Kaitlyn Lewis, News Editor
Some students and faculty committed to wearing head scarves on campus Oct. 1 in celebration of the Year of Arabian Peninsula and Muslim culture.
“The Many Faces of the Hijab” was one of the events KSU’s Division of Global Affairs has been hosting in celebration for the Year of the Arabian Peninsula.
Participants were encouraged to come to campus wearing a hijab, a traditional Muslim head covering. During the event, participants learned how to properly wear and tie a hijab and its importance in Muslim culture.
Linda Palazzo, a KSU 1101 professor, participated in the event last week. “I’ve just always been curious about other cultures,” she said. “My kids went to a montessori school, so just about every culture is celebrated.”
Palazzo studied International Studies in college and got her master’s degree in college and university administration. She said she thinks part of the reason why she has always been interested in people in cultures is because of her “strong religious heritage.”
Palazzo said she grew up as a Catholic. “[The hijab] reminds me a lot as a child in Catholic churches, women covered their heads with something called a mantilla,” she said.
“I’m grounded in that,” she said. “So, I feel free to kind of understand what other what’s important to [other people]. Because I think there’s more that we have in common, really, if you dig, a little deeper.”
Palazzo and freshman marketing major, Ramzieh Abousaid, who is a Muslim and one of Palazzo’s KSU 1101 students, said it is written in the Koran that women should wear a hijab; however, many Arabic women get to choose whether they want to wear one or not.
“It’s not an obligation. It’s not mandatory; it’s by choice,” said Abousaid. “It’s more so that women are more conservative about themselves. I’m Arabian, but I’m Americanized. I choose not to wear it because I’m more of an American side.”
“One of the aspects of becoming a liberally educated person is that you can talk about anything,” said Palazzo, who hopes her students have learned from her experience..
