I fear for my wife safety when she goes outside?

[Caliguy]

Asalamalekum,

I am having anxieties that someone will harm my wife. If she goes out of the house wearing hijab, because of the current political situation. I want my wife to do proper hijab, but at the same time i fear for her safety. I read all the time muslims specially "womans" who wear hijabs being attacked and discriminated in America.

 

What should i do in this situation? do you feel the same way about your loved ones, when they go out wearing hijab?

 

W.salam

[Learner2526]

Well it depends on where you live. If you are in a rural area then it's propbably not the best idea to have a hijab on, if you live in a big city it's safe. I live in DC and women wear hijabs without concern. Also lots of the stories about hijabi women being attacked have been proven false.

Edited March 18, 2017 by Learner2526
Misspelled word

[notme]

Living in fear is awful. Does she worry too, or just you? Have you discussed your concerns with her? Is it possible for you to accompany her when she goes out, or arrange for other relatives or friends to go around town with her? 

[YAli]

This reminds of of a thread a while back where a sister proposed a fantastic idea of a 'sister group' where sisters who cannot go out with family can schedule times to go out with other sisters. Safety in numbers. 

The first and best option is ofcourse if a sister can go out with her husband, if that's not possible then her family members (brother, sister, parents, female cousins and other family who is mahram). 

[Abu Hadi]

You have to look at the situation around you. Is she being harassed or threatened on a regular basis because of her hijab ? 

Attacks on hijabis have gone up slightly since Trump, but not that much. There is some reality to it and lots of media hype surrounding it. Bottom line, you have to look at the situation in your immediate area, neighborhood, city. If it becomes a situation where you have legitimate fear that something will happen to her, i.e. she has been harassed, threatened, and police are not doing anything about it, then, Islamically, you need to move to another area where this is not occurring. Her taking off her hijab is not an option, unless she is in immediate fear for her life. 

[j.angel]

I live in Canada so not sure if that makes a huge difference, but I wear a hijab and go out alone all the time and don't face any harassment. Rarely do I ever hear any comments but I can tell those people are either drunk or on drugs (trouble walking, saying random things and anything that comes to their head) so I don't mind that stuff. 

I think some things that can help is to ensure she isn't walking around with anything too flashy (really expensive purse) that can make her a target in general or better yet have her carry pepper spray with her. I also recommend telling her to remove her phone password so that in case of an emergency she can quickly call you or the Police. If she has an iPhone turn on GPS tracking so you can see if anything weird happens and if so give her a call to make sure shes ok. 

Just make sure shes ok with the GPS thing just so that she doesn't feel like a child.

[King]

I would encourage my wife to take her hijab off if it draws more attention and puts her at risk. I have been to some areas where a hijabi uniquely gets so many stares that it  defeats the whole purpose of slipping through without unwarranted attention.

Edited March 21, 2017 by King

[Reza]

On 3/19/2017 at 10:46 AM, j.angel said:

remove her phone password so that in case of an emergency she can quickly call you or the Police.

Usually there is an emergency button on the password screen that one can press, right?

[j.angel]

On 3/22/2017 at 7:53 AM, magma said:

Usually there is an emergency button on the password screen that one can press, right?

True, but not sure that let's you call a person, just the police. I just said that so that it's easier to call her husband if she's lost or something. Best thing would be to enable the fingerprint scanner on iPhone so in case the phone is lost no one can go through it.