According to rahyafte (the missionaries and converts website): BRIGID AYLWARD says about Islam and hijab:
I believed there was a God, but I couldn’t find God in the Catholic religion, it didn’t make sense for me.
I wasn’t a practicing Catholic but I still believed in God, and life was fine but I needed an element of purpose. I started reading the Bible, and felt like their was a total lack of clarity.
BRIGID AYLWARD, A pediatric nurse at University Hospital Waterford, grew up as a Christian, but wouldn’t have given much consideration to what that meant.
It was after she left home that she started thinking more about where she was was going and for what purpose she was here.
She decided that she would travel to a Muslim country where she would work as a nurse in the hope that in isolation, she could reconnect with God, confirming her belief.
“When I got to Saudi Arabia, I realized that I had a very western mindset, a western culture. I had so many questions: ‘What the heck is with these women who covered head; I thought it was sad to look at, and that women had no place in society.”
Brigid says that working as a pediatric nurse in a Muslim country she got to know the “mothers behind the veil”, and dispelled myths she had about the veil.
“They don’t have to cover – it’s their choice, they prefer to. They’re human, they’re normal. I started to read about Islam purely to do my job better and to understand these women better.
It started to make sense to me – it excited to me. It wasn’t anything I thought it was before.
In November 2008 Brigid accepted Islam. There were some fears she had that were associated with it, about what her mum would say and what her family would say.
Her husband, who she met while working in hospital in Saudi helped her deal with her fears and she says her family have seen the sense of purpose the religion has given her.
“I’ve only ever had positive reactions. I knew people would be surprised at a big change. I’ve only experienced niceness, that’s the great spirit of Ireland.”
Brigid says that the news of Donald Trump’s travel ban saddened her, but that she’d be sad no matter what religion they were.
“What Trump has done is put a mark on Muslims that says ‘We’ve a reason to be afraid of these people’. This is what we’ve been working against, it’s putting fuel on a fire.”
“It’s the woman who wants to wear a hijab,” says Brigid. “When you actually wear it then you realize the benefits.
“As well as fulfilling the religious requirements, for me I’ve gained more confidence when I speak, they’re not looking at me at what my hair is like, I have an inner confidence.”
“I really got a sense of the privacy of it – I feel I’m able to look out at the world and operate in the world without the world intruding on me.
“But I wouldn’t wear it in the West, in case it creates a fear and apprehension.”
Source: www.thejournal.ie
