Het Amsterdams Historisch Museum – Mijn hoofddoek

Mijn hoofddoek

16-02-2006 tot en met 14-05-2006
16 Feb – 14 May 2006
The Amsterdam Historical Museum has collected stories, comments and a large number of headscarves, which Muslim women and girls have personally lent the museum, for the My Headscarf presentation. The presentation includes film portraits of young Muslim women, who talk about their experience of wearing a headscarf. For one headscarf is not the same as another. You can also see many different beautiful photo portraits of women wearing a headscarf, some made by the Amsterdam photographer Gon Buurman.

Muslim women in Amsterdam
Amsterdam is a city with a huge diversity of cultures. This is most apparent on the street. The headscarf increasingly features in the street scene. Women and girls wear headscarves as a symbol of their Islamic convictions. Individual Muslims experiment a lot with the headscarf, choosing all kinds of colours and shapes especially for when they’re out on the street, at work, in the sport school and so on.

Questions
What does wearing a headscarf actually mean, why does someone choose to wear a headscarf, where do you buy them, how many have you got, how do you tie a headscarf, what must you be careful about when putting on a headscarf, when did you first wear one and have you still got it, does your headscarf go with the clothes you wear? All these questions were put to Amsterdam Muslim women and girls on the street, at the university, in shops and other places. Their answers give an impression of the relationship young women in Amsterdam have with their headscarves.