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Billboard Campaign In Dallas Aims To Dispel Misconceptions About Islam And The Hijab

This billboard is located at Interstate 35 and Northwest Highway in Dallas. Other billboards like this have gone up in other places around the country, including Houston and Chicago.
Courtesy of Islamic Circle of North America
This billboard is located at Interstate 35 and Northwest Highway in Dallas. Other billboards like this have gone up in other places around the country, including Houston and Chicago.

Ruman Sadiq says the current political climate has led to misperceptions of Muslim women. 

That’s why she hopes a new six-week billboard campaign will encourage people to call and ask questions about the hijab, or head scarf.

"It's very difficult at times for Muslim women to go out in public wearing a veil,” said Sadiq, an outreach volunteer with the Dallas Chapter of the  Islamic Circle of North America. “We face a lot of discrimination in educational institutions, in the supermarkets and public arenas."

The billboard – at Interstate 35 and Northwest Highway in Dallas – features a woman wearing a hijab, along with a 1-800 number and the words: respect, honor and strength. The Islamic Circle partnered with a Chicago-area based group GainPeace to place the billboard in Dallas. Other billboards have gone up across the country, including Houston and Chicago.

The groups want to show that the hijab is a sign of empowerment and that women of other religions also cover their heads. They point to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who wore a veil, and nuns.

“It is also a form of liberation from strangers who dictate how women should dress in the society to be successful,” Sadiq said. “It’s to free us ourselves from being judged by our physical beauty, but rather our intellect and our character. It’s to preserve our modesty.”

The billboard is already drawing attention and phone calls. Sadiq talked about an hour-long phone call the group received from an angry caller, who was upset about the billboard.

“It was a 62-minute dialogue that we had with her and it ended on a very positive note,” Sadiq said. “She was very happy to clarify the misconceptions she had about the veil.”

Earlier this month, local Muslim women set up a table with information about Islam and the hijab at Klyde Warren Park. They also had various hijabs in different colors that women could try on.

Nahela Morales, also with the Islamic Circle, said women have a choice to wear a hijab and some choose the cover their entire face, except for their eyes.

“There’s no oppression on both as the Koran tells us there’s no compulsion in religion,” she said. “So, we do choose to even wear the head scarf. There’s women that do not wear the head scarf and that’s an individual process.”

Morales and Sadiq said people should appreciate the similarities in all religions, rather than be bothered by the differences.

Copyright 2020 KERA. To see more, visit KERA.

Members of the Dallas chapter of the Islamic Council of North America and Chicago-based GainPeace spoke Thursday during a press conference about a new billboard campaign.
Stella Chávez / KERA
/
KERA
Members of the Dallas chapter of the Islamic Council of North America and Chicago-based GainPeace spoke Thursday during a press conference about a new billboard campaign.

Members of the Islamic Council of North America displayed information about Islam, women and the hijab during a press conference in Dallas. Female visitors were encouraged to try on a hijab.
Stella Chávez / KERA
/
KERA
Members of the Islamic Council of North America displayed information about Islam, women and the hijab during a press conference in Dallas. Female visitors were encouraged to try on a hijab.

Stella Chávez is KERA’s education reporter/blogger. Her journalism roots run deep: She spent a decade and a half in newspapers – including seven years at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered education and won the Livingston Award for National Reporting, which is given annually to the best journalists across the country under age 35. The award-winning entry was  “Yolanda’s Crossing,” a seven-part DMN series she co-wrote that reconstructs the 5,000-mile journey of a young Mexican sexual-abuse victim from a small Oaxacan village to Dallas. For the last two years, she worked for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where she was part of the agency’s outreach efforts on the Affordable Care Act and ran the regional office’s social media efforts.