100 Hijabs Project
100 Hijabs Project
Project start date: Feb 6, 2017
Currently : 10/100 complete
On a surface level, as an artist, I think hijabs are beautiful.
More importantly, and as a human being in 2017, I want and need to learn more. I want and need to learn about the differences between middle eastern countries, dress, attire, religions, traditions, and cultures. I know that I don’t know enough.
I want to spread knowledge and understanding and empathy, and to do what I can to bridge the gap between things known and things foreign. As someone with a growing social media presence, I want to bring something that isn’t found in a lot of similar feeds, like headscarves and burkas and hijabs, to people that may not encounter these in their day-to-day. If i’m honest, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen one while rolling through my instagram feed. Yikes. We can customize and tailor our feeds to be whatever they want- and I know that mine is whitewashed. I’m working to fix it, but I want to give others the opportunity to stumble upon something different in their usual day-to-day scrolling, and hopefully learn about others and gain empathy that will last.
I want to humanize this issue. This “Muslim Ban” isn’t affecting countries- it is affecting the minds and hearts of women and men and children and families. I want to put a human, real, loving face to those we find different from ourselves.
As a Christian, I’m grateful to be able to practice my religion freely- I drive myself to church, I can pray in restaurants, I can speak freely about my faith. My travel isn’t restricted because of my faith. My life isn’t restricted because of my faith. I can’t imagine the pain of hateful language and attempted barriers from the current leader of the free world. It’s a situation so different from my own, and, honestly, made possible by a lot of people like me- white, middle class Americans and more specifically, lots of white, middle class American women. I didn’t vote for Trump, but i understand that lots of people around me, lots of people like me, lots of people that I know and love, still did. I can’t change that he is President. But I can humanize, and normalize, the people that need us to stand with them. I hope, through, this series, that I am choosing to side with the oppressed.
SLB
“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”
-Desmond Tutu
Most illustrations inspired by images found here