Being the daughter of a North African family and living in a non-Muslim country meant that I would start wearing the Hijab as a teenager, but an unusual event when I was six years old changed everything. 

When I was in the first year of ‘Primaria’ at school, a new classmate arrived in my class. This girl was of the same nationality as all the Muslim girls in my class, but she was slightly different from us. She was wearing the Hijab, and she was Shia! Her parents, who are faithful followers of Iran and Hassan Nasra Allah, decided to dress their daughter to wear the Hijab at an early age. Iranian customs had influenced them. 

My parents were amazed and decided that we too had to wear the Hijab at that early age. So my parents asked that family to bring them Hijabs for their little girls. That year, the mass Hijabisation (as I like to call it) happened.  It was never something that was before witnessed in any other schools in Spain. 

In my case, I didn’t wear the Hijab until one year later. I don’t remember why I refused, because my parents wanted me to wear it and bought me Hijabs from that ‘Shia’ family like everyone else. I also saw how my friends started to wear Hijab. But I think it was because of the teacher’s strong opposition. I still remember my teacher saying to me: “Are you wearing this again?”. Such comments at such a young age can really affect you, but thanks to God, after one year, I wore it. And Insh’Allah, it will be forever.

Years later, in high school, I converted to Shi’ism when I discovered that Omar Ibn al-Khattab (LA) killed Lady Fatimah (AS), and her baby Mohsin (AS) was killed in her womb. Shiism made me start wearing the abaya in my home country and very loose clothing in Spain, although I still wore trousers. But a few years ago, I began to wear the abaya in Spain too. This is thanks to the help of Fatimah Zahra (peace be upon her).

To conclude my story, I would like to express the importance of expressing openly what Shia’s genuinely believe and not stop practising their rituals to please the Sunnis. This is because the ‘Sunnis’ see us as role models when they realise we are doing the right thing!