Bismillah..
I'm currently on my way back to tanah airku Malaysia yang penuh awesome! At first I thought I should just rest because this transit is going to take about 5 hours and I am definitely sleep deprived. But somehow I feel like this is a story I should tell. A story that I want to share. A story so embarrassing on my part, yet I am not ashamed of it.
It all happened after I landed in Abu Dhabi after a 4 hours flight from Cairo. Tiring but I didn't mind because I really want to go home. As usual, we had to be checked and would go through the scanner. The scanner detects metals so we had to remove metal stuff from our bodies. I removed my watch but I knew my belt would set the alarm off and it did. This happens all the time. Normally, they would assign a lady officer to inspect me and it would not be a problem. But this time, it was different.
The man asked me to remove my belt. I told him I couldn't because my jeans was really baggy. Literally baggy! So he asked me to go through another scanner where there were lady officers in charge. I had no problem with that. Again the alarm was set off. When that happened, the lady officer asked me if it was my belt and I told her yes. This lady was quite young, she was not wearing a hijab so I am not sure what her religion is. Nevertheless, she was very nice to me. She looked at me understandingly and let me through. After she let me through, another lady officer got involved. A Muslim, hijab-wearing lady officer. She scolded me for not wanting to take my belt off and asked me to do so.
Now, I understood perfectly that she was just doing her job. Out of respect, I asked her if I could take it off in the private room provided and I would willingly walk through the scanner again. The reason for this is that I didn't want to take off my belt in front of all the boys queing behind me. My jeans was really loose and to be honest, I felt so uncomfortable having to pull up my blouse up to my waist, exposing my thighs and my butt to other people.
For those who know me well, I am definitely not the most religious girl around. I used to wear jeans and short t-shirts all the time. I took advantage of my youth and I exposed parts of my aurat. Today, for the first time in my life, I had to defend my rights as a Muslim girl to cover up my modesty. The hijab-wearing lady officer rejected my request without even considering it. I felt violated. I was betrayed by a fellow Muslimah. The non-hijabi officer tried to fight for me but did not prevail. Honestly, may Allah bless her for trying to help me.
The embarrasment that I felt could not be expressed through words. Tears went down my cheeks as I pull up my blouse to take off my belt in front of everybody. I hold on tight to my jeans to prevent it from falling off. After that, my friend quickly comforted me. We went to the ladies room and I silently cried while waiting for my friend. There were Malaysian girls around but they just looked at me and left. I didn't mind because I didn't want the attention. Then came this beautiful Arab girl who took notice of me. She wore a niqab with polkadots scalf. Even with only her eyes exposed, I could tell how beautiful she is. She straight away asked me if there was something wrong. At first I told her everything was fine but she refused to leave me alone. So I told her what happened and those tears were tears of embarrassment.
She listened. Then she quickly hugged me tightly and whispered to me. She told me to think of Rasulullah s.a.w. ... Such simple words yet was so powerful. She reminded me of the struggles that the Prophet faced and told me that everything would be okay and that everybody goes through hardships. Even though I forgot to ask her name, but I'll always remember this moment.
Never would I thought that I would experience something like this. And this happened in Abu Dhabi where Muslims dominate the population! I know that some people might not understand why I feel the need to share this story. Compared to the Muslimahs in Syiria, in Palestine, this story is nothing. But for the first time in my life, I truly understand why Muslim girls all over the world, fight for their rights. Even if it is not much, I felt a fraction of what my Muslim sisters in France felt when the hijab was banned. I felt a fraction of what my niqabi sisters felt when people make fun of their choice to cover up their face. I felt only a fraction of it, and Alhamdulillah I am truly grateful for this opportunity...
