For the first episode of the Heart2Heart podcast, I reflect on my biggest accomplishment of 2024: putting on the hijab. There were several reasons why I put it on. Of course the most important are for religious purposes, but also as a feminist act. To me, the hijab was a way to address how others perceive me in a world where bodies are objectified and imagined in ways outside of our control. On the one hand it is an act out of submission to Allah swt, on the other hand it's a way to liberate myself from the gaze of others (or at least, try to claim more control over it).