The Trent Muslim Student Association (TMSA) will be hosting Pink Hijab Day on campus on Wednesday, October 30. Arthur spoke with TMSA Director of Events, Maryam Azizuddin (pictured), and Publicity Director, Bakhtawar Riaz , about the event.
“I think one of the reasons Pink Hijab Day started was to simply empower women towards achieving a greater good” they said.
Pink Hijab Day was founded by Hend El-Buri and a group of high school students in Columbia, Missouri. According to the initiative’s website, the goal was to “remove stereotypes of Muslim women by having Muslims engage in dialogue about breast cancer awareness.” Today, it is a global event.
TMSA decided to host Pink Hijab Day with the goal of connecting Muslims in the Trent community with non-Muslims in hopes that they might realize their common humanity. While raising awareness for breast cancer, Azizuddin and Riaz said that the TMSA wants to answer questions and dispel the misconceptions people may have about Muslim women donning the hijab.
“A common misconception is that Muslim women, especially hijabis cannot be in public positions advocating for something. One of the many misconceptions is that Muslim women donning the hijab must be dormant and silent. However, this event encourages and motivates women to come together, to raise our voice and achieve a common goal regarding something that affects women everywhere. When non-Muslims and even some Muslims see this, they will realize it is a misconception, maybe ask questions that they would not have asked before, and this will change their perspective.”
On Wednesday, the TMSA will be outside Bata to promote the event, hand out pamphlets, sell baked goods, and most of all: talk. According to Azizuddin and Riaz, “the event is all about asking questions and looking for answers.”
“When we are able to engage with the Trent community, and converse with them, they can judge us by who we are and not by what we wear.”
In fact, you can be involved in this pink initiative even if you are not Muslim.
“We encourage everyone to wear a Pink hijab or scarf. You can even drop by our booth for a hijab tutorial!”
Photo by Andrew Tan.
