Hawzah News Agency (Ireland, Leinster) - Brigid Aylward from Mullinavat, Co Kilkenny became a Muslim in 2008 but it wasn’t until she started wearing the hijab two years later that she felt like a full member of her new community.

“For the two years I didn’t cover, I used to feel bad that I wasn’t identified as a Muslim. It was an identity thing. Now, I actually love it.”

This is one of the reasons why she accepted an invitation to participate in an event at Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) this Wednesday to mark World Hijab Day.

She and other members of the local Islamic community will meet students and staff at WIT, giving information about their religion and the hijab in an attempt to dismantle some misconceptions they say have grown about Islam and its beliefs and customs.

Fighting prejudice

Organised by lecturer in world religions Colette Colfer, the event will include public talks and a display of different hijabs which can be tried on.

Voices of a new generation on growing up a Muslim in Ireland

It is the only registered event taking place in Ireland as part of World Hijab Day, which was set up in 2013 by New Yorker Nazma Khan to fight prejudice and discrimination against Muslim women.

“I think it’s a such a real opportunity, and that’s how to perceive it; to hear about Islam and life as a woman wearing the hijab,” Ms Colfer said. “It’s one thing me telling [students] about it, but another thing to hear about people living it.”

There has been some negative reaction to this week’s event, she said, but mostly “people are interested in it and finding out more” about the religion. “There are so many misconceptions out there about Islam.”

A paediatric nurse in Waterford city, Ms Aylward converted to Islam after she worked in a Islamic country in 2007. She had already spent time questioning the Catholic faith she was born into.

“When I went to this Islamic country first, I was thinking the women are completely blocked out from society and how could they cover themselves like that, but at the same time I had an open mind. I was working in a children’s ward in the hospital and got to know the women behind the cover.

 “They were so poor but so kind and it was this kind of gratitude and kindness that made me decides I needed to know more about their religion.”