dejab

Whether you are a girl growing up in a strictly orthodox Muslim household where the wearing of the hijab is mandatory from a very young age, or in a more liberal household where the decision when to wear it is left up to you, the experience is one that is steeped in religious and cultural significance.  Similarly the decision to dejab, to cease to wear the hijab, is accompanied by fear that your family and community may reject you as a consequence.  A dejabber or dejabby will often say that they became tired of the burden of defending their faith and their community to the rest of the population. The hijab makes them instantly a target.  Some reactions are abusive, some simply questioning, but the end result is a craving for the anonymity that comes from looking like everyone else.

For some the religious acknowledgement of Allah that they felt they wanted to make as a young woman seems less effective as they get older.  Putting on a hijab is perhaps not going to give them a sense of their own identity and relationship to God. That has to be worked out in more meaningful ways.