Happy World Hijab Day!!!

Alhamdulillah! The big day has come!!! February 1st is World Hijab Day, today women from all over the world experience "Hijab" for a day. It is a global movement that's meant to raising awareness on how it feels like to be a Hijabi. WHD is on its second year this 2014, and our goal this year is to have 1 million women (muslims, non-muslims, and non-hijabi muslims) participate worldwide, and Alhamdulillah we have 116 countries taking part. We were able to put up a program here in Manila despite the given short period of time -- deepest gratitude to Anak Mindanao "AMIN" partylist and other participating partners for making this event possible.

(all photos are mine unless otherwise stated)

DARE TO COVER FOR THE WORLD ON WORLD HIJAB DAY

Philippines' World Hijab Day Ambassadors, Caroline Yasmeen Lovely & Ammarah-Sahara 

media coverage by ABS-CBN

GMA network interview with Yasmeen

GMA tv news reporter, Rida Reyes wears the Hijab to show support

My time to interview the reporter ;-) teehee*

MashaAllah lovely kids! 

interview after program with Rappler

non-muslim "VOLUNTEERS" around the park, we personally asked to participate 

the next following photos are from event photographers:

non-muslim trying Hijab

photo by: Mark Cristino

photo by: Mark Cristino

a family showing support and flashing their smiles in front of the photo booth camera 

photo by: Mark Cristino

a non-muslim woman we found around the park, and asked to volunteer and try the hijab on 

photo by: Mark Cristino

PTV4 News reporter tries the hijab, too!

photo by: Mark Cristino

Pledge wall

photo by: Mark Cristino

baby Hijabi

photo by: Mark Cristino

photo by: Mark Cristino

photo by: Mark Cristino

little girls show support, too! MashaAllah!

photo by: Jay Ganzon

Pledge Wall

photo by: Jay Ganzon

photo by: Jay Ganzon

photo by: Jay Ganzon

photo by: Jay Ganzon

Group shot! Photo ops with the WHD ambassadors.

Overwhelming!!!

photo by: Mark Cristino

We would like to thank everyone for coming, and actively participating in this event. It wouldnt be a success without you all. I hope everyone who participated world wide, gained knowledge from this experience. To those who weren't able to participate in this year's event, I really hope to see you next year, in shaa Allah, God-willing! :-) I would like to end this entry by quoting one of the greatest scholars of our generation, Mufti Menk: "World Hijab Day is not an act of worship but rather an effective way to create global awareness of the issue that is being attacked unfairly.”

:-)

So, again, Thank you, THANK YOU to those who showed support, and tried "walking a day in the shoes of a Hijabi." I guess the greatest lesson we all can take from this event is that we essentially do not even know enough until we take the nerve to step into other people’s shoes. ;-)

 xxMara