A Special Barbadian Woman - Haajima (Hajra) Degia

I mentioned my sister Haajima (Hajra) Degia a few days ago in an entry on World Hijab Day.  Barbados Faces, an online magazine that highlights Barbadian women, did a feature on her recently.  The article focuses on the severe obstacles she faced and overcame in her quest to live a life outside of the norms of her Gujarati community and the significant achievements, academic and professional, that she has attained with the help of the Almighty.

I had penned a much longer entry that delves into the internal dynamics of the Gujarati community but decided to save it for another entry in the future.  The entry is hard hitting and I know that Gujaratis here would find it offensive.  Of course, what they feel or think is of no concern to me but I decided that it would be best to leave this mention of the Barbados Faces article as a standalone and present my commentary on Gujaratis in Barbados later.  You can therefore look out for that at some point soon.

Showcasing a Barbadian Muslimah

I wanted to follow up on my post from yesterday.  My contention is that we must go beyond discourses on Muslim women which focus solely on them as a Hijab wearing object.  Why can't we talk about a Muslim woman and what she has achieved, especially when she is operating in an environment that seeks to objectify her?

This is an example of what I am speaking of- Haajima (Hajra) Degia is a highly accomplished Barbadian Muslimah. She took the courageous decision back in 1992 to attend Barbados Community College wearing a hijab. This was at a time when not only did Muslim girls in Barbados stop going to school at a young age but also rarely covered their hair.  Since then she has proceeded to scale great heights, academically and professionally, all while fulfilling Allah’s command to cover appropriately.  She wears a Hijab but she is not defined by it.  She is defined by much more- her accomplishments, her career, her family, her studies.