Getting together in an unusual setting, Chicago Muslim women gathered inside an Evanston church to debunk stereotypes about their faith and hijab, correcting increasing misconceptions about Islam.
“There’s a psyche against Muslim women where if you see them wearing burqas or hijabs, people think, ‘Oh, they’re repressed and uneducated. We have to liberate them,’” Romana Manzoor, an interfaith coordinator at the American Islamic College, told The Daily Northwestern. “Yes, this repression exists, but it’s not the entire story.”
The event was held at Chicago’s Baptist Lake Street Church on Saturday night. Titled “Women in the Islamic Tradition,” the panel was created by the church’s interfaith committee as part of efforts to debunk misconceptions about Islam and the role of Muslim women.