Livre vontade (sim, já sei que estou a ser neurótica por continuar a preocupar-me com estas parvoíces)

“My problem is not the hijab or niqab, it is the right of a woman to do whatever she wants. If she wants to do it she should, and if she doesn’t she shouldn’t be forced to,” said Hibaaq. “The bottom line is that it is a woman’s choice.” 

For Meshref, it never was. “I starting wearing a hijab when I was seven years old, the niqab from 14-20 and then switched back to the hijab until just two months ago,” she said, just a few days shy of her 24th birthday. “My family thought I was too liberal, they thought I talked to boys and was too outspoken.” 

“My parents forced me to veil, and I was so angry at them for taking my freedom to choose away,” she said. Now she has new worries: “Suddenly I have to think about my hair all the time. I have to brush it, and tie and it and use products. It’s so much new to think about.” 

The implications have been dire. Meshref was forced to leave home and no longer sees her father. She has to maintain two Facebook accounts — one for her family and childhood friends which shows her veiled, and the other for new, or “understanding,” friends, which shows her new life.“For me, not wearing the veil, I feel like myself for the first time in my life. It should be every women’s right to make this decision for herself. And once every woman has that right, and the men respect her for it, then we will really be in a new Egypt ready for new revolutions and change,” she said.

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Sally Osama, a 26-year-old journalist and new mother, also said she and many of her friends removed their veils as a response to the recent ouster of the Muslim Brotherhood.

“Two things are making us do this: the revolution and Islamic current. The revolution taught us the idea of rebelling and protesting what we didn’t believe. And the Muslim Brotherhood disappointed us and made us think differently about religion. We didn’t like what they had to say about religion, so we looked for our own answers,” said Osama. “I spoke to my family about the decision, I explained to them that I don’t think god cares whether or not I veil my hair. I still have a strong connection to my faith, and taking off the veil has not changed anything about me.”

Osama said that even though she believed many women were forced to wear the veil by their families or because of peer pressure.

“They don’t really want to do it,” she said. “Or at least, they want to make the decision for themselves. I noticed it — the first day I took off my veil – women from my office and my friends were coming up to me to whisper that they were jealous.”

She added that her decision to cast off the veil did not mean she had become less devout.