“You must wear a hijab”

Those words kept ringing in my head after leaving my admission interview at Nairobi Jaffery.

Coming from a Christian background, I was certain my parents wouldn’t let me go to Jaffery’s especially since it was compulsory to wear a hijab.

Boy was I wrong! A week later, I was standing at an assembly square with a scarf messily tied around my head.

Before Jaffery’s, I was in a laissez-faire Christian American school, we didn’t even wear uniform, and then I’m told I have to wear a hijab? I felt punished.
 
Three years later, I graduate from Jaffery’s with a profound love for the hijab.

God blessed women with beauty but there’s something about the hijab that makes a woman even more beautiful. I only understood this when I saw my friends and classmates with their hijabs on and even more so when I wore my hijab. Granted it took a while, a long while, to realize this – some of us rebelled a lot.

But now, I appreciate a Muslim woman’s decision to wear her hijab. I give her so much respect and never fail to see her beauty.
I thank God I went to Jaffery’s; that my parents remained adamant despite my tantrums and sulking. Without the experience I would still be ignorant and oblivious about the hijab.

One thing I’ve learnt, the situation life presents you today, whether you like it or not, is only to make you a wiser, better person for tomorrow.
 

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