Dearborn Heights, Michigan, USA – Yasmeen Hamed has been a strict Muslim for most of her life. However, according to her own confession, she did not often wear hijab in her public appearances. She was not an apostate. Here in the Detroit suburbs, the Palestinian-American mother of four is known for her philanthropic work caring for seriously injured Palestinian children living under Israeli occupation. She wore a hijab at the mosque. But she stopped her apostasy. Women follow religious edicts that require them to wear veils at all times in public.
But then footage of Israel's siege of Gaza started playing on her phone screen, and she found herself traumatized by the violence and its unimaginable scale, but also by the bloody and tattered prayer hall. I also found myself drawn to the religious devotion of the beleaguered Palestinian women who continue to wear the clothes of women. – Known as “Isdar” or “Toub Sala” – if killed in their sleep, even at night.
Even as their sorrow saddens Hamed, their grace, their nobility, is a symbol of Islam, which she has held at arm's length, however briefly, for most of her 46 years. It inspired her to rededicate herself completely to her faith. So on the first day of Ramadan this year, she wore a hijab to symbolize the strength of her faith in Islam and her solidarity with her sisters in Gaza.
Now, as Ramadan draws to a close and Israeli bombs continue to mar the Palestinian landscape, Hamed prays harder and more often, reaching for his wallet as reflexively as he leaves the house. Reach for your hijab.
“Seeing what is happening in Gaza makes me question my own mortality,” she told Al Jazeera in an interview at her home in Dearborn Heights here. She said, “I didn't want to die without wearing the hijab.'' When I was younger, I used to say, “When I get older, I'll be more religious.'' When I grow up, I will go for Hajj. When I grow up, I’m going to wear a hijab.’ And, well, I’m old now. ”
For Muslims like Hamed, this year's Ramadan will be different than any other year across the country.
Islam's holy month of prayer, traditionally a time of fasting, feasting, and celebration of charity, has been ongoing since it began on March 10, nearly five months after Israel began its shelling and blockade of Gaza. , it is a much more solemn event.
With more than 33,175 Palestinians killed and 75,886 more injured, the typically joyous atmosphere of Ramadan was brought to an end as Muslims in the United States began to question their relationship with Allah and each other in the midst of a genocide. The mood took on a more spiritual, more emotional, and more thoughtful tone as I reflected on my relationship with the world. It was so terrifying that it is estimated that not only entire households and blocks, but entire bloodlines were destroyed, meaning that there are no survivors with a name for the family.
