Four UF students stood on the Plaza of the Americas Wednesday to carefully wrap pink, blue and purple scarves around the heads of others.
They welcomed about 300 students to try on or take home one of 100 scarves and ask questions about hijabs, a head covering worn in public by some Muslim women, for Islam on Campus’ Hijab-A-Thon, said Wafaa Ateyah, a 21-year-old UF psychology and women’s studies senior and the director of Islam Appreciation Month.
The event was in honor of World Hijab Day and Islam Appreciation Month, which takes place in February.
Ateyah has worn the hijab for 10 years and said she considers it a part of her identity.
“The hijab encompasses more than just the physical,” Ateyah said. “The hijab is about the way I carry myself, my manners and the way I speak to people.”
The event is held annually, so most of the items carry over from year to year. Costs came out to about $1,500, Ateyah said. This is the second official “Hijab-A-Thon,” although variations of the event have been held before.
The two-part event this year featured a booth during the day and guest speaker Isra Chaker, a Syrian American civil rights activist, at the Reitz Union Grand Ballroom in the evening, Ateyah said.
This year’s theme was identity, with the slogan, “Who Am I? Reclaim, rediscover, refine.” About 75 scarves were kept during the hijab wrapping demonstration, and the rest were given out at the nighttime event, Ateyah said. At the evening event, 10 people hung personal letters on a wall discussing how the feel about the hijab.
Chaker spoke to about 50 people about what the hijab means to her and how today’s political and social climate has shaped her experiences with it, Ateyah said.
There’s a lot of misunderstanding about what the hijab truly is and what it means to those who wear it every day, Ateyah said.
“The hijab has given me courage and strength, and it has allowed me to represent my faith and values in everything I do,” Ateyah said.
For the rest of Islam Appreciation Month, Islam on Campus will host about 12 other events, Ateyah said. Next week on Plaza of the Americas, the group will host an “Islam Fair” to educate people on Islam by answering questions and by having Islamic trivia and other faith-focused games.
Catherine Migliore, a 20-year-old UF nursing sophomore, who is not Muslim, was able to take home a hijab. She said wearing the scarf was a brand new experience for her.
“In my own life, I don’t personally know any girls who wear hijabs on a daily basis,” Migliore said. “This day opened my eyes to a culture I didn’t know much about before.”
Isra Chaker, an Islamic activist and advisor for the refugee awareness campaign at Oxfam America, addresses the crowd in the Reitz Grand Ballroom Wednesday night at the Hijab-A-Thon After Hours event hosted by UF’s Islam on Campus. The event was founded to promote the meaning of the hijab and what it means to those who wear it every day. When explaining why she chose to wear her hijab after the events of Sept. 11, Chaker said, “I believed in the hijab. I saw the beauty in it.”
