(UNSPLASH / FILE PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
“Through the years, we’ve had non-Muslim women share with us their own experience with the hijab. Their stories ranged from those of finding quiet empowerment under the veil, to stories of being discriminated against because of a piece of cloth they they’ve decided to wear,” Sangcopan said in a privilege speech.
Sangcopan, vice chairperson of the House Committee on Muslim Affairs, stressedt aht wearing the hijab is neither “an obligation nor an act of oppression” but is in fact, “an act of empowerment and conscious decision among women, regardless of faith, that amount to a change in today’s world where discrimination has become rampant and universal, prejudice and cruel.”