I was at the make-shift car park beside Idia Hall, waiting for her to come out as usual. I tried to keep myself busy by alternating between Twitter and WhatsApp posts on my phone. I occasionally hopped in and out of Facebook as well. I hadn’t waited for too long before her call came in.
“Daddy, I’m done.” She announced gleefully and I answered reassuringly that I was already at the gate as usual.
Few minutes later, she moved towards me, accompanied by two of her male colleagues. She was adorning her Hijab. She adorned it all through against all odds. It was an end of a short, but seemingly long and tortuous era of our lives as a family and a beginning of a new phase of life challenges which we hoped to confront with hope and strength of character.
Resilience on The Path: How I Stood Firm for My Right to Wear The Hijab
“How does it feel to finally be out of ISI?” I enquired.
“I feel so relieved” she answered in agreement with her facial and bodily expressions.
Few days later, I decided to ask her how she felt during those troubling period, as a major actor during the Hijab struggle.
“Daddy, I was always scared the moment we approached the Zoo, but I usually recited my adhkaar and reposed my trust in Allah.” It wasn’t easy!”
“You know, I sometimes felt like I left a part of me behind those gates of ISI whenever I dropped you at school?”
Without waiting for an answer, I continued with my talk. “I dropped a few tears on a number of occasions, imagining what the petty people we were dealing with could do to you, but realising that Allah is ever powerful, I felt content in His power to make even His enemies do His bidding.”
The two sessions of struggle against the school management to enforce our daughters’ rights to use the Hijab eventually came to an end just like that. It was filled with hopes and disappointments, camaraderie and betrayals as well as courage and cowardice all displayed by the actors at different points in time.
To undiscerning minds, the whole struggle started two years ago, but to many of us, it is a lifetime struggle. – an excerpt from My Hijab Story
Dr Idris Olabode Badru writes from Ibadan, Nigeria.
