Narrative essay

Submitted By zeynab-abdul
Words: 1151
Pages: 5

My Beautiful Headscarf

America is built on the idea of freedom and I believe in freedom of speech and religion, regardless of what others think of me, in fact, I like being different, as society tries to fit in on what's going on around you and the thought of trying to fit in is not for me. I learned that wearing the headscarf has its challenges with how society takes you on When you are different according to your appearance or religious believe. As for me wearing the headscarf or what some people call the ''hijab'' is simply a moral act. Throughout the years there were some incidents I came across about the views of society and the lessons it taught me.
First of all, I started wearing the headscarf when I was in the fifth grade. I was little hesitant to come to school, I thought to myself, what would they say to me? Or even do to me, they even might pull my scarf off. Kids at the age are usually cruel, and act the same way so there is little or no exception in being different. On the first day I thought to myself “no negative thoughts, I put all my negative thoughts to the side. I walked into class slowly like a baby taking footsteps one out of time, my hands around my backpack my heart beating frantically as I went directly to my seat I can see my classmates glancing at me. But in my head, I was also proud to be a Muslim, proud to wear the hijab, and proud to be a different and I don't like to be a part of a crowd. However, I was wrong about the whole thing and what the kids would say or do to me, I actually met a couple people, one of them is a girl by the name of Liu, from Korea who later became my closest friends because she was also from a different country, afterwards most of the kids would come and ask questions (respectfully) and why I wore it. On my off days I would volunteer at the Community Senior Center near my house where I would, translate, read to the elders and they even shared their life experiences. Some of the seniors were in their late eighties, I really enjoyed their presence, and they were from different countries so they really didn't judge me because they were wise enough as opposed to the young generation. Being that age some of them can be very stubborn. But honestly, I had an awesome time there I volunteered there about 6 months before I moved from the state. Another thing I faced in my adulthood was going to the airport and being '' randomly searched' in front of lots of people who aren’t wearing headscarf it almost feels like you're being isolated because of your religious appearance, not to mention I am an Us citizen. Yet I didn’t feel like I was being treated fairly. This incident took place in Dallas Fort worth International airport where I was flying from on a Summer afternoon, I remember this day because it was really hot sticky, and humid day. Inside the Security line was long and about twenty people are waiting to be security checked. It was frustrating enough when this TSA agent a Woman and Men came toward me and said “Ma'am step aside here, we're going to just check what's in your bag and she will check underneath your headscarf”. 'I said alright, I guess'. After the women checked underneath my headscarf. The men said “okay your good to go”. After some years passed by I still struggled with how different people perceived me. I mean Why was I being stared at instead of the girl with blue hair and tattoos on every inch of her body?. I remember this night it was around 9:45pm on a Friday night on my way back from work on the subway, which I usually take home. I was with a group of Muslim women who I work with so while we were on the subway this old Caucasian lady with this mean look on her face was sitting across from us, along with who seem to be her daughter with Gothic appearance, she leaned over to her mom and whispered something as