Changes in Customs and Language - Essay Example

In the lives of Muslims, the use of the veil and hijab among women has changed from time to time as they tried to survive in their communities. Along with this change was also the obvious adaptation in the commonly used English language. Such changes in the use of the veil and hijab as well as the English language will be discussed in more detail in the following paragraphs.

            In our world today, it is not uncommon to hear Muslim women being terrorized by non-Muslims saying that they are terrorists. For example, in the speech of Hafsah Badru Amirah, president of the Muslim Students Society in Nigeria during World Hijab Day in February, she reminded her audience that one of the reasons for the celebration is in remembrance of a Muslim woman stabbed to death in a German court for no other reason than wearing a hijab (Amirah). Hebah and Sarah, sisters from a Muslim family who migrated to America from Egypt, tell about their experiences about using the veil and hijab. They share about how people have always been fascinated by their way of dressing and how they have been threatened by strangers simply by the way they looked. For the non-Muslim who feels threatened by the presence of a Muslim woman wearing a hijab, it should be understood that such fear is also felt by the woman inside the strange costume. Nevertheless, that is not always the case so Muslims now have differing opinions about their traditional clothing. For Hebah and Sarah, it is not a statement of their religion but their desire to obey Allah that they use the hijab even in the face of danger. However, in a world where they feel their sexuality is abused in a male-dominated workplace like in the case of Hebah, she feels the need to use the hijab as her way of saying, “I am a respectable woman” (Ali). Although there are Muslim women like Hebah and Sarah who would rather suffer the consequences of using a hijab, there are also those who are afraid of the struggles of Muslims in the modern world who choose to do away with traditional clothing because they want to be accepted in their community.

            Similarly, Muslims and perhaps even other religions and races whose native language is not English, suffer the same difficulties in English-speaking countries such as America, the UK, and Canada. Nevertheless, migrations and mixture of cultures and languages cannot be stopped and native speakers cannot also thwart the assimilation of other cultural values and languages which somehow interest them. Consequently, there have been changes in the English language as more and more people are coming together, adapting to each other’s way of speech and language. For example, it was not long ago when white Americans spoke completely differently than Black Americans did, showing that the former were more observant about grammar. With the desire to be accepted, Black Americans did their best to study hard and improve their lives, speaking just like white Americans. Similarly, immigrants who do not speak English face the same struggles and so they try hard to assimilate for them to survive and not be discriminated against.