab is a divine garment prescribed for Muslim women as a symbol of worship, dignity and spirituality. It guards the honour of a woman, protects her from many evils and introduces her as a decorous, dignified and conscious person.
This was the position of Hajia Muinah Folashade Adegboyega while delivering her lecture at the 2022 World Hijab Day marked at Dawah Centre, Bamgbose area, Owode, Oyo. This year’s theme is “Hijab is my Crown and not a Crime.
Hajia Muinah however advocated for proper orientation as regards the essentiality of wearing the hijab, stressing that all vices adversarial to the pristine tenets of Islam such as flirtation, immodesty and so on should be eschewed in totality to actually portray who we are – hijab-wearing Muslimah.
“A woman who wears hijab liberates herself from the vain and selfish desire to show off her beauty and to compete with other women around her.
This is an innate desire that is exacerbated by wanton display and tamed by modesty and covering. With the hijab, a woman does not have to live up to society’s expectations of what is desirable, and she no longer has to use her beauty to obtain recognition or acceptance from those around her”, Hajia Muinah submitted.
World Hijab Day started ten years ago, to serve as a means of advocacy of the Rights of Muslim women to wear their Hijab. It is an international movement against the Dehumanisation, Discrimination and Disenfranchisement of Muslim women who have faced abuse, all because they are dressed in conformity with their faith, a freedom that is an inalienable Human Rights.
AL-MUMINAAT (The Believing Women Organisation), Oyo zone, in conjunction with other Muslim women organisations in Oyo marked this year’s World Hijab Day in grand style with many glittering activities like Ewi renditions, sonorously inspiring recitations and soul-lifting presentations.