White woman In a headscarf, would you stare?

[Tooshyshyhushhushidoi]

And conservative/ ‘modest’ clothing. Would you stare? Would you look twice?

context to follow :)

If it was this woman I might

(given she was buried last year... 😁)

In Turkey you see a lot of white women who've married Turkish men wearing headscarves. My brother and his wife retired there and weve visited a few times and its quite common, so when I've seen white women wearing headscarves in the UK it's barely registered.

No, I’m white and wear the hijab, not quite as exciting as a vision of the late queen

Lots of Muslims are white.

Lots of women cover up without being Muslim.

Either way, you're fine.

TBH i wouldn't stare as i barely notice people I know...However..If someone told me they had converted to any religon due to their partners religon i would wonder why if it was free choice etc....However as a stranger passing me by I really would take notice or give it any thought.

Great response. More polite than I'd have managed.

I.wouldn't stare, or even really notice. I live in a very undiverse city - 93% of the population are white and around 1% are Muslim - and even then there were several mums at my kids' primary who were white and wore the hijab or chador.

Lots of Muslim Albanian women who are white wear headscarves - but maybe not many of them where you live? Sorry you are being made to feel this way. People can be so rude and thoughtless.

I know it's really easy to say...'ignore them'....but you do need to change your thinking and just ignore them.

If it's making you feel anxious when you're out, you could try some meditative distraction techniques like focussing on counting the number of red cars you see...or dogs...or blue shop fronts...whatever to distract from the anxiety.

You could adopt the full face cover yes.

ORRR you could do what my friend used to do and stare back really aggressively....that can sometimes invite a confrontation tho so be careful

@Tooshyshyhushhushidoi is it not eye to eye, instead of I do I?

Back to the point, I wouldn't stare and haven't on the several occasions I have seen western women in hijab or headscarf.

I certainly wouldn’t stare at you OP. Partly because I was brought up to have manners; partly because I don’t care what people wear; partly because I don’t see that it is actually that unusual.

Im sorry that you have been made to feel uncomfortable but I admire you for your conviction and steadfastness in your faith.

I don't care what other people choose to wear unless it's something indecent and they're bending over in front of me.

I'd notice you, because it's slightly unusual - literally not quite an everyday sight. Walking down the street I reckon I probably see one apparently white British Muslim convert woman to every 50-100 Muslim women with darker skin. Rare enough to catch my attention and perhaps do a tiny subconscious double take, not nearly rare enough to make me need to suppress an urge to stare rudely.

But of course when I was doing the primary school run and one of the mums in my DCs year was a WB Muslim convert she became part of my mental furniture after the second day, and you will probably be the same for most of your neighbours in a couple of weeks time.

As you've only just started wearing it, possibly you're self-conscious, and so you're also looking at other people more, to see if they're looking at you :)

As you start feeling comfortable and forgetting about it I think (most) other people will too.

You're more likely to double-take at anything unusual so maybe I would, not in a hostile way but just because it's more unusual.

There's a guy on the school run who is white but is a convert and wears Muslim clothing and hat, I don't gawp at him but yes, I notice him more than I would a white man in joggers and T-shirt.

Not sure about the modesty clothing, if it's just fairly loose clothing I wouldn't notice, if it was a white woman in shalwar khameez then that's fairly unusual.

If you stand out from the crowd, you'll be looked at more, it's just human nature to notice something different.

Not in my version ;)

I’m renowned irl for getting lyrics to songs wrong, this is one of them, it’s the only UN I could think of that wasn’t taken haha

@Tooshyshyhushhushidoi you don't owe me an explanation and no hard feelings that you're not giving me one. I hope that you feel confident enough to just own your decisions going forward! x

It’s been a while, I used to hit and miss wear it for many years and some of the staring happened then too but the initial starting and head shaking has made me so self conscious. I’m used to just fitting in and flying under the radar and now I feel very visible.

“I’m more Muslim areas I’ve had some unwanted male attention (but I’m married so it’s easy to dismiss)”

Unwanted attention from Muslim or non Muslim males?

What made that easier to dismiss once you were married?

It wasn't our friend Hilda was it? or her mate Rosie the Riveter?

thanks for your understanding.

I find your reaction though, straight off the bat really personal questions is also fairly common when I do talk to people and whilst some might welcome and opportunity to talk, I personally loathe it, it feels very invasive, but that’s my personality, I’m quite quiet and keep myself to myself.

No. I wouldn't think twice about your skin colour. It's not unusual to see women in full hijab, in allowing tines.

If you want to do it you will need to not care about such things!

I wouldn't stare

I've noticed more and more women wearing headscarves for sun protection.

The fact you wanted to wait 20 minutes to give the context (completely unnecessarily) with trailer style warning of that makes me think you like a wee bit of attention. So maybe you’re noticing people staring at you, because you’re looking around to see if someone is?

This is my neighbour and I manage to let her go about her business without staring - well i look at her to say hello. I do sometimes stare at her teeth as they are so straight and lovely I am envious. She has an orthodontist husband.