Standing up to someone. Saving someone’s’ life. Overcoming your fear. These are many common viewpoints that come to mind when people hear the word courage. Everyone has a courageous action that they did in their life. Most people think that you have to save the day in order to be courageous, but you do not. This simple act is courageous, at the age of ten; I decided to wear a headscarf, which is called hijab in Arabic.

It was the beginning of 2010; I was relaxing on my bed enjoying every moment of it. My thoughts drifted off four years ago when I started linking Islam into my daily life. When I was little, I didn’t know much about my religion. At the age of six is when I started to pray on my own. I was a curious girl at that young age. I always saw my mom wearing a scarf before she went to work or stepped out of the house. I knew that girls had to wear a scarf to pray, but I didn’t understand why my mom wore it out of the house. As my thoughts awakened from the past, still pondering over the fact that my mom wore a hijab out of the house, I gathered up my courage to ask the one question I was dying to ask four years ago. “Mom, why do you wear that scarf outside of the house?”

To this day, I remember my mother’s reaction to my question. The corner of my mothers’ lips formed into a beautiful smile, dazzling down onto me. She knew that I was going to ask this question sooner or later, and this was no surprise to her. She told me that in the holy book we follow (the Quran), it states that once girls turn ten, it is recommended for them to wear a scarf, not only for praying, but also when we step out of the home. The reason we wear a scarf is to show modesty. The reason my mom didn’t start wearing a hijab at an earlier age is because she believed in a different religion. Gladly, when she married my dad, she converted and that is how my brother and I are able to learn about our religion at a younger age. All of this information kept coming at me and I was amazed, understanding each word and cherishing it as if it was a toy I wanted all my life. Then an idea popped into my head; “Why not try to wear a hijab outside of my home?” I was brought up to not be afraid but to be myself. I am brave enough to accomplish this, which will expose to the world the real Yasmin.

When my mother heard this idea at first, she thought I was joking. But when she saw that serious look on my face, she knew that I really meant it. She explained that I could do it, but there might be times when I will be faced with difficult obstacles. For example, she was concerned that I might be bullied. When I was younger, I didn’t know that most of the world doesn’t like us Muslims because of certain misconceptions. Because of this, people would say rude comments to Muslims. My mother wasn’t convinced that I should do this, but I explained to her how I really wanted to make my religion part of my everyday life. Also, sooner or later, I will have to wear a hijab when I step out of the house, so why no start at an early age? I was courageous to step into the dangerous world that would try to hurt me with words and I wore my hijab.

My courage was about me standing up for myself and who I am to the whole world. When our society is not willing to accept people for who they are, people have to be courageous and face the challenge to show society who they are. To some people this might not seem courageous; however by accomplishing this I felt courageous. It’s not every day you see someone wearing a hijab to school. So I would like to say, my name is Yasmin and I stood up to the world and I wear my hijab proudly.