Free Republic

Students from the Arabic Club at the public high school in the city of Medford, about a 15-minute drive north of downtown Boston, wanted to participate in “World Hijab Day” early this semester. The annual event was created in 2013 to promote awareness and understanding of Muslim women who wear the headscarf as an expression of their faith. At Medford High, the plan was pretty straightforward ... The date was set for February 1. But soon after Hijab Day was announced, the Medford public got wind of it. And there was a wave of phone messages, emails and social media...

Parents were not informed in advance, and many were angry. Experts say that the hijab is actually not an Islamic requirement. Officials at the World [High] School of Inquiry in Rochester, New York, spent a week this month fielding dozens of calls from parents angry about a "World Hijab Day" event that encouraged girls to wear the Muslim religious head covering. So reports EAGnews.org, the flagship website of Education Action Group Foundation, Inc. The "Hijab Day" was held in the school on the first Friday of this month, at the request of a sophomore who wears a hijab every day....

Khan started World Hijab Day to build empathy for this perspective and to encourage non-Muslims, and Muslims who don't normally wear a hijab, to try it out. The Arabic word hijab refers not just to a headscarf but to modest dress and behavior in general.