FGM kit sold separately.
Via KRTV:
When her 5-year-old daughter got glasses, Gisele Fetterman got her a doll that had glasses, too. It was important that her daughter, Grace, saw herself in her dolls, Fetterman said.
It’s that same intention that led the Pittsburgh-area mom to be sure Grace’s dolls reflect everyone.
“We make it a point to be very deliberate in her doll collection,” Fetterman said. “We want them to look like the world.” Her daughter has dolls from all over that reflect different racial backgrounds, she said. Grace even has a doll in a wheelchair.
But one day, Fetterman noticed Grace didn’t have any Muslim dolls. She asked her Muslim friend, Safaa Bokhari, if her daughter had any dolls with hijabs. She didn’t, but Bokhari loved the idea.
“I was happy,” said Bokhari, who lives in nearby Oakland. “I wanted to do that before, but because I’m not a citizen, I couldn’t do it.”
After enlisting the help of a local artist to make hijabs for Grace’s dolls, Fetterman and Bokhari decided to expand the project and sell the tiny hijab accessories to other parents looking to teach their children about diversity.
The result is Hello Hijab, an initiative that aims to highlight diversity and educate kids about the traditional headscarf and what it means to the Muslim women who wear it. “There’s a little card for each one that talks about our differences and how our differences bring us together,” Fetterman said.
“We need that in America,” Bokhari said. She’s faced discrimination for wearing her hijab. People stare, she said. Sometimes they call her names.
“People are doing that because they don’t know us,” she said. “This is just a piece of fabric. It doesn’t mean we’re aliens.”
For her, the Hello Hijab mission is about providing a better future for her daughter.