“I just want to be free from the niqab. I want to breathe clean air. I want the air to touch my face instead of a piece of fabric. I am Muslim, and there is no evidence in Islam that requires women to cover their faces. Men and religious authorities have distorted religious evidence and information to oppress women. The government has given us freedom, but our families, fathers, and brothers have not. We cannot take off the niqab because of them. If I stop wearing it, I will be oppressed, beaten, and locked up.”

I’ve been wearing the niqab since I was 14 and honestly looking back at old pictures of myself makes me really sad because I feel like I lost so much of my childhood and teenage years when I got into my 20s I had to start living a double life just to have some kind of freedom I’d take it off whenever I was away from my family or outside the country with my brother and I’d finally get to live like myself I grew up in a really fucked up and restrictive environment and living between two completely different versions of myself messed me up in so many ways one version of me was the girl my family expected me to be and the other was who I actually was when I was finally free I have a 19 year old brother who never believed in any of this shit and he’s supported me so much especially when it came to taking the niqab off outside the country I’m a Saudi Arab girl and I want people to understand that women here can go through forms of oppression too people just don’t talk about it the same way they talk about Afghanistan because Saudi Arabia has a much more polished image when it comes to women’s lives and there are still extremists who completely deny that forcing women into things like this can be harmful I lost my childhood and my teenage years inside a black piece of fabric and being forced to live like that for so long affected me way more than people realize it even got to the point where some random person felt comfortable enough to blackmail me and make me cry and feel terrified because if my family ever saw the way I actually live when I’m free I genuinely fear what they would do to me I’ll show you what I look like in my double life because I want people to understand that I’m not making this up but please don’t share it anywhere or repost it because it could genuinely put me in danger and could get me killed

When I was twelve years old, the principal decided to force us to wear the full niqab, including black gloves, long socks, a full face veil, and a very loose abaya. When we refused this sudden rule, the next day she made all of us stand in the large school courtyard. The girls were called up one by one and beaten with a stick. If they refused to comply, they would keep beating them until they agreed. That’s how they forced us to follow it during our adolescence. We were also taught that our role was to learn how to please men and avoid upsetting them as much as possible. We were taught to avoid men whenever we could, and that even if a man verbally harassed me, I should simply ignore him. That’s how they taught us to deal with men. On top of all of that, my family still forces me to follow these rules to this day, and I honestly don’t know what to do about it. #٢٠٣٠_بلا_نقاب

“I am 22. Since I was 10, I have faced pressure and threats over the niqab, and at 12, I was forced to wear it. Removing it, even when alone, filled me with fear to the point of dangerously low blood pressure. After marriage, expressing my wish to remove it led to an abusive incident. I still struggle with eating, drinking, heat, and breathing because of what I endured. We want our voices heard: women should never be forced to wear the niqab.” #٢٠٣٠_بلا_نقاب

“Thank you for taking Saudi women seriously and for giving space to voices that often cannot speak safely in public. If you speak about us tomorrow, please remember that behind every anonymous message is a real woman or girl who may be afraid of punishment, rejection, or losing her family simply for wanting control over her own face and clothing. For many of us, this is not an abstract debate about fabric. It is about identity, dignity, childhood, fear, and the right to make a personal choice without coercion. Some girls are made to cover their faces from a very young age and grow up believing they have no safe way to say no. Please keep sharing our testimonies while protecting our identities. Tell people that Saudi women themselves are speaking, even when doing so carries a real personal cost. We need our experiences to be heard, not spoken over. Thank you for listening. 🤍 #no_more_niqab #٢٠٣٠_بلا_نقاب #بلا_ن #النقاب_قضيتي “