Rabia Khan, 21
Student, University of Toronto
Scarborough

I started wearing a niqab last June. I had been thinking about it for a very long time. It is a part of our religion, but in Saudi Arabia, where I was born, it was more cultural. When I came to Toronto nine years ago, I wore a hijab, that’s it. But I wanted to wear a niqab because it’s a step ahead to your modesty. It was a bit of a struggle in the beginning, but it’s OK now. My family didn’t know I was wearing it—and when my dad found out, he was really worried, saying it makes trouble for me to travel and so on. My mom does not wear a hijab; she does not cover her head. It was a tough decision for them, whether to force me to not wear it. My mom thought I was just wearing it temporarily, but she started reflecting and reading, and she was cool about it later on.

Wearing a niqab is something that brings out the best in you. It makes you focus on the better things in life, not on things that are temporary. When you are a teenager, you have to stay away from all the makeup, the jeans, the nice dresses. This whole society is built on outside appearances. You are not supposed to mix freely with men. When you talk to a male, do it in a businesslike manner, to the point. The more you talk, the more you will get fond of them. It does not mean that we are cut off from the world. We do things—I take science at university. We have dads, uncles, people we are allowed to talk to.

People do sometimes limit their conversations with me now; they think I don’t speak English. I do get a lot of stares. Once, at the bus stop, there was a lady who did not speak English. She came to me and started talking to me in what seemed like gibberish, and she did a weird gesture, like she was trying to point a gun. People driving by started staring at me. I was kind of panicked, wondering, what was she thinking about? I could not talk to her, and she could not talk to me.

Allah said to abide by the laws of the country you live in—if the country’s law doesn’t contradict religious law. If it’s a very necessary condition, we will remove the niqab. If it’s something that will cause me trouble when travelling or a security issue, Islam says I can take it off. When I take an exam, I ask a female instructor to take me outside to make sure it’s me who is writing the exam.