#GreaterSeattle: What the hijab really means

“We live in a society that is always objectifying women. This is my way of taking the narrative back”:


(Video by Sidney Sullivan)

Miriam Zeghmi is a Communications and Early Childhood & Family Studies double major at the University of Washington.

Zeghmi is Muslim, and wears a religious head covering, also known as hijab, every day.

In this video, she speaks about her experiences with the hijab and how misconceptions and stigmas associated with it impact her life and the lives around her:

“You don’t see successful Muslim women in the media,” she says. “There’s this narrative that our fathers or our brothers or our husbands are oppressing us and telling us what to do, and because of them we’re wearing this hijab. But if they knew what goes on in Muslim households, they’d really think otherwise.”

“The hijab doesn’t limit you, it doesn’t make you submissive.”

About the #GreaterSeattle series: Political slogans about “making America great again” are stirring up racism and anti-immigrant sentiment around the country. But these young people are proof that our growing diversity is Seattle’s greatest strength.

This video was produced as part of a class taught by Seattle Times photographer Erika Schultz for the UW Journalism program.