Unveiling the Hijab

Alyssa Breedlove

Mrs. Tauchert

World Literature A

December 6, 2015

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UNVEILING THE HIJAB

A group of 9th grade honors world history students were being taught an unusual lesson by their teacher. The lesson was about the meaning of the Hijab, a subject that most students weren’t familiar with nor knew what it represented. Before the teacher started to discuss the issue, she had each student to talk to another classmate about a time when they felt like they were judged on the way they were dressed. After a couple of minutes discussing their encounter, Ms. Cuesta asked for volunteers to talk about what they told their classmates. The last student to volunteer had a little different experience than all of the other students. He was made fun of every morning because of the school ID badge that he wore on a chain. He proposed the question to Ms. Cuesta, “Why do we have to wear this ID anyway (Landorf and Pagan 172)?

Without hesitation, Ms. Cuesta transitioned into the mystery question: “What is the meaning of the Hijab (Landorf and Pagan 171)? The class was sectioned into groups and given various texts, documents and images about the meaning of hijab. The exercise was designed to see if each group could come to a consensus about what the hijab symbolizes. Next to begin with, Ms. Cuesta asked the class how the hijab became part of the Muslim culture. She wanted them to think back to what they had read in their textbooks. One student answered that the hijab was used by Arabic women before the beginning of Islam and then incorporated into the religion. To support this students’ answer, Ms. Cuesta led her class through two passages from the Qur’an. The Qur’an is the central religious text of Islam. The meaning of the veil is referenced...