2011 Lenten Challenge for Women!

@mamakalila:

No, after the troll I did not kick anyone out because that would have been unjust due to that person, I did however contact a moderator about it and there must have been changes made. Since then, every post says that messages are moderated. I haven't had anyone else say anything about it, but I can check.

Lol crablover no worries! I've been wearing dresses and skirts to church consistently and it feels "normal" to me.

It does feel awkward at first because you start to wonder "is anyone else going to be dressed like this?" or "is someone going to wonder why I'm so dressed up?" but it shouldn't matter at all. I personally, no longer wear jeans to church.

Chantal:

Well I just posted those for ideas to give you an idea of the variations in hijab styles. I'm sorry that this doesn't seem to be in the direction that you want...

Maybe a good idea would be to try what your parents desire first. We *are* supposed to honor our parents, and it could just be a way of testing your humility. Just sayin'

Have you thought about making it look "stylish" for lack of a better word?

I see Islamic women who wear hijab still look stylish and professional, yet you never see a strand of their hair. Have you looked at these:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_or4Wyx27He...ing_hijab2.jpg

http://img397.imageshack.us/f/hijabstylesix6.jpg/

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_AFUxpd8-1D.../s1600/hhh.jpg

That is sad that people consider covering hijabi-style "Muslim only" when there are Jews and Christians in other parts of the world who cover that way too. Perhaps you could cover in a way that doesn't look "Muslim" but still preserves what you wish to do? For instance, just alter the way you cover.

Thanks so much chev!!

@treynolds:

There are a couple reasons why I want to do this. For one, I believe that head covering is a tradition that should be explored before passing judgment on. In these days, radical feminism has taken many things and decried them as "subjugation" to men. If one looks at the Biblical support of head covering, along with history and tradition, they can see that it has nothing to do with that. In fact, I personally believe that since Christianity stresses a voluntary nature of covering, and it must be something done with sincerity, not out of a mandate, it makes the tradition more real and genuine.

I want to do the dresses/skirts thing only because of a couple things. One, I want to stop retreating into slovenly dress and let my appearance reflect what is inside. Granted, it's true that one can dress slovenly no matter what, but FOR ME I think this is what I need to do. Also, It's an experiment-- women nowadays are not encouraged to dress feminine. Modesty is also a challenge, and I want to seek out new ways to overcome that challenge. I am also tired of wearing pants and jeans and just want a change. I am doing this for personal reasons, and don't expect everyone to do that for the same, or even agree. It's just something I am putting out there.

I'm not sure exactly where I am on this lol. I've felt called to cover for quite awhile... and do it outside of Mass occasionally. For some reason its harder for me to cover at Mass... I'm odd I know :-) Anyways, I bought a couple new tichels awhile back (BrickRoux - I love tichels... is my newest fav style lol) and made it part of my routine this month... not necessarily to cover full time, but to put one on every morning. I thought about making wearing one to Mass part of my Lent, but chickened out Ash Monday... Skip forward a couple days & found this group... talked to my husband & decided to jump in and just do it. So I'm not sure if I'm in the "covering every day" category here or "covering for Mass" category. I'm thinking its more the latter since its gonna be the real struggle even if I do cover outside it too.

why cover you head? I do not know the history behind this. Also, why skirts/dresses?

I want to update and report that I've been wearing an Israeli--style tichel every day now (along with other modest wear), and it's been going wonderfully! The first day, I was so nervous that people would stare and that it would be a situation, but it hasn't been. My big test will be lunch tomorrow with high school friends who are vocally anti-religion, but at this point I'm determined that if I take my haircovering off this Lent, it will NOT be from fear or shame.