“I don’t believe that what a woman chooses to do with her body (as long as it doesn’t harm anyone in the process) is really not anyone else’s business.” These are the (true) words of Ascia Al Faraj, the social media influencer who has made the decision to remove her headscarf.
After advocating for modest fashion and representing Muslim women, Ascia shocked her followers when she posted a picture of herself without a hijab on Instagram. Although the post garnered a lot of love from her dedicated followers, with many writing "I respect your decision," it also gained a lot of distaste from people who were less respectful.
However, as she is in the public eye, Ascia had no choice but to explain herself and she posted a video on her YouTube channel which currently has 239K subscribers. In the video, she talks about her anxiety and describes feeling a “cloud of sadness” surrounding her. She details that this sadness came from a place of encouraging her followers to be authentic and to be themselves - but she was not living her truth.
Ascia began covering her hair when she was 19, ten years later she's now approaching 30 and she says that although it felt right at the time, she’s changed, aged and “outgrown” her online identity. She indicates that after years of fighting for proper representation of Muslim women, finally starting to receive the attention that is deserved, and is taking a step back to allow her peers to continue the journey.
