All the Hijab Styles I’ve Worn
Tasnova Choudhury
A rendition of All the Hairdressers “I Have Ever Been To” by Sara Hiorns
Middle School, P.E., 6th Grade
We were playing a game with an unknown name. The P.E. teacher calls out something descriptive, and if it fits you, you run to the other side of the gym and back. For example, if he yells out “blue shirt,” everyone with a blue shirt runs to the other side of the gym and back. Simple enough. At one point, he said “headscarf.” I’m sure it was his way of being inclusive. He was an old Italian man, really sweet actually. But I was wrapped in a one piece-hijab that outlined my lack of jaw and pointy chin, almost balloon-like. With no intention to make a mockery of myself with display of my waddling run, I hid behind my friends and allowed the words to dissipate into the void. I learned the art of ignoring what I perceived to be a problem.
A Different Middle School, Cafeteria, 8th Grade
Two years have passed, and I have upgraded… hijab-wise, at least. My hijab was just a regular, pinned scarf. We were in the cafeteria, sitting in our little cliques. My friends and I were planning a day we can go watch The Fault in Our Stars. Justin, from the other class, called my name to gain an audience as he and his friends mixed the milk with all the food on their lunch trays. However, my scarf was pinned rather tightly so that my head was immovable. Almost robot-like, I had turned my upper body. This didn’t go unnoticed and Justin turned it into a mockery movement that somehow lasted the entire year. Someone called me Novatron. My name’s Tasnova.
High School, 9th Grade
I tried patterns for the first time. The wind created a little round point in the center of my sand-printed scarf. Benji called it the Grand Canyon. It didn’t take too long to learn that I hate patterns.
Nursing Home, 11th Grade
Girls were notified to wear their hair in a ponytail when we prepared to work at the nursing home. Apparently, hair got stuck in all sorts of situations, from handsy residents to feces. The flowing piece from my hijab wasn’t safe from contamination either. I decided to tuck my scarf into my scrub top. It was cleared from any bodily fluids, but not the residents themselves. As I prepared a bed bath for one of my residents, she took the opportunity to tell me that God loves all. Understanding what she had meant, I raised my eyebrows, smiled awkwardly, and said “Oh… thank you!” As I dressed her in the colorful outfit she picked out, she told me I should try brighter colors. How disappointed she would be to know I still wear all neutrals.
A Random House, Summer Before College
I was on an ambulance ride. I wore my hijab much more loosely, no pins, no stiffness, no tucking. One day, we were called into a home where a man fell off a ladder while painting his garage. As I turned to grab a backboard, there laid his tray of white paint, and there laid the flowing piece of my hijab drowning in it. Probably should have tucked it in.
Tasnova Choudhury, class of 2023, is a Biological Sciences major.