Wearing Hijab every day and going about my daily business, I tend to get a lot of questions with regards to my scarf. Now, most of the questions are legitimate inquiries people have. Unfortunately, there are some people who like to throw insults in the form of a question. Here are ten of the most common:
1. “Do you sleep in that?”
No. I do not sleep with a scarf wrapped tightly around my neck and a needle stuck into the fabric holding it all together. This question does need to be judged based on the tone of voice and the context of the conversation in which it has been posed. Sadly, more often than not, the tone of voice is condescending. My response does depend on the situation, but typically I reply with a simple: Yes.
2. “Do you shower in that?”
Again. Similar to the “Do you sleep in that” question, my answer tends to be just “Yes.”
3. “Are you bald under there?”
Honestly, sometimes this question is asked in a serious way. The thing is, if I wear a scarf around my head and aren’t showing you my hair, or lack thereof, what makes you think I’m just going to describe it to you? Obviously I am wearing this scarf to keep a sort of anonymity about the topic so I probably won’t paint you a verbal picture.
4. “So, what color is your hair?”
Firstly, what color are my eyelashes? My eyebrows?
Second, again anonymity.
5. “What does your hair look like?”
This one kills me every time. It’s the same concept as the “are you bald” question but worse. They are assuming I have hair, choosing to cover it, and yet still ask me to take off my mask and tell the word I’m actually Peter Parker. What makes you think I go through the struggle of wearing a thick scarf around my head, NO MATTER THE TEMPERATURE, buying these super expensive pieces of fabric just to whip if off anytime your curious eyes want to know what it looks like. (Albeit, this question only gets on my nerves when a stranger or acquaintance asks. When one of my actual friends asks me what my hair looks like, it doesn’t bother me).
6. “Do you ever brush your hair?"
hahaAHAHAHAHAahaHHAhaahhaAHHAHA. No.
7. “Are you a nun?"
My mom was asked this question one time when me and my brother were younger. We were all walking together and a man came up to her and said, “are those your kids?", she responded with, “yes”, then he asked "are you a nun?", again she said "Yes". My mom told me there was no way for her to explain her religion to this man when he doesn’t even know about his own.
Another time, we were waiting at HiVee for my dad to bring the car around when a man came up to us and asked if we were nuns. When we said we were Muslims, he responded with “Darn, you could’ve used it to inform the racists!”. Long story short, he wasn’t trying to stereotype us, but he did.
8. “Where are you from?"
People always automatically assume that because I wear a hijab, I’m foreign. Hate to burst your bubble mate, but I was born and raised in the good ol’ U.S. of A., and so were both my parents…
9. Some form of “Who makes you wear it?"
Shocker: I am not forced to wear a hijab. Not by my dad, not by my mom, nor by my brothers.
10. "Are you hot with that on?"
Nah man, they come with A.C. units. What do you think is under all that?:
Basically, if you are asking me a real question and you want a real answer, I'm really good at judging whether or not people are being sincere and I will answer your question accordingly.
Also, no matter what your dumb question are, they don't faze me.
