{"id":4903,"date":"2019-02-04T22:23:58","date_gmt":"2019-02-04T18:53:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/specialexplorer.com\/?p=4903"},"modified":"2019-02-04T22:47:37","modified_gmt":"2019-02-04T19:17:37","slug":"traveling-with-a-hijab-whats-it-really-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/specialexplorer.com\/?p=4903","title":{"rendered":"Traveling with a hijab, what\u2019s it really like?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let\u2019s face it, the travel blogging community mostly represents travel through the eyes of Western travelers. I know a few successful Asian bloggers and fewer from the Middle East. I thought it wouldn\u2019t hurt to share an experience so many of us deal with because we still live in an Islamophobic world.<\/p>\n

I personally don\u2019t want to make traveling with a hijab a thing. I hardly ever come to a point where I feel my headscarf is affecting my experience, but I still want to talk about it. Mostly because there are so many women who feel conscious about it.<\/p>\n

What is traveling with a hijab really like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

My perception of a Muslim woman has truly changed through travel and life abroad. I believe that there are so many different versions of Islam and came to realize the significant difference between my beliefs with my Palestinian and Turkish friend. Sometimes the difference was so huge that what seemed right to me, would seem wrong to them and the other way around. There\u2019s no single way to be a good human or a Muslim and things get a lot easier once we all agree on that.<\/p>\n

Living abroad and traveling with\u00a0<\/strong>a hijab<\/strong>\u00a0are two very different experiences<\/strong><\/p>\n

When living in a different country, you\u2019re bound to have interactions with locals of many different backgrounds. When travelling abroad, you\u2019re likely to meet people who\u2019ve met tons of tourists or travel very often. The later will care very little about a piece of material on your head as they\u2019ve probably met loads of Muslims and have a broader perspective of the world.<\/p>\n

When I was studying in Lisbon, I was once horribly insulted by one of the students. I spent an hour crying in the bathroom because I felt like shit and hated my university. I couldn\u2019t believe that someone in an academic environment would do such a thing that I\u2019m so embarrassed to even mention now.<\/p>\n

Another time I was called a terrorist by an old man while waiting for a train and there have been a few incidents where I\u2019d been followed or stared at while just walking in the street. I remember someone shouted terrorists at me and mum when I was only 9 years old living in down under just after 9\/11. It was a long time ago but hey, it has stuck to my mind.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, I never experienced any of those while traveling with a hijab. These were all experienced while living or studying abroad and it\u2019s only been a handful of times.<\/p>\n

The hijab can be an ice breaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

Traveling with a hijab is not always that bad. Sometimes it works as an ice breaker because, to be honest, a lot of people don\u2019t even know what the hijab stands for. I have been occasionally approached by people who were just curious to know what it was all about. It\u2019s good to be open to conversations and it\u2019s nice that people like to hear a personal opinion rather than just listening to mainstream media.<\/p>\n

People can react differently in different countries<\/strong><\/p>\n

People\u2019s information or values are pretty different around the world. In North American or northern Europe, people are accustomed to seeing women with headscarves and hardly blink an eye. It doesn\u2019t mean that you\u2019ll never meet mean people but at least there\u2019s no staring.<\/p>\n

In countries like Japan, despite the very few numbers of hijabis, people are raised to respect your personal space and choice of clothing. They\u2019d never make an opinion about it on the street and they will absolutely not stare. In fact, I\u2019ve had a few incidents in Japan where people actually wanted a photo with me as if I was some interesting creature. I never took it the wrong way and there was no harm in saying cheese for a photo while showing the peace sign with your fingers.<\/p>\n

In India, the diversity people deal in their own country is just so massive that they wouldn\u2019t bother about you looking different. Is there anyone kinder and more peaceful than Indians? I\u2019m yet to find.<\/p>\n

In countries where Muslims are rarely seen, it\u2019s natural to catch a few stares. Most of the time they are just curious but it\u2019s still pretty annoying.<\/p>\n

Everyone has a unique experience<\/strong>
\nPeople\u2019s experiences in one specific place can be very different. It\u2019s really a matter of luck. I\u2019ve traveled to France quite a few times and I\u2019ve never felt insulted by anyone. My friend\u2019s experience was however different.<\/p>\n

Another friend of mine Zahra who works in Oslo says that she was treated well in Parisian shops because she was probably taken as a rich Arab, which was very different from Oslo. In Scandinavia however, Muslims have lower incomes and people are not used to seeing them in expensive shops. Hence why you might experience someone following you around rather than just being nice.<\/p>\n

It depends on the situation<\/strong>
\nI follow a lot of Muslim bloggers who wear burkinis while going to the beach in Europe or the USA. I\u2019ve never had the guts to wear one because I just can\u2019t deal with all the eyes that will turn.
\nI was once walking along the beach in spring with a friend of mine in Cascais. We were both barefoot and the weather was still pretty chilly, so not so many people around. But I still remember the heavy stares of people who apparently thought it was absolutely MAD that two girls were walking along the beach with a hijab!!
\nI\u2019ve walked along plenty of beaches and this never happened again but it still makes me nervous about going to the beach in summer.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s easier when you\u2019re dressed casually<\/strong><\/p>\n

I personally love colors and don\u2019t dress very different from other people apart from the additional scarf. I don\u2019t wear crazy makeup or have a very unique hijab style, and it helps not to catch too much attention. I also get a lot of compliments on my scarves here and there which is always nice.
\nNow everyone\u2019s choice of clothing is like this and I can imagine that wearing a long black abaya or a chador can be quite eye-catching in a non-Muslim country.\u00a0 It\u2019s totally cool if you\u2019re comfortable with it but it can cause unwanted attention.<\/p>\n

Hijab has many different forms<\/strong><\/p>\n

A lot of people, mostly fellow Muslims have a specific idea of hijab. They expect you to either take it off or wear it according to their standards. The truth is that we\u2019re all on a journey of hijab. Hijab has so much to do with one\u2019s culture, backgrounds, and their overall beliefs. A Muslim woman from Africa will certainly be dressed differently compared to one from Indonesia, Turkey, Saudia Arabia or Iran and it\u2019s absolutely fine! Even if you\u2019re not a Muslim, people feel differently about revealing too much skin.
\nMuslim women need to reach an agreement that their personal criteria for the perfect hijab is not necessarily the right one or the only one. Once we agree on that, we can then expect people to respect our different forms of hijab without prejudice.<\/p>\n

Being insulted by your own countrywomen is the worse<\/strong><\/p>\n

The enforcement of hijab in Iran can be very harsh for people who don\u2019t believe in it. That\u2019s something I can truly understand and I believe that people should have the freedom to dress as they like. However, for many, we Iranian women who do wear the hijab on our own will and continue to wear it outside of Iran seem like a good target for a backlash. Since these people can\u2019t express their anger to the responsible men, we seem to be an easier target. And there\u2019s nothing worse than that!<\/p>\n

One person\u2019s opinion should not affect your whole trip<\/strong>
\nAs I said, there\u2019s very little chance that you\u2019ll deal with any of these situations while traveling with a hijab, but if you do, don\u2019t let it ruin your whole experience. It\u2019s ok to feel horrible and angry, but you shouldn\u2019t let one person\u2019s words to affect your trip. And please don\u2019t make a general judgment about a certain nationality because of some stupid person\u2019s ignorance.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re not ambassadors of the Muslim community<\/strong><\/p>\n

I feel like there\u2019s a lot of pressure on Muslim women to prove the media wrong and I hate that. We don\u2019t have to continuously prove that we\u2019re not like some fools doing horrible stuff in the name of our religion. If people want to have prejudice or judge the whole population of Muslims based on the act of a few, then it\u2019s their loss. We have the right to feel hurt, angry or make wrong decisions like everyone else. We are so much more than our hijabs and we don\u2019t have to make up for anything besides our own actions.<\/p>\n

I mean if we pay tons of money and go through extra security checks in the airport to travel the world, why the hell do we need to put so much pressure on ourselves to enlighten the ignorant world??<\/p>\n

In the end, all I want to say is that it\u2019s ok to feel nervous to get out of your comfort zone. But none of this is serious enough to stop you from discovering the world. Most people are a lot nicer than you think and hardly care about your religion. Don\u2019t make your hijab an issue and no one else will do either.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d love to know if any of you have had any positive or negative experiences while traveling with a hijab. If you\u2019re non-Muslim, I\u2019m curious to know your thoughts when meeting women in hijab either in your country or on your travel. Do you feel like an automatic prejudice fed to you by the media? How do you overcome it?<\/p>\n

(Source: www.travestyle.com)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Traveling with a hijab was not a subject I was planning to write about. The idea triggered when I received messages from other Iranian women who were confused about how they would be received outside of Iran while wearing a headscarf. I first wrote the post in Persian and thought that would be it. I don\u2019t really have a big readership of Muslim travelers and it was not going to be interesting for anyone else. But then I thought that people might actually be curious to know what it\u2019s like to travel around the world with a hijab. The reactions we get and the struggles we deal with\u2026…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[754],"tags":[1020,1021],"yoast_head":"\nTraveling with a hijab, what\u2019s it really like? - Special Explorer | Iran's Tourism Information<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/specialexplorer.com\/?p=4903\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Traveling with a hijab, what\u2019s it really like? - Special Explorer | Iran's Tourism Information\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Traveling with a hijab was not a subject I was planning to write about. The idea triggered when I received messages from other Iranian women who were confused about how they would be received outside of Iran while wearing a headscarf. I first wrote the post in Persian and thought that would be it. I don\u2019t really have a big readership of Muslim travelers and it was not going to be interesting for anyone else. But then I thought that people might actually be curious to know what it\u2019s like to travel around the world with a hijab. 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