Hoda laughed at my niqab… so they wore it a month later

My first day at university after wearing the niqab.
I slept all night praying:
“Oh God… make me steadfast.”
I wasn’t afraid of what they would say, but my heart ached before I even started.

I put on the black abaya with a light beige stripe from Aswa, light and loose…
And I put on the niqab that a few days ago I’d cried while wearing.
But today… I was calm.
I wasn’t confident… but resigned.

I reached the large courtyard in front of the college.
Everyone was sitting… everyone was staring.

Some looked quickly and closed their eyes,
Some looked at me up and down,
Some laughed and said loudly:
– “Is the university a Taliban branch?”

I left.
A friend of mine, who was supposed to be close to me, looked at me from afar and pretended she hadn’t seen me.
She didn’t come to greet me,
She didn’t say “I miss you,”
She didn’t even smile.

But I saw her look.

Look: “You’ve changed… and I don’t like it.”

I entered the lecture hall and sat in the first row.

The doctor came in, and before he could begin his explanation, he looked at me and said, “It’s good that you’re sitting up front, because behind me, I’ll see nothing but darkness.”

They laughed.

They all laughed.

But I didn’t laugh.

Or even break down.

I got used to…
I got used to being the one who goes against the grain.

But suddenly…
Someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind.

I turned around and found “Noha”… one of the classmates. We’d never been close.

She told me, “I’ve always wanted to dress like you,
but I was waiting for someone to beat me to it.
Thank you for beating me to it.”

He was silent.

My heart pounded.

I looked back in front of me…
and the hall was still laughing.
But inside my heart, there was one voice:

“Go on.
If one step from you opens a door for a girl… then you’re not walking alone,
even if you look like this.”

I’m Huda,
and the day I walked alone in the university campus,
I was the reason others thought about changing their path.

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💬 You:
If you were in Huda’s place… would you be able to enter university wearing a niqab?

Were you ridiculed in the auditorium or the campus?

Write to us… or send us your voice. Maybe you’ll be the reason someone else’s path was strengthened 💌