Finding a senior quote is the second hardest thing of senior year after college applications. Ever so often a senior strikes gold in the quote department and a viral quote is born. That is what happened to UCSB freshman and HerCampus UCSB writer Fatima Abdel-Gwad.
Name: Fatima Abdel-Gwad
Hometown: SacramentoÂ
Year: First
Major: Communication and Middle East StudiesÂ
How did you come up with your quote?
I was having a conversation with a friend back in my junior year of high school about my experiences of wearing hijab. I was just going over all the ridiculous questions I had been asked – “Are you bald?”, “Do you shower in that?”, “Do your parents, like, force you to wear that thing?” Some of the questions I get are lighthearted and genuinely curious and seek to educate themselves on a topic they don’t know about, and I don’t mind those, but what irks me is the ignorant questions that people love to ask. No…. I’m not bald. Stop asking. And you can’t see my hair either. Stay in your lane, fam. Anyway, I had jokingly said that I wore my hijab because Voldemort lived on the back of my head, and I was like, “Yo, that would make a funny quote.” And that is how my senior quote was born.
How did you find out that it went viral?
I actually found out that my quote went viral during finals week of my senior year. I had just taken one of my last finals and was scrolling through my Facebook feed when all of a sudden I saw myself. I almost scrolled past it and literally did a double take. Cue the immediate freak-out because one of my all time favorite magazines, freaking Seventeen, had written an article about me. I basically died inside of happiness.
What has been the weirdest thing that has happened to you since the quote went viral?
I think the weirdest thing that’s happened to me since my quote blew up all over the internet was to see all the comments coming in from all over. A majority of the comments were so sweet and from really nice people that were giving me positive feedback. But then there were the other comments, ones that kind of pissed me off. The Huffington Post had tweeted an article about my quote which was headlined “This girl’s yearbook quote about wearing a hijab has a magical “Harry Potter” twist,” and this guy responded saying “It also has a magical misogynist twist where her father makes her wear it.” That made me so angry. I think the problem is that people really don’t understand why many Muslims wear the hijab. The hijab is a choice, and definitely not forced on women. I have so many Muslim girl friends that don’t wear a hijab, and I have a lot that do. So what? I’m not oppressed, contrary to popular belief. I wear my hijab as a marker of my faith and I wear it proudly. Why is it that Christian nuns are seen as devoted while Muslim hijabis are seen as oppressed and in need of savior? Okay, I’m done ranting.
What has been the coolest thing that has happened to you since the quote went viral?
I think the coolest thing that’s happened to me since then was that some of my favorite magazines and some major publications posted articles about me. It was so crazy. It started with Seventeen Magazine, then the Huffington Post, Cosmopolitan, and Zooey-freaking-Deschanel even shared a post about me. It was crazy, to say the least.
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Has anyone ever recognized you from the quote?
Actually, yeah. I remember at my orientation this girl came up to me and had literally recognized me. It was really funny and also really weird. It’s insane to know just how many people have seen my quote and my name. I live in California and have met people all the way in Dubai that had seen it.