Sheikh, I’m troubled about the affairs of Muslims these days. There’s a fierce campaign against the niqab going on. Niqab is being attacked, as if there is nothing else wrong or ailing the Muslims except for the niqab, and the magazines are attacking Muslims and all that is Islamic. There are even famous Shuyookh attacking the niqab, and the prevalent phrase is that niqab is an “ignorant, outdated custom.” Sheikh, I would like you to comment on this fierce attack which has bothered us all.

A powerful (and different sort of) hijab poem, “This is a Letter to Your Beautiful Mind” truly captured our attentions.

“Given my privilege as a woman, I only degrade myself by trying to be something I’m not–and in all honesty–don’t want to be: a man. As women, we will never reach true liberation until we stop trying to mimic men, and value the beauty in our own God-given distinctiveness.”

I do not clearly remember the first time I was here. My earliest memories of Australia start when I was around six or seven, probably my first trip after I was born in the city of Sydney. My parents were not particularly happy with the idea of me growing up there. So, they took me out to Iran at the first opportunity.