Born and raised in Ohio, University of Toledo student Walaa Kanan believes her hijab is a symbolic profession of her commitment to her faith and devotion to God, Toledo Blade reported.
\u201cIt\u2019s my way of serving God and I believe that it\u2019s mandatory; that is like reason enough for me,\u201d said Kanan.
\u201cI\u2019m a little bit different, though. I started wearing the hijab a lot younger than what is normal. I started wearing it \u2026 in second grade.\u201d
Because she was young and \u201cdidn\u2019t grasp the full meaning behind wearing it,\u201d she said family members thought her choice to wear the hijab was just a phase.
\u201cThey were like, \u2018Oh, she\u2019s a kid. She\u2019s probably gonna wear it sometimes\u2019, but I stuck with it.\u201d
Unlike Kanan, Zobaida Falah, a Sylvania entrepreneur, only started wearing the hijab as a freshman in high school.
\u201cGrowing up in Kentucky I was visibly the only Muslim,\u201d Falah said. \u201cI was literally the token Muslim in my class, my school, and even in my city.\u201d
\u201cThat was a huge burden on me because I felt I had to perfect everything I did, or I at least had to second guess every action that I did, because I didn\u2019t want to be perceived in a negative way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not Oppressed Islam in Ohio Born and raised in Ohio, University of Toledo student Walaa Kanan believes her hijab is a symbolic profession of her commitment to her faith and devotion to God, Toledo Blade reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c102-muslim-minorities"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
<\/strong> Many people believe that Muslim women are forced by the men in their lives to wear hijab. This is a myth that Muslim women want to dispel immediately.
\u201cIn reality, it\u2019s the woman\u2019s choice. 100 percent,\u201d Falah said.
\u201cMy father didn\u2019t force me to wear it, my brothers didn\u2019t force me, my husband didn\u2019t force me. It was 100 percent my choice, I chose to do it.\u201d
Unable to control her irritation at the thought of being labeled oppressed Kanan agrees.
\u201cIt\u2019s so baffling to me that people think they have the right to come tell me whether or not I\u2019m oppressed,\u201d she said.
\u201cThat\u2019s literally so counterproductive to feminism. Like, you\u2019re gonna tell me that something I\u2019m doing by choice is oppressing me and I shouldn\u2019t do it. Like, you\u2019re oppressing me by telling me I shouldn\u2019t do what I feel like doing.\u201d
Working on correcting misconceptions, Falah said most Muslim women enjoy opening up about their faith so never be afraid to ask educated questions.
\u201cThis is an open invitation. If you\u2019re a non-Muslim and you have questions, feel free to walk up to us and ask us questions. As long as they\u2019re not offensive. But let me just end with, no, we don\u2019t shower in these,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/strong> Ohio is the USA\u2019s 34th largest state by area, the 7th most populous, and the 10th most densely populated. The state takes its name from the Native American Seneca word for \u2018Great River\u2019.
The United States Census Bureau estimates that the population of Ohio was 11,689,442 on July 1, 2018, a 1.33% increase since the 2010 United States Census.
According to a Pew Forum poll, as of 2008, 76% of Ohioans identified as Christian. Besides, 17% of the population is atheist, while 1.3% (148,380) were Jewish. At the same time, there are small minorities of Muslims (1%), Hindus (<0.5%), Buddhists (<0.5%) and other faiths (1-1.5%).
According to the same data, a majority of Ohioans, 55%, feel that religion is \u2018very important\u2019, 30% say that it\u2019s \u2018somewhat important\u2019, and 15% responded that religion is \u2018not too important\/not important at all\u2019.
Moreover, about 36% of Ohioans indicate that they attend religious services at least once weekly, 35% attend occasionally, and 27% seldom or never participate in religious services.
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"