![]() However, as the fashion industry continues to blossom, fashion has been applied to the styling of hijab. ![]() ![]() It is donned in order to observe the aurah of a Muslim woman. Hijab has always been related to religious terms. This creates a wholesome young woman who is not only committed to her religion, but is also mindful of her character. The decision to wear the hijab opens a path for the protagonist to become more adherent to her religion, as well as improving her attributes and individuality as a whole. By using Saba Mahmood’s (2005) study of Muslim women piety, which argues that Islam and its practices can be used as a tool for women’s empowerment, particularly for achieving self-improvement and self-actualization, this paper pays attention to the representation of the hijab in the novel. ![]() This subverts the stereotypical understanding of the hijab, particularly by the West, as either a tool of control and subjugation of Muslim women, or as a stand against Western society and ideology. In this paper, I suggest that the novel portrays the action of wearing the hijab as mainly apolitical, and that it is instead a spiritual and religious act which demonstrates aspects of the hijab as empowering to an individual’s life. Randa Abdel-Fattah’s 2006 novel, Does My Head Look Big in This?, is about a teenage Australian Muslim protagonist who voluntarily chooses to wear the hijab to her elite private school in Melbourne, and the personal and social challenges that she faces after making this decision. ![]()
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