During the recent episode of her “#BerseoranganBersama” Instagram Live session with Ustaz Ebit Liew, popular celebrity Neelofa recalled some setbacks she encountered during her earlier days sporting the hijab.
According to Neelofa (also known as Lofa), the first time she travelled abroad to New York alone, she was initially apprehensive of the response from foreigners towards her modest appearance. This relates to the fact that a lot of unfortunate events involved fellow Muslims at that time.
“Five years ago when I came to New York, there was fuss surrounding a mass shooting incident happened at a mosque nearby. I was afraid of how would they react to me – a girl in her tudung,” recounted the former “MeleTOP” MC.
“It was nerve-wrecking, but I told myself that Allah will always be there to protect me. If I got attacked at that time, I’ll just accept it. But to my surprise, a lot of Non-Muslims were being open-minded and even left words of praise. They didn’t view hijabs as symbol of fashion,” Lofa further added.
On the contrary, a few Malaysian brands didn’t allow the 31-year-old to even borrow their clothes when she first started covering her head! “I remembered the time when some brands refused to lend me some of their garments. They said that they didn’t ‘represent’ those who dons the headpiece, meaning they can’t wear the brands’ clothes,” spilled Lofa.
“So, that’s why I’ve been using my platform to spread the beauty of our religion. I’m aiming to put girls who cover their ‘aurat’ on the international stage. I want to go to events where the spotlight is on me as the only hijabi. I want to appear in magazines that never feature models in their hijabs,” Lofa told the local Muslim preacher.
Optimistic with her goals, the “Kau Yang Terindah” actress said, “(I’m doing this) because I want to show everyone that Muslims are capable of being equal with non-Muslims. I never told this story to other people before this. But I’m opening up since we’re currently discussing about the topic. I hope you can pray for me.”
We also hope that Lofa’s dreams will come true one fine day! For those interested, check out the local icon’s full clip with Ustaz Ebit Liew here (video by Shifa Alsagoff TV):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAcm_Dl2epA
