There are booths at Windsor Regional Hospital where people can learn about hijab

WINDSOR – Windsor Regional Hospital is celebrating World Hijab Day by hosting booths for women to try the Muslim women attire for one day, CBC reported Friday.

“[The hijab] means something different for every single person,” said Lina Chaker, who volunteers with the Windsor Islamic Association.

Islam sees hijab as an obligatory code of dress, not a religious symbol displaying one’s affiliations.

Coming each year on February 1, the World Hijab Day is marked across over 140 countries.

It is aimed at fostering religious tolerance and understanding by inviting non-Hijabi Muslims and non-Muslims to experience the hijab for one day.

In its seventh version, the brainchild of New York-based Nazma Khan, comes under the motto, “Breaking Stereotypes | Shattering Boundaries.”

As part of the event, the hospital’s diversity committee will have booths set up at the Met and Ouellette campuses, explaining why the hijab is worn and visitors will be invited to try one on.

Ruaa Farhat, a 4th-year social work student at the University of Windsor, invited people who have any questions about hijab to come forward and ask them.

“It’s understandable because some people just don’t know,” said Farhat.

“So the fact that I am wearing it, shows that I’m doing it out of my own will,” she said, who feels wearing one is a representation of her true self.

Canada’s 2011 National Household Survey estimated Muslims in Canada to be around 1,053,945, or about 3.2% of the population, making Islam the second largest religion in the country after Christianity.