Since the salad days, I was known as the Heroin of All Kids. I was never bored of smiling 24/7. I was tremendously cheerful, joyful, and active in outdoors activities. Furthermore, everyone admired my appearance especially my long silky black hair. Perhaps not long enough to go down the balcony like Rapunzel. That is one of the features that made most of the boys at my primary school go crazy when they are around me. Nevertheless there was something happened that changed my life forever. This was when my father told me that I was ready to wear the hijjab full-time. That’s right ladies and gentlemen. Wear the hijjab, the headscarf, full-time. When my father told me that, I almost passed out. Luckily, I still have a micrometer of dignity left. Everyone, please stay back and relax, we’re now boarding to Teen Muslims Mega City.

Dear members of the floor, ‘Teenage’ is the period during which a young person develops from a child into an adult. For your information, when a young Muslim girl reaches the teenage or adolescence stage, it is compulsory for her to wear the hijjab full-time whenever she is in the presence of males who aren’t her immediate family members. Of course, before my father told me about the full-time hijjab, I was known as the “ Part-timers”, who wear the hijjab as part of my uniform at a primary Islamic school or when me and my family go to the mosque or maybe when I visit my grandma who will scolds me if I don’t wear my hijjab. Well, my grandma belongs to the old school of thoughts.

Ladies and gentlemen, it was hard indeed when I was force to leave my old life style. No more sleeveless blouse, no more shorts or tiny skirts, no more dangling earrings and the worst part of all, no more showing off my long silky black hair! Woo! What’s the point I might as well have tentacles growing from my head. I dislike the hijjab a lot. It was itchy, sweaty and hot all day long. It became much unpleasant to wear during sports. It kept flapping all over my face when I was running. From the first place in team running track, I dropped to the last place just because of my hijjab.

On the contrary, it’s not that bad after all, once you get used to it. As a matter of fact, it helps me a lot. As an example, whenever I’m lack of tissue paper and I need it so much because I’m so sweaty and I need to wipe it off, I can just use my hijjab veil and ‘WHOOP’ wipe it off. There you go, clean and clear. But let me remind you that this top-secret technique can only be used in desperate measures only. Or else, your veil will stink until the end of century. Not only that, as I wear the hijjab I feel like my spirit and confidence in Islam is strengthen inside me like a blowfish and without a shred of doubt, I want to prove to myself along with the people around me that I’m strong enough to wear the symbol of my faith. Not to mention, it also made me feel so close to the Creator.

Dear supportive audience, besides the hijjab, as the follower of Prophet Muhammad, we are also encouraged to pray five times a day. But, from my personal experience, the morning fajr prayer, before sunrise, is the most complicated of all. Sometimes, my parents will wake me in vain. As a normal teenager, I’m not my best at dawn and occasionally I’d throw a pillow and start yelling like a hyena “leave me alone”. But they manage to get me sky high when they splash me with a bucket of icy cold water. Some unbelievable mornings I would drag my feet without realizing where I’m heading until I bump into a wall and even doors because you see I thought they were open. After that I perform the wuduh, the ablution, wetting my faces, arms, crown of my head and feet.

Dear respective members of the floor, another obligation that a Muslim has to face is the Fasting Month, or as what I love to call it the ‘ Diet Month’, a full package of diet experince, totally free of charge. This takes place during the Ramadhan month. All Muslims fast for a month before we celebrate the Eid al-Fitr(Festival of Breaking the fast). As usual, my parents will wake me up at 4.00 a.m. to take our suhoor which is our pre-dawn meal. Without questions, I would seem to find it tricky to eat at that time of the day. What do you expect? I want my beauty sleep for God sake not to eat! But then of course, her Majesty the Queen, my mother, will march into my room and shove down my throat plateful of leftovers from the previous day or if I were lucky then it would be freshly cook meals. I recall my first Ramadhan fast. I beg my mum to let me fast for half a day only. Regrettably, His Majesty, my father, disagreed with me. At the end, the sneaky little princess, that’s me, decided to sneak in a couple of Sneaker’s Bar as I went out to play. The best thing about it, I didn’t get caught! Don’t get me wrong, that was 10 years ago. Now, I’m obedient and fast without fail though I would be the first at the dining table when it’s time to break the fast.

Dear friends, teenagers around the world are the same. We all go through the same phases in our life. On the contrary, all of us have our own believes in God. No matter where we come from, or how we speak or how we walk, we are the same inside. We are still teenagers. Whether you are Muslims, Christians, Chinese, or Indians, we wear our badge of faith with honor. Live our lives in unity! Thank You!