Dearborn Women Rejoice Interfaith Hijab
“We’re inspired by all the faiths that head-wrapping has been a part of,” Zarinah El-Amin Naeem, the organizer of the exhibition told Detroit Free Press on Sunday, November 17.
“The expo is about loving people of different cultures.”
Headscarf or veil, known as hijab for Muslims, has shared tradition in Christianity and Judaism where women donned it as a sign of nobility and modesty.
Combining fashion and spirituality, the interfaith event showcased various headscarf styles inspired by different cultures.
“There is a magic in wrapping, one that many spiritual and religious practices across the globe have tapped into for centuries,” Naeem, 34, said.
“You look at queens and kings, and you see they have something on their heads.”
More than 500 people attended the head-wrapping expo which was held at the University of Michigan-Dearborn on Sunday.
The interfaith event attracted Jewish, Christian, Muslim, African, Japanese, white, South Asian, and Arab women who were curious about veil's creative styles.
Naeem, an African-American Muslim, noted that headscarf is a way to express 'individuality' and ' beauty'.
“The act of wrapping is like the building of courage, strength, spirituality and love all at once,” said Naeem, who a Nigerian style head-wrap in blue-and-gold known as a gele.
“With each fold, tuck or pull of the cloth, you become beautifully wrapped in a sense of inner strength and a higher purpose.”
Praising the multi-cultural event, Naeem’s father is Imam Abdullah El-Amin, one of metro Detroit’s longtime Muslim leaders said that the expo "was intercultural, interracial, interfaith, inter-everything.”
Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.
Source: On Islam
