Muslim girls as young as THREE now ‘choosing’ to wear hijabs in response to rising ‘Islamophobia’ in Australia

From Daily Mail Australia. Many of us will have experience of dressing a three-year-old girl. Yes, we have all had ‘I want the pink kitten t-shirt please, not the blue bunny one’. And then you say ‘You will wear your clean warm cardigan else you will catch cold!’. But they are certainly not capable of saying ‘I want that hijab to show I am comfortable with how you are rearing me’. 

Muslim girls as young as three have been pictured wearing a hijab to embrace their religion early and respond to Islamophobia in the wake of Ramadan celebrations in Sydney’s west.

Muslim community spokesperson Keysar Trad said although wearing a hijab is not religiously obligatory until puberty, young children are starting to put on a headscarf to show ‘they’re comfortable in being who they are’.

Mr Trad said his own daughters decided to wear a hijab at the ages of three and six, but one has daughters has recently taken it off after being ‘peer pressured to look the same as everyone else’. ‘It made me feel society had hurt my babies so much they felt pressured to change the way they dress,’ Mr Trad told Daily Mail Australia.‘It was heartbreaking to see my children subjected to this.’

On Wednesday, more than 50,000 Muslims lined the streets around Sydney’s biggest mosque to celebrate the end of Ramadan and 30-days of fasting. Lakemba Mosque was full by 6am on Wednesday, leaving thousands to place their prayer rugs on Wangee Road while their morning prayers were broadcast over loudspeakers.

Many young girls were seen wearing hijabs with their mothers during the mass prayer. ‘I find it to be really cute to see young girls dressing like mum,’ Mr Trad said.