00:00You know when people are like, do Muslim women like have hair on there?
00:05I'm like, no, we don't.
00:08Plot twist, go look at them are secret.
00:09There's actually no hair.
00:11Oh my god.
00:17I don't know how I'm going to start this.
00:19I just wanted to come on here and speak because I felt like I had to.
00:22Let me just address, yes, my head is covered.
00:24I am Muslim if you guys didn't know that, but my channel is for everyone.
00:28We're in for a ride.
00:31I know we just have to stay strong.
00:33Bye guys.
00:39I feel like people just like refuse to believe that I'm a normal girl.
00:44I started wearing the hijab almost two years ago.
00:47I was going through a lot.
00:48I was really confused at the time and I really turned to my religion.
00:53Before I started wearing the hijab, I was actually a natural hair blogger.
00:57Even prior to wearing the hijab, I was always a bit hesitant because I knew a lot of my followers
01:03weren't Muslim.
01:04And now I'm like, it's like a part of me, so why would I hide that?
01:09Today, I just want to share how I maneuver as a black Muslim woman in Los Angeles.
01:15I'm going to meet with my good friend, Neelam, and we're going to chat about our shared experiences
01:20being Muslim women, and we're going to do it over a manicure.
01:26These ones are halal.
01:27Halal means that it's breathable and it's vegan.
01:29I'm going to do white.
01:30Okay.
01:31Let's go before I change my mind.
01:33Cheers.
01:33Cheers.
01:36So, how are you loving LA?
01:38I am obsessed with LA.
01:40I feel like I turned into a Cali girl so fast.
01:43I mean, it's obviously different from Minnesota.
01:45Like, I came here and it was such a culture shock.
01:48Speaking of Minnesota, like, I was just there.
01:50You were just there, yeah.
01:51And one of the number one things that was shocking to me is to go any place and see a
01:56hijabi,
01:57a group of hijabis.
01:58And I was just like, whoa.
02:00Like, coming from LA, you don't see that.
02:02So, I understand the culture shock.
02:05Yes.
02:05I don't know if I ever told you this story, but I was sitting at Earth Cafe with a couple
02:09of my friends, and we were, it was like we were caged animals.
02:14It was the wildest thing ever.
02:16Like, we were just sitting, you know, enjoying my avocado toast like always.
02:19And, like, this girl is staring at me from one side, and then I see this other girl
02:23staring.
02:24I see firefighters in uniform just completely staring at us.
02:29You know, I just recently started wearing the hijab just only, what, like a year ago?
02:34Like, the transition to, like, okay, I'm going into modest fashion and wearing my hijab.
02:39You know, I feel like it's been positive.
02:41LA is like a melting pot of people from everywhere.
02:43I feel like they're really open out here.
02:47So, it's not like I haven't really gotten any, like, backlash.
02:50But I have, you know, seen the stairs.
02:53It's not hate.
02:54There's no hate.
02:55I don't, thank God, I haven't experienced that, like, pure Islamophobia and just, like,
03:01pure hatred or anything like that.
03:03Nothing like that.
03:04I remember being in this restaurant, and this guy, like, brought me my food, and he was,
03:08like, Bismillah.
03:09And then after, he was, like, Alhamdulillah.
03:11And I was just, like, that's cute that you, like, just, you know, like, went out of your
03:14way to just, like, know.
03:17No, I love that.
03:18It's nice that you, like, went out of your way to be, like, hey, like, I see you, and
03:20I respect you, and I appreciate it.
03:22And it was the sweetest thing ever.
03:24Now that I have my head on manicure, I thought it could be fun to chat about the art of
03:29Hinnah.
03:30Nadia is a makeup and Hinnah artist.
03:33We're going to chat about Muslim women, as well as getting my Hinnah done.
03:38I love Hinnah so much.
03:40I've always, I've always really, really loved it, and I've always been so proud of it.
03:44All right.
03:45So do you, like, examine people's hands?
03:47I do, I do.
03:49I have to, like, I have to figure out what's the best way to make your hand look attractive.
03:53So I think we're, with your hand, we're going to concentrate on the majority of the design
03:57traveling from this end down your index finger and, like, basically covering this part and
04:02giving you some, like, drapes down here.
04:05So right now we're doing black Hinnah because I know for, for me, it's culturally what Sudanese
04:10people do.
04:11The color of this Hinnah is black because it's mixed with Jagua.
04:15Jagua on its own will color, like, the stain looks like a tattoo.
04:19For a lot of Indians and Pakistanis, there is a, um, there's a thing that a bride has
04:27to hide her groom's name in her Hinnah.
04:30Back in the day, brides didn't know their grooms.
04:33And so, like, here you're married to a stranger and it's your wedding night.
04:37So as an icebreaker, he has to find his name in your Hinnah.
04:41But what brides are doing nowadays is they're not hiding the name.
04:44They're making it, like, very prominent.
04:47Hinnah has cooling agents in it in Africa.
04:50Hinnah is not used as much for decoration purposes.
04:53You know, women tend to do it on their bellies, too, when they're pregnant because it helps
04:57cool their bodies.
04:58I love that.
04:59I think I'm done.
05:01I love it.
05:01Thank you so much.
05:02You're welcome.
05:03I really appreciate it.
05:04It felt really wonderful to get my Hinnah done and I love the design.
05:08But now it's time to talk about something really dear to my heart, the hijab.
05:11I think a lot of the stigma surrounding the hijab stems from a lack of understanding about
05:19Islam.
05:19I'm headed over to see my friend Maria, who runs a hijab company.
05:26It's so cool to me how there's so many different ways to wear the hijab.
05:29How does your family typically wear it?
05:30Well, what's interesting is because, you know, my mom is Mexican.
05:33Yeah.
05:33And she's a convert to Islam, born and raised in America.
05:36So she never had, like, a culture that practices the concept of hijab.
05:40She would wear, like, the one pieces.
05:42And so when I became ready to wear the hijab, I could not relate to that.
05:46So what my mom told me to do, she inspired me.
05:48She said, let's go to Joanne's, get fabric, and sew your own scarves.
05:52It's hard when people only talk about the negative aspects of it because, of course,
05:57like, because, of course, like, that comes with it inevitably.
06:00But, like, they focus so much on that.
06:03So when you think about, like, the future, you get nervous at all?
06:06I'm nervous, but I'm more optimistic and more excited than anything.
06:10My fear, I'll be honest with you, stems from the fact that I'm, you know, Mexican-Arab Muslim.
06:15I was in liberal Santa Monica sitting outside of a very well-known cafe reading a book.
06:20And a guy comes over, passes by me, and just stops in his place and goes,
06:24How could you let her sit here?
06:26Does anybody see this?
06:27Nobody go over there.
06:28Don't you see that there's a dumb Arab bitch?
06:30I literally said a prayer.
06:31And he threw the table that I was on towards me.
06:35Thankfully, it didn't hit me.
06:36But I'll be honest with you, like, aside from that being really scary,
06:40and he, like, kind of ran off after that,
06:42the scarier thing was that there were two elderly white women who were sitting next to me,
06:46and they didn't say anything.
06:48You know, but it was things like that that made me realize, like, this is 2018.
06:52I'm an educated, you know, self-sufficient, working woman.
06:57You know, I happen to be of mixed background and outwardly Muslim.
07:00But, like, why is this happening?
07:02You know what I'm saying?
07:03It should never happen.
07:04So that's why I say, like, I do have a bit of fear.
07:07And the fear kind of gets channeled into, like, an engine running for me to, like,
07:12make sure that the future is better for my children.
07:16Because I'm a first-generation American.
07:18So for me, it's really important that my kids are able to take the best of their Sudanese culture
07:23and the best of their American culture and obviously have Islam,
07:26and they are able to shape their narrative
07:28and what it really, truly means to be, you know, American Muslim.
07:34A lot of the Muslim women that we see in social media have to do with beauty and fashion,
07:39and I think that's great.
07:40That's a step.
07:41But there's also Muslim women who are doing other things that are so incredible,
07:45that aren't getting the recognition.
07:47So when I think about the future, I want them to get the recognition as well, you know.
07:51And I think right now we're shaping it.
07:53There's so much representation.
07:55But I'm just so excited.
07:57There's so much stigma and negativity surrounded around how people perceive the hijab
08:03because that's what's in the media.
08:05And you can't necessarily blame people for what they've been fed,
08:08but you can blame people for not wanting to understand.
08:15It's really sad to know that people might judge me because of my religion,
08:18and I think that comes from a lack of knowledge and a lack of empathy.
08:22But at the end of the day, I'm really proud of my religion,
08:25and I'm not afraid to show it.
08:27I am truly hopeful that if we make the effort to share our stories,
08:31we can break stereotypes and focus on living in a world where we can all belong.
