hijablove:

thecharlatansdemise:

So… here’s a quiet little confession. I’m a 19 yo Australian girl who is cultured, well educated and financially and physically independent.  I am not religious and have no immediate plans to be.  I’m agnostic and therefore do not know if there is a God(s) or not but openly respect other religions and cultures and encourage others to educate themselves.  With all this said and done… I find women who dress in hijab (particularly Gulf Arabs) intimidating.  Not just because it is visually and culturally confronting from a modern Western point of view but because the more and more I think about the women behind the veil, the more I ask myself who they really are.  To me, these women represent a hidden world in which I am unwelcome.  They represent a society I do not understand and could never adapt to, not merely out of habit or conscience, but a physical inability to link my identity with their own.  I consider myself powerful and beautiful in my own country and my own world but if circumstances were different and I had been born into theirs I feel I would have been left a lamb to the slaughter.  They seem terribly beautiful and powerful in their own right and therefore, the concept of a woman in full hijab intimidates the shy, naive girl inside me who does not understand the world of men the way these women must in order to tame their own lives.  To me, these women aren’t necessarily oppressed; they are often far more powerful, beautiful and accomplished than their Western counterparts and that’s the most intimidating thing about them.

(via hijablove)