For Hijab Day, Muslim Student Association invited students to come out to celebrate their religion, Islam. The celebration included playing Jeopardy for candy prizes on Muslim trivia, an opportunity to “ask a Muslim” questions about their religion and an array of scarves to try on.

“Even though a lot of people in our community are liberal, open-minded and tolerant of other religions, I feel like there is still a barrier at times,” MSA president Salma Sheriff said. “Even if you are ‘okay’ with it, you don’t really understand it. That should lead to some misunderstandings, so [this event] is to educate people and let them see ‘it’s just a scarf on your head,’ it’s not that big of a deal.”

This event was inspired by other schools in the districts that celebrated Hijab Day earlier in the year. According to Sheriff, this is the first time MSA has had an on-campus event.

MSA officer Neelufar Raja walked around the stand helping students tie hijabs and teaching them step by step the process of doing so.

“It’s just really nice how different people [tie the Hijab] and add their own culture and twist to it,” Raja said.

MSA club members and freshmen Zara Iqbal and Afreen Azad saw the larger influence of this event than just showing students how to wear a hijab.

“Letting other people trying on [a hijab] is an enlightening experience, for people to feel what we are feeling,” Iqbal said. “I think [this station] is to show [people] how it would feel being a Muslim for a couple of seconds or a minute.”

Sheriff, Iqbul and Azad saw this event as a success in educating students about Islam and undermining stereotypes about Muslims.

“Especially since the Muslim community in under some fire because of the media, an event like this helps to show others that we are not bad people,” Iqbal said. “When we see other people trying hijabs on and take pictures smiling with their hijabs, it really shows the effect of this event.”

Check out photos from the event here.