If you escape the busy raucous of the Cesar Chavez Building, you will find the Muslim Student Association downstairs in a quiet corner. Inside, a thick black marker squeaks as a woman wearing a brown hijab—a headscarf that Muslim women wear—writes, “I am not oppressed.” While other members sit on bold-colored and printed rugs, another woman wearing a black hijab, covered from head to toe, bows her head to the ground in prayer. On a Wednesday afternoon, several members discuss ideas to write on protest signs for a College Republican event levels above in Jack Adams Hall. Proudly, the woman sits upright and hurriedly reaches for another poster.

In the teachings of the Qu’ran, the hijab is a representation of modesty and serves to prevent sexual attention from the opposite sex. Muslim women are taught to show only what is necessary, like the hands and feet. But recently the hijab has been given a negative political and social connotation as a symbol of oppression. While some women feel oppressed, others embrace the hijab. Although Muslims rely on the Qu’ran, different cultures from Egypt to Iran may follow it more closely than others. In the adoption of a Muslim’s own beliefs, the hijab can also be seen as non-obligatory in some cases.

Bilan Jama, and a psychology major at SF State, cites a sense of confidence in her aura and a strong stance in her beliefs as the reasons why she chooses to wear the hijab. In a talk for women in the Muslim Student Association concerning the stereotypes placed on Muslim women, the 18-year-old Jama said, “Women in America have a choice to wear it. I think it keeps us from being oppressed. We are ordered by God to cover ourselves and be modest—that alone should be the reason why women wear it.” The other MSA members listen in agreement. “It’s also a form of protection. Men aren’t sitting there drooling at you.”

Wearing the hijab is a right that all Muslim women have. Yasmin Mashal, a dietetics major at SF State, says the stereotypes about Muslims, like oppression, exist primarily because of propaganda.

“You have the choice to be Muslim or not. If I decided not to be Muslim, my parents would be disappointed, but they wouldn’t hold a sword to my throat.”

Maahum Chaudhry, 16, made a personal decision to wear the hijab after a spiritual pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia with her family. “You should wear it because you want to, not because someone forces you to,” she says. “I knew that wearing the hijab was something I wanted to do at one point in my life.” Instead of seeing the hijab as oppressive, she believes it is empowering because it gives her a stronger voice and sets her apart from her peers. “I am obligated to portray Islam in a positive light, so it makes me more conscious of what I say, and people listen,” she explains, motioning her henna-covered hands over her head. “People know I have a duty that whatever I say will have an affect on our religion.”

Some Muslim women are completely comfortable with the way they look in the hijab. In American society, where some women wear tight-fit and revealing clothing, Zahra Noor, 21, in turn, sees this as oppressive. “Muslim women see non-Muslim women, who wear little skirts and tank tops, as oppressed because the media and newspaper and everything about this country are telling them they have to look a certain way to be beautiful,” she says. For Muslims, the way of modesty deters what many American women fight—objectification of the body. “When you cover your body, men don’t look at you like you’re an object. They look at you for your mind.”

As the hijab may unite the beliefs of a religion in different countries, there are different interpretations and practices where it takes on a significance that varies for each individual as well.

Mahmood Monshipouri, an assistant professor in the International Relations Department at San Francisco State University, explains that there are multiple symbolic meanings of the hijab, three of the most primary being a symbol of an identity, a symbol of resistance, and a symbol of modesty. In a world of many cultures and religions, each of these holds characteristics that make them distinct from one another. “The hijab is a very powerful symbol of Islamic culture and it identifies a Muslim from other groups,” says Monshipouri. He explains that Muslims do not have single identity from countries like Saudi Arabia to Egypt. In this context, the hijab is a strong symbol of a cultural identity.

For some Muslims, the hijab may be an instrumental tool of resistance where they fight back intrusion on their culture and modernization in a society where cultural pride firmly opposes mass globalization. Salah Hamed, an international business major, says his sister and mother feel as if they stand out from other women. “All the mohajabads (women who wear scarves) I know love to show their culture and be proud of their religion,” he says.

Although there are individual cases where women may actually be oppressed, this domination is generally blamed on the religion. Hend Shami, another Muslim Student Association member, introduces the conflict between religion and tradition within families. “There are families that don’t really focus on religion,” she says. “You’ll find women who are oppressed, but not because of religion. It’s because of family traditions and culture.”

As a dress of modesty, the hijab may be empowering for some women in a feminist view, where in some countries women are wearing bold colors and prints. On a trip to Cairo, Egypt, Professor Monshipouri found that more than 75 percent of the women wore the hijab even though it is not required. Many women in Cairo wear the hijab as a fashion statement. “Women wear the hijab in Egypt because of respect for the family, for the male, the socialization process they grew up in,” he says. “And now they are internalizing the hijab as a fashionable thing, and they are comfortable with that.”

Some may say that it is a lack of education of Islamic culture, but in any case, it is unfair to make a generalization that all Muslim women are oppressed. With many cultures within a culture, people grow up in different families with different traditions. It is all in the matter of breaking the barriers that disconnect an international cultural understanding.