Beauty Pageant Hijab

Head covering Muslim in Minnesota beauty pageant.

Because modesty is beautiful.

http://jezebel.com/halima-aden-is-first-contestant-to-wear-hijab-in-miss-m-1789410217

US State Law?

State of Georgia, USA, to ban head covering?
http://huff.to/2f25VQN

An American Hijabi in the Rio Olymmpics

Most in the head covering world who follow the current Olympics probably have noticed this lovely athlete who just won an Olympic medal while wearing a head covering. As an American citizen. You go, girl!

Ibtihaj Mohammad - the first US athlete to compete at the Olympics wearing a hijab has won a bronze medal. 

Muhammad competed with Dagmara Wozniak, Mariel Zagunis and Monica Aksamit to defeat the Italian team 45-30.

photo from www.usfencing.org

For more information on Ibtihaj Mohammad, see her bio at usfencing.org

Other head covering athletes competing in the Rio 2016 Olympic games:

Zahra Nemati - competing in Archery for Iran, in both the Olympics and the Paralympics

Along with fellow country-women, Leila Rajabi (athletics), Mahsa Javar (rowing), Kimia Alizadeh Zenoorin (taikwondo), Najmeh Khedmati (shooting), Elaheh Ahmadi (shooting), Mahlagha Jambozorg (shooting), Goinoush Sebghatollahi (shooting), and Neda Shahsavari (table tennis)

Also see this article in the Washington Post:
"Muslim female athletes find sport so essential they compete while covered"

Radio Interview with Headcovering Singer

How New Age singer Snatam Kaur surprised Oprah for her birthday http://bit.ly/1thQURX Shared via the CBC Radio Android App

"Her voice has been described as that of an angel.  

"For Snatam Kaur, singing is a kind of prayer. She's known internationally for her sublime sacred chant, an ancient practise known as kirtan."

Headcovering conversation starts at 20:15, in which she describes her turban as like a crown.

American Soldier - Sikh Headcovering

Times are changing. Read THIS, from The Sikh Coalition.

From the article:

"In addition to bringing legal action in Captain Singh’s case, the Sikh Coalition, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and McDermott Will & Emery filed another federal court lawsuit on March 29th, which demands that the Army accommodate three Sikhs’ articles of faith, including turbans, unshorn hair and beards, so that each can begin Basic Combat Training with their respective units in May 2016. The lawsuit was filed after the U.S. Department of Defense ignored a demand letter that was sent on March 23rd, and failed to provide decisions on their pending requests for accommodations. That litigation remains ongoing.

“Captain Singh’s case is a painful study in the onerous hurdles for observant Sikh Americans who want to serve their country,” said McDermott Will & Emery partner, Amandeep Sidhu. “With this historic accommodation, we hope that the U.S. military will finally move past protracted, case-by-case religious accommodations and recognize that the time for permanent policy change is now.”

Those Men's Headcoverings - The Turban

"Waris Ahluwalia, Sikh actor and designer, barred from flight over turban dispute "

http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/waris-ahluwalia-flight-mexico-1.3439017
Shared via the CBC News Android App



Why do Sikh men wear turbans? According to Sikhnet.com,

The turban is our Guru's gift to us. It is how we crown ourselves as the Singhs and Kaurs who sit on the throne of commitment to our own higher consciousness. For men and women alike, this projective identity conveys royalty, grace, and uniqueness. It is a signal to others that we live in the image of Infinity and are dedicated to serving all. The turban doesn't represent anything except complete commitment. When you choose to stand out by tying your turban, you stand fearlessly as one single person standing out from six billion people. It is a most outstanding act.

So many responded to this article by the CBC with thoughts similar to: "It's just a hat!" "When you're here, dress like us!" "What? Are you above the rules because you're a celebrity?" "Why do we people bend the rules for foolishness?" - These responses don't even concede the point that there are many reasons and very deep ones for wearing the turban, for Sikh men and women. Further in the Sikhnet.com article, you find it really isn't as simple as taking off a ball cap:

The 10th Sikh Master, Guru Gobind Singh, taught his Sikhs to take the next step: Put a turban on the head covering the coiled, uncut hair. The pressure of the multiple wraps keeps the 26 bones of the skull in place. There are pressure points on the forehead that keep you calm and relaxed. Turbans cover the temples, which protects you from mental or psychic negativity of other people. The pressure of the turban also changes the pattern of blood flow to the brain. (These are all reasons that women should also wear turbans.) When you tie up your hair and wrap the turban around it, all the parts of your skull are pulled together and supported. You feel clarity and readiness for the day and for what may come to you from the Unknown.God is the Unknown. He is mastery as well as mystery. Living with an awareness of your God within you and the God outside of you (God in all) is an attitude. Covering your head is an action with the attitude that there is something greater than you know. Your willingness to stand under that greatness of God is expressed by taking the highest, most visible part of you and declaring it as a place that belongs to the Creator. Covering your head is also a declaration of humility, of your surrender to God. 

Pressure points, mental and psychic negativity of others, blood flow to the brain, the hair tied up and the turban wrapped around it, clarity, awareness, humbleness, a declaration of devotion ... not as simple as a ball cap that proclaims you're on some team or other.

Sikhcoalition.org puts it this way:

The dastaar, as the Sikh turban is known, is an article of faith that has been made mandatory by the founders of Sikhism. It is not to be regarded as mere cultural paraphernalia. When a Sikh man or woman dons a turban, the turban ceases to be just a piece of cloth and becomes one and the same with the Sikh's head.
The turban as well as the other articles of faith worn by Sikhs have an immense spiritual as well as temporal significance. The symbolisms of wearing a turban are many from it being regarded as a symbol of sovereignty, dedication, self-respect, courage and piety, but the reason all practicing Sikhs wear the turban is just one - out of love and obedience to the wishes of the founders of their faith. 

Think about it.

To Wear Head Coverings in Solidarity or Not

As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the ‘hijab’ in the name of interfaith solidarity

By Asra Q. Nomani and Hala Arafa, December 21, in The Washington Post

From the article:

Last week, three female religious leaders – a Jewish rabbi, an Episcopal vicar and a Unitarian reverend – and a male imam, or Muslim prayer leader, walked into the sacred space in front of the ornately-tiled minbar, or pulpit, at the Khadeeja Islamic Center in West Valley City, Utah. The women were smiling widely, their hair covered with swaths of bright scarves, to support “Wear a Hijab” day.

The Salt Lake Tribune published a photo of fresh-faced teenage girls, who were not Muslim, in the audience at the mosque, their hair covered with long scarves. KSL TV later reported: “The hijab — or headscarf — is a symbol of modesty and dignity. When Muslim women wear headscarves, they are readily identified as followers of Islam.”

For us, as mainstream Muslim women, born in Egypt and India, the spectacle at the mosque was a painful reminder of the well-financed effort by conservative Muslims to dominate modern Muslim societies. This modern-day movement spreads an ideology of political Islam, called “Islamism,” enlisting well-intentioned interfaith do-gooders and the media into promoting the idea that “hijab” is a virtual “sixth pillar” of Islam, after the traditional “five pillars” of the shahada (or proclamation of faith), prayer, fasting, charity and pilgrimage.

We reject this interpretation that the “hijab” is merely a symbol of modesty and dignity adopted by faithful female followers of Islam.

This modern-day movement, codified by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan and the Islamic State, has erroneously made the Arabic word hijab synonymous with “headscarf.” This conflation of hijab with the secular word headscarf is misleading. “Hijab” literally means  “curtain” in Arabic. It also means “hiding,” ”obstructing” and “isolating” someone or something. It is never used in the Koran to mean headscarf.

. . . 

In the name of “interfaith,” these well-intentioned Americans are getting duped by the agenda of Muslims who argue that a woman’s honor lies in her “chastity” and unwittingly pushing a platform to put a hijab on every woman.

Please do this instead: Do not wear a headscarf in “solidarity” with the ideology that most silences us, equating our bodies with “honor.” Stand with us instead with moral courage against the ideology of Islamism that demands we cover our hair.

---------------------------

Referred to in the article:  http://mystealthyfreedom.net/en/

In Iran women have to cover their hair in public according to the dress rule enforced after the Iranian Revolution in 1979. My Stealthy Freedom is an online social movement where Iranian women share photos of themselves without wearing the hijab. -----------------------------

Much more information, definition, and history can be found in reading the entire article, linked in the subtitle above.

The Business of Headcoverings

From "If You Don't Stand By Muslim Women Now Then Don't Profit Off Us Later"
An article in the December 10, 2015, Forbes magazine, by Amani Al-Khatahtbeh

"While we’re dishing out MuslimGirl’s neatly streamlined numbers in pretty Powerpoint slides at shiny conference tables, quantifying in dollar signs why Muslim women’s voices are valuable, all I can really think about is how our site had to resort to publishing a crisis safety manual for Muslim women last week. All that hateful rhetoric in the media — Paris, Bernardino, now Trump — isn’t made in a void.

"The thing is, you can’t be cool with society demanding us to apologize for ISIS while also trying to compliment us on our headscarves.

"The social complacency that MuslimGirl intends to combat has real life or death consequences for Muslim women in Western societies. Our society is currently thriving off of scapegoating Islam: Muslim women quickly become the most vulnerable targets, and, yet, the fashion industry and corporations are simultaneously eager to profit off of them."

Click to read the whole article in Forbes.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/amanialkhat/2015/12/10/muslimgirl-profit-muslim-women-modest-fashion-hate/

"For many Muslim women, the headscarf is a symbol of resistance: against Islamophobia, against the imposition of societal expectations, against the violent erasure of our bodies. Countless women’s websites and news blogs this year have cashed in on almost patronizing modest fashion headlines, reducing Muslim women to their apparently shocking ability to dress well, rock a scarf, and look acceptable to the Western gaze. Meanwhile, a 6th grade Muslim girl was beaten up by a group of boys and called “ISIS!” in her middle school. How many women’s blogs flaunting modest fashion headlines have covered her story? Much to your delight, we can flawlessly rock a scarf with American fashion trends — but we’re still going to risk getting killed when we step out of the house."

No Fear

Posted by Yasminn Mogaged, December 7, 2015 on Facebook

It was time to break my silence...

On my way home last week, I drove by a pretty bad car accident. It got me thinking about the things we fear in life and the role fear inevitably plays in our lives. With the heart wrenching events of last Wednesday, fear of backlash has begun to consume the Muslim discourse. Many sisters are nervous about the hijab and some leaders have called for laying low.

But in reflecting, I feel there is something wrong with our approach. Statistically, the risk of getting into a car accident is far greater than the risk of an Islamophobic attack. But we don't stop driving. We don't stop going where we need to go. And most certainly, we don't shift all our conversations to the dangers of getting behind the wheel. In other words, we don't feed into the paralyzing fear of hyper focus on a problem.

Yes we're aware of the risks of getting behind the wheel. So we take our precautions; we buckle our seatbelt, say our duaa, and put our trust in God. And then we continue to live our lives. We continue to drive. We stay awake--but not afraid. And there's a difference. Fear only takes over when we allow a problem to consume us. Focusing all our reading, all our thoughts, all our conversations on something only makes it grow disproportionately and deceptively in our minds.  If all I talked about, read about, thought about was car accidents, I'd probably become too terrified to drive.

The question now is: what are those precautions we need to take for protection? Well, I apologize in advance, but I must stand up and unequivocally say I do *not* believe those precautions are wearing baseball hats and bandanas to hide our hijab.

I feel it is irresponsible for our leaders and public figures to spread fear, when what we really need is empowerment. What we really need is strength and hope and trust. And faith. When it gets dark, the believers don't hide. They shine. That's what light does. Light doesn't hide from the dark. It breaks through it.

Brothers and sisters, the darker it gets, the more we need the Light. The more the world need the light. The more we need to empower oursleves to be sources of that light. And the darker it gets, the brighter that light will shine.

You see every single moment we make a choice. We choose how we're going to live. We can either live motivated by fear--by what we hope *won't* happen in life. Or, we can live motivated by hope. By faith. By what we believe can and should happen. And then work for that. Remember, what you focus on grows. You get back what you put into the world.

Yes, there are horrible, tragic things happening in the world. Absolutely true. But, dear God, there are also beautiful, inspiring things happening too. The problem is, if you never turn off the news, you'll begin to believe the world is only dark. You see, good news doesn't sell. Only blood and guns do. Only 'radical Muslim terrorist' do. My dear brothers and sisters, refuse to buy into it. Refuse to allow the darkness to hijack the discussion.

Focus on what you can do to grow the light.

And to all my fellow sisters, who have to feel a little more scared today to put on their hijab, I say this: Remember why you wore it. And for who. Then ask yourself: Do you think the One for whom you wore it, the One who also happens to have sole ownership and power over the heavens and the earth and every Islamaphobe on it, won't take care of you?
But your baseball cap will?

My sisters, don't be afraid. Buckle your seat belt, yes. But keep driving. And keep your eye on the road; not on the belt. Keep looking up. The seat belt won't save you, and neither will your cap.

But Allah will.

Tell the world you won't hide, because your hijab isn't just a cloth. It's a symbol. It represents love. The love of God. And the love of God brings about everything good.

Sisters, by God, you are beacons of light walking around.
Hold it strong.

"I Am Not Oppressed" - The Huffington Post Live Discussion

Click to view:
"I Am Not Oppressed"

"The recent FEMEN protests have raised many questions. One of which is how headscarves are viewed by the group. For Muslims, veils or headscarves symbolize religious devotion, but for FEMEN they are a symbol of oppression. Is there a middle ground?"

Originally aired on April 16, 2013

Hosted by:
Caroline Modarressy-Tehrani

Guests:
Laila Alawa @lulainlife Muslim-American Activist,
Blogger Rev. Paul Raushenbush @raushenbush (New York, NY) HuffPost Senior Religion Editor
Inna Shevchenko @femeninna Leader Of Women's Movement FEMEN


Video to watch/listen to; scroll down to find links to articles surrounding this discussion.

"FROhio Fashion Week Begins with Workshop"

FROhio Fashion Week Begins with Workshop - Toledo Natural Beauty | Examiner.com

True, this event is over, but the thoughts continue: head coverings can be beautiful and stylish.

 "Naturals in the City of Toledo gathered Monday night at the Mott Branch Library in Toledo, Ohio to learn creative ways to use fabric as decorative and practical head coverings."

Photo accompanying article by

Megan Yasu Davis, Toledo Natural Beauty Examiner

 "Head Wraps are not just worn by stars or people who want to "connect with African Roots". They can be worn to spice up a great pair of jeans and a tee, with a formal gown or to simply cover a "bad hair day".

You can select any time of fabric like leftover fabric from a sewing project, old t-shirts, part of a skirt, even an old table cloth or scarf. You can layer the fabric for color contrasting or use floral clips, rhinestone pins or barrettes to accent your wrap. Wraps can be worn high up, with some hair exposed in the top or for bangs and you can rock a head wrap that is more turban style and close the the head.

Whatever way you choose to wear head wraps, they are a fashion trend, a statement, and a practical way to decorate and protect your hair during the Winter months!"

Study on U.S. Muslim Women and the Veil Wins Grawemeyer Religion Award

"Harvard University divinity professor and feminist scholar Dr. Leila Ahmed is the winner of the 2013 Grawemeyer Award in Religion. Her 2011 book, "A Quiet Revolution: The Veil's Resurgence from the Middle East to America" explains why a growing number of Muslim women in the United States are wearing traditional veils and head coverings." 

http://www.amazon.com/Quiet-Revolution-Resurgence-Middle-America/dp/0300181434

"Women embrace ancient traditions of covering"

Women embrace ancient traditions of covering | Picture This | The Seattle Times

A lovely photographic essay sharing the modern ancient tradition of wearing head coverings. Photographers, their subjects, and editors have done fine work sharing and educating. Highly recommended viewing.

In a time when so many things divide Americans, I hope that the photos, captions and video can help increase some cross-cultural understanding. The photos and video span from brides in boutiques to Sikhs in processions. First communions to Sabbath preparations. Somali shopping malls to pastoral homes to Eastside mosques.
The photos and video are not fully representative of all religions and cultures. Instead, this is a collection of some local women's perspectives. 

Posted by Erika Schultz

"M.T.A. Agrees That Workers May Wear Religious Headgear"

"M.T.A. Agrees That Workers May Wear Religious Headgear - NYTimes.com"

It's been since 2004, but this case has finally been settled. Employees will be allowed to wear their head coverings - turbans or hijab - in public with New York City's transit. As long as it's blue - the colour of their uniforms - so that passengers can figure out that they are employees.

Apparently there was some discussion as to whether employees were told not to wear their head coverings in public after the 9/11 events, and people of head covering persuasion were quickly singled out as potential enemies, possibly due to the fact that Taliban affiliates, who claimed responsibility for the attacks, also wear head coverings of some kind.

Not sure if the monetary compensation is warranted: "In a statement, the Justice Department said the authority would pay a total of $184,500 to eight current or former employees who had been “denied religious accommodations” under the old policy." But it sure does reflect the fact that they're all-American! (sorry - the irony struck me funny.)

On a more serious note, the importance of the individual wearing the head covering::

For Kevin Harrington, a Sikh employee of the authority, the settlement was little solace. In 2004, he recalled, his superiors said that riders might not recognize him, in his turban, as an authority employee in the event of an emergency. Mr. Harrington, now 61, was told he would be moved to a job in a storage yard if he refused to take off his turban or, later, if he refused to affix an authority logo to it.

On a fateful Tuesday less than three years before that, Mr. Harrington drove his train backward to keep passengers away from ground zero, an act that earned him an award from the authority. “Nobody saw anything,” he said, “other than that I was a train operator.”  [emphsis mine - LM]

hats for all ages by shemakeshats on Etsy

hats for all ages by shemakeshats on Etsy

Must see!  :)  Knitted hats...

Hijabs and Hoodies

They've been all over the news: you haven't missed it, have you?  A woman killed and left with a note telling her to go home, "you terrorist," when all that was known about her was the fact that she wore hijab.  A young man killed late at night in a quiet neighborhood because, wearing a hoodie, he looked suspicious.

Judged on skin colour?  Religion?  Real behaviour?  And there is that something that they just happened to be wearing on their heads. Coincidence, perhaps. And an indicator to those who go bareheaded that something is "weird" about them, it seems.

Men began walking around head bared to the sun somewhere in the 40s and 50s, and I haven't found a true reason in any article to explain why.  (President Kennedy was following a trend, apparently, not creating one, when he frequently appeared in public hat-less.) But his decision to go bare-headed, and the many women who soon after followed suit in taking off their hats and scarves in public, both in the US and in the Western world, seems to have affected these modern generations who feel that there is something "wrong" with wearing something on their heads. Something suspicious. Are they hiding something in there?

Doctors and parents have to beg to get people to cover up out of doors on sunny days or freezing days, and wilderness experts emphasize in every article how important a hat is to your essentials list.  Those who do wear caps outdoors often wear them bills-backwards, losing any benefit the protective sun shade might offer. Women cut their hair off like men, rather than spend the time it takes to care for and cover to protect their hair in out of doors situations.

I have my guesses as to some of the reasons that hats and other head coverings fell out of fashion for so much of the Western world. Head coverings were status symbols in an era when no one was supposed to be more important than anyone else. In the past it was sort of okay to show off your Easter bonnet, because everyone seemed to enjoy the sport. The better the hat, the higher the rank, so you knew who your superiors were and could treat them accordingly.  But then times changed.  God was declared dead, and therefore all men were no longer "created" equal, but were equal based on the fact that we all came from the same dirt. And more than any time in history, it seemed, people took offense at their elders, their bosses, their parents, the authorities - their men - ... and anyone who attempted to put one person "above" another. Hats and headcoverings symbolized authority, wealth, status... and suffered from our pride. (As do we, when we sunburn or freeze or get ticks from the trees in our hair...).  And from lack of familiarity over the years, came ignorance, and close on its heels: fear.

So hijabs and hoodies, turbans and yamulkas, are now suspect. What are we hiding?

Liking this article: Hoodie, hijab killings rooted in U.S. 'fear industry'

One Million Hijabs For Shaima Alawadi: Women Wear Hijabs In Support Of Slain Iraqi Woman

Headcoverings: Pride and/or Modesty

"Kippah-Wearing Student Told to Prove Religion"

The principal at Northwood High School told Patch that “students are asked for verification when their religious headwear is not traditional headwear that we are accustomed to seeing.” 

By Esther French, Feb. 1, 2012, in the WheatonPatch (Maryland, US)

Though not a deep or philosophical article on head coverings, it touches us all, because the situation could happen to anyone.  Others cannot see our hearts, and can only guess from our outward appearance or behaviour as to whether we really are who we appear to be, or claim to be by wearing our head coverings.

I found this quote by the student's rabbit something to step back and re-read:  “The kippah demonstrates a sense of pride in who we are and a modesty in humbling one’s self before God.” 

Do our head coverings demonstrate a sense of pride as well as a sense of modesty?  I suppose in a way they all really do.  Even though for the most part, those who cover out of a sense of modesty would rather not bring attention to ourselves (which is the opposite of modesty or humbleness), we must be strong enough to do something which others will see, whether they understand fully why we wear a head covering or not.  We have to take "pride" or at least confidence in that which we have faith to do.  Confidence is faith - it is our belief in action.  It is a hard paradox to understand and to live, but nonetheless, when we do something which shows modesty, or demonstrates humbleness - we are not living a double life or acting hypocritically.  We're actually just doing what everyone else espects, really:  we're being on the outside the same as what we claim to be.

For more thoughts on living our inner selves outwardly, see: "Media have field day with Tebow’s public displays of piety," written by the Rev. Mark S. Bollwinkel, Wednesday, 01 February 201, in the Los Altos (California) Town Crier.

'Hang on to Your Hats' opens tonight at museum

'Hang on to Your Hats' opens tonight at museum - Fort Morgan Times

New in-house exhibit created from museum's collection of headgear

By JENNI GRUBBS Times Staff Writer
Posted: 01/25/2012

. . .

"It wasn't that long ago that everybody wore a hat," she said. "Whether you were the president of the United States or a day laborer, everybody wore a hat."
But today, wearing hats in everyday life has become "more of an anomaly," Cooper said.
"In just a couple of decades, my, how things have changed," she said. "Hats were such a part of our culture for centuries."
Now, Cooper and the Fort Morgan Library & Museum are hoping that area folks will come revisit that culture and history on display in "Hang on to Your Hats."

Display in Colorado only, but an interesting idea!

Brandon woman memorializes mom with ministry | TBO.com

Something about those head coverings. . . . Just a nice story today. :)

"Brandon woman memorializes mom with ministry | TBO.com"


"After Irene Westley died, her daughter, Juanita Westley, launched a ministry called Women of Many Hats in her memory."

By MICHELLE BEARDEN | The Tampa Tribune
BRANDON – --

Irene Westley loved hats. Hats that made bold statements. Hats that captured the imagination. She had them in a rainbow collection of colors, from the brightest to the subtlest hues, adorned with bows, feathers, buttons, flowers and festive pins. They lined the shelves in all her closets; 132 hats in all.
Her daughter Juanita once commented on her mother's passion for fashionable head coverings.
"It's not the hats you wear," Irene told her. "It's the roles you play every day."

In Her Own Words, To Cover in Court

"An Expression of Faith" - a short essay in the ACLU's blog, attached to their website, written from the point of view of that headscarf wearing woman who tried to enter a public courtroom, back in 2008, in Douglasville, Georgia, USA.  I have read numerous articles about and referencing this situation, and found it nice to read the woman's own words.  Her situation was one of those "shots heard round the world" regarding those head coverings, faith, women's rights, modesty, and proper court behaviour in the United States.  Because of the denial to her to enter the courtroom with a head scarf, and her subsequent arrest and detainment in jail, much attention was brought towards Islam and toward this lowly headscarf, though both are still much misunderstood because of the various understandings and practices of the wide variety of people who follow this faith and tradition.  As a result:

In July 2009, the Georgia Supreme Court Commission adopted a policy drafted by the ACLU regarding the treatment of religious head covering. Additionally, a civil lawsuit was filed against the city and the police officers that were involved in my arrest. We recently settled this lawsuit out of court and the city has adopted a head covering screening policy which in part states that head coverings for religious or medical reasons may be allowed in courtrooms, and if a security search is deemed required, the individual wearing the head covering may have the inspection performed in a private place by a same-sex officer.

We've come a good way in the US and in many other places, explaining the reasons for these head coverings, and correcting misunderstandings and prejudicial behaviour.  But we still have far to go, as head covering women and those who love them, for there are still many misunderstandings, prejudgements and misgivings - on both sides of the cover/uncover fence.  If practicing Muslim women are kept from dressing in a way that their faith proclaims as modest and respectful, then so also will modest, traditional Jews, Christians and other women who choose to cover up in modesty or from respect or devotion be ridiculed, misunderstood, and maybe even mistreated or "disrobed" (to use the term used in the above linked article). Please keep studying, sharing and encouraging.  We who wear those headcoverings will certainly appreciate it.

See also http://times-georgian.com/bookmark/15935582-City-settles-suit-and-adopts-new-policy-over-religious-headgear  for news on this story.