Sarah Hekmati first wore the hijab at age 15 growing up in Detroit, Michigan. : Is the religion of Islam at odds with American values?.Punk meets Islam for new generation in U.S.But others say it leads to personal freedom. Some women say the hijab makes them feel like they're locked in a cage. 'When it comes to the hijab - why to wear it, whether to wear it, how to wear it - there is theology and then there is practice and there is huge diversity in both,' says Abdel-Fattah, author of 'Does My Head Look Big in This?' She, too, struggled with the choice of wearing a hijab when she was a teenager. 'You can sometimes feel like you're in a zoo: locked in the cage of other people's stereotypes, prejudices and judgments, on parade to be analyzed, deconstructed and reconstructed,' says Abdel-Fattah, a Muslim who has Palestinian and Egyptian parents but was born in Australia.Ībdel-Fattah says people should not assume that Muslim women who wear the hijab are being controlled by men. Randa Abdel-Fattah, who has written two novels about this question, says wearing the hijab can 'exhaust' some young Muslim women in the West. Their challenge: How do I fit in when I wear something that makes me stand out? who wear the hijab may be even more acute.

The pressure on Muslim teenagers in the U.S. In some cases, their worst critics are not Americans, but fellow Muslim Americans. Others ask them if they're a nun - or even allergic to the sun. Some hijab-wearers say that strangers treat them as if they're terrorists. It's a simple piece of cloth, but it can place young Muslim women in Western countries in difficult situations. The hijab, also known as the veil, is the headscarf worn by Muslim women around the globe. But there's a form of religious profiling that some young Muslim women in America say they endure whenever they voluntarily wear the hijab. The nation has heard plenty of debate over racial profiling. You want to make sure you keep it safe until that treasure is ready to be found.'

'When you have something precious, you usually hide it. 'My mom says a girl is like a jewel,' Abdelaziz says.

'It represents beauty to me,' says Abdelaziz, the 17-year-old daughter of two Egyptian parents living in Old Bridge, New Jersey. What the Muslim high school senior wants you to understand is that she doesn't wear the hijab, the head scarf worn by Muslim women, because she is submissive. She doesn't want your frosty public stares the whispers behind her back the lament that she's been degraded by her father.

The Veil Unveiled by Faegheh Shirazi