Kano
was hit last month by four separate attacks involving teenage girls in hijabs,
leaving nine people dead and scores more injured
Following
the recent suicide bombings by young girls armed with explosives in dressed in
hijab, women in northern part of the country, Kano, are abandoning their
traditional religious dresses.
Kano
was hit last month by four separate attacks involving teenage girls in hijabs,
leaving nine people dead and scores more injured.
No
responsibility has been claimed for the bombings but the terrorist sect, Boko
Haram, have been blamed for these attacks which has put great fear and
suspicion on young women wearing such clothes, prompting them to dress
differently.
“I no longer wear my hijab because people now see any
young woman in hijab as a potential suicide bomber because of the recent
incidents,”
said 17-year old Hajara Musa.
“I now put on my shawl (headscarf) when I go out pending
the time the city gets over the trauma of this frightening trend,” the fashion design
apprentice told AFP.
A
young woman, Musa, said she was recently barred from entering a shopping mall
while dressed in a hijab, which covers the hair, neck and upper body, despite
agreeing to be frisked.
“I was turned away because of my hijab, which I found
very disturbing,” she
added.
21-year-old
Adama Habibu, a student at Kano State Polytechnic, where a suicide blast on
July 30 killed six people and injured 20 others, said she preferred to wear the
hijab but the recent bombings had forced her to stop to avoid attracting unnecessary
attention: “Wherever a young
woman in hijab goes people keep their distance from her out of fear she could
be a suicide bomber.”
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