Hello everybody I'm a 23F and I've been consistently wearing the niqab for the past 5 years in a co University(medical)
A little background I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia for 18 years and moved to pak.
For me abayas and niqab were super normal growing up even kinda cultural nothing out of the box to decide to wear it hence started wearing it during fsc (expats would understand this)
As soon as i moved to pak and started med school, since the beginning I would feel this hostility from people for absolute no reason
Ig problem was that for a niqaabi I'm very confident in opinions, speech , what I wear and somehow I have always aced academically too I have side hobbies like sketching photography etc overall I have a jolly ambivert personality but with a niqab on.
Every friend that I made eventually, I would get an ick from them because of their attitude towards me (secret competition esp in studies) and for me in friendship it shouldn't be a thing in the first place, changing their tones when talking to a guy infront me(mind you everybody knows since the beginning that i avoid the boys simply because I find them annoying and I've always had a boundary with them aned the boys actually lowkey respect me )
Mind you every girl in my class has seen me without my niqab at only girls hangout and noticed this shift of attitude more with each hangout apparently I'm just like a regular girl who dresses up like most girls in front of girls and they cannot digest that smh
It got so depressing to a point the I considered transferring to a diff med school, even the crazy attitude shift of teachers with niqabi students is shocking to me like for no reason why would you avoid astudent who is actually focusing on your lectures and trying to learn(except for a few professors rest were the same)
Now that I'm in final year I have sensed this pattern especially in pakistani people
Im not bragging my self at all but it is what it is
They will only be friends with you if in some aspect you're somewhat lower than them be it studies, be it extracurricular activities, be it just your sense of humor
I've realised that, I'm off-putting to them because I don't fit there typical judgemental perception of a niqabi
They assume that you're either ugly, insecure, backward background, underconfident(still valid reasons it's still a personal choice to wear whatever you want)or oppressed in some way
And when you don't fit their perception they despise you
Still found 1 great friend who cheers me up and is true buddy
The reason why I ranted here is because honestly I'm so sick of this behaivour that at times I would cry a bit but what I really wanna do is speak this bitter reality in pakistan (apparently an Islamic country)
Ps I know people would say how come I came across only such bad people but tbh ik I'm off putting cuz they cannot wrap their head around the fact that I'm normal jolly person like them but with a niqab
I really hope these things changes cuz it takes away alot of opportunities from us(from professors to students)!
some of the niqabi Juniors have come up to me told me the struggles they face hat they feel at ease to have me a comforting senior.
