Hello, I also want to write my story. I am 19 years old and I obviously have a conservative family. My twin and I knew that we would get into hijab one day. Ever since we were little, we went to Quran courses. We decided to start covering our hair when we were 13. Everything was fine for the first 3 years, I got used to being a hijabi but my twin and I started to question religion and research it when we were around 16 years old. Shortly after, we lost our faith. For a long time, we couldn’t tell our parents that we didn’t want to cover ourselves anymore, it was so difficult. We were scared to face their reaction and what people around us would say.

We told our mom crying that we wanted to stop wearing the hijab and the reaction we got was unbelievable. My dad kept us up all night reading Quran verses, giving examples from February 28th and he said “You are brainwashed, you always find and read those books of secular people, both of you betrayed your brains.” My sister and I kept telling him that this was our decision for 2 days straight, but the psychological abuse we were receiving got worse. He threatened us. He took our phones away from us for 3 months and forced us to start performing the salah 5 times a day. He told us that he would kick us out of the house if we ever left without our headscarves. I don’t have the possibility to go to university, if I will ever study, it will be remotely. Although I received a good score last year, I had to take a gap year because of my father, we are taking the exam again this year. Even if my twin and I find a job and a place to stay in another city, we have a one old sibling. My dad said, “If you don’t live lives that match my standards in the future, I won’t let you see this kid.” I really love my little sibling. There are a lot more further details that I couldn’t explain, but this is the overall situation, it hurts me so much not being able to decide my own clothing as someone of age. I hope I’ll win this fight.

*My dad kept us up all night reading Quran verses, giving examples from February 28th.

(Image: Betty Acquah)