Equality. Liberty. Seventeen-year-old Amara Majeed says that one day, when people think of her, she wants those ideas to come to mind.
The Baltimore teen stands out in the crowd for more reasons that just the headscarf—called a hijab—that she wears. She is studious, creative, and driven for a cause: ending discrimination against Muslim women in America.
Many in the United States think of the hijab itself as a symbol of discrimination. Forcing a woman to cover her head and hair, and sometimes even her face, seems oppressive. Westerners think it limits a woman’s freedom to express herself.
But Amara sees it differently. She sees physical beauty as a measure of value in Western culture. With so much emphasis on a woman’s appearance, Amara believes personality, abilities, and inherent human worth get lost. The physical covering, she says, lets her be seen for who she is, not just what she looks like.
Amara didn’t always wear the scarf. Her parents came to America from Sri Lanka. Amara’s mother, Ayesha Jabbar, says she was treated differently because of her clothing. She chose to exchange her hijab for Western clothing. Unlike women in Muslim-governed countries such as Saudi Arabia, Ayesha and Amara aren’t required in the United States to wear the traditional Muslim garb. But Amara believes it is her right to wear it without being treated with suspicion. She covers her head to exercise that choice. She also asked other women to share the experience.
At age 16, Amara began The Hijab Project. She started a website for both Muslim and non-Muslim women. Non-Muslim women were invited to try wearing a hijab in a busy public place, and to report back about how they were treated. The website opened a dialogue that Amara hopes will help understanding grow between the two groups of women in America.
The persistent teen also made multiple contacts to editors and news outlets. She asked to contribute her thoughts and writing. Today, Internet news media such as CNN use her commentary about freedom of expression in Western culture.
With her website, choice of clothing, and public speaking, Amara Majeed is using her American right to express herself freely. She has opponents, but in the United States, her expression is protected. Christians know what it is like to have opponents to our ideas too. But the same laws that protect Amara’s speech are also supposed to protect Christians, Jews, Muslims, even atheists.
Freedom of expression also lets us peacefully disagree. But preserving others’ right to say what they believe—even when we disagree—is essential for all of us if we truly want to live free.
