A text exchange between a Muslim teenager and her dad went viral on social media. Lamyaa, 17, screen grabbed her conversation with her father. She shared this on Twitter to correct a wrong notion about hijab-wearing women.
Lamyaa, based in Pennsylvania, was in an online group chat when the subjects of Muslim, Islam and the current political climate in America came up. A boy, who accused her of being defensive about her heritage, told her she was only forced to wear a hijab for fear her father would beat her, as per Buzzfeed.
That conversation hit a nerve with Lamyaa, so she opened up to her father, who was all the way in Saudi Arabia, via text messaging. She told him she wanted to stop wearing her hijab. Her father replied that it was her decision to make and he had no control over this.
Since this is a mentality a lot of you seem to have pic.twitter.com/CQn5L8zibS
— . (@ohiduashoney) April 15, 2017
"When I saw how sweet my dad's response was I felt that this proved something," the 17-year-old said, as per BBC. "It proved that misconceptions are often made about people who end up being the exact opposite."
Lamyaa acknowledged some Muslim women might be forced to wear hijab but the requirement doesn't apply to all Muslim women. Lamyaa said she does not really have any plans of taking off her hijab. "I personally chose to wear the hijab, for myself and for God," she said, as per Teen Vogue.
Lamyaa also agreed there's an oppression of women in Muslim countries but it's because of the culture. She further said most people confuse Muslim cultural practices with Islamic religious practices when these are two different things. National Geographic cited the choice of wearing hijab among Muslim women is a "religious conviction."
