Shopping for Culture Day<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Sometimes I dread reading the flyers that come home from school. On the first Friday in February, we got backpack mail telling us about Prophet\u2019s Week.\u00a0\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/myislamiclife\/2012\/02\/15\/shopping-for-culture-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shopping for Culture Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sometimes I dread reading the flyers that come home from school. 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{"id":652,"date":"2012-02-15T14:22:14","date_gmt":"2012-02-15T19:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/myislamiclife.wordpress.com\/?p=652"},"modified":"2012-02-15T14:22:14","modified_gmt":"2012-02-15T19:22:14","slug":"shopping-for-culture-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/myislamiclife\/2012\/02\/15\/shopping-for-culture-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Shopping for Culture Day"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Sometimes I dread reading the flyers that come home from school.<\/p>\n

On the first Friday in February, we got backpack mail telling us about Prophet\u2019s Week.\u00a0 In the years past, this was a week where the school had different activities going on, but nothing that involved the parents.\u00a0 This year the Islamic Studies Department was upping their game.\u00a0 I should have anticipated something big was going to happen because of the big Arabic Reading Day celebration that involved singing and plays being acted out on stage\u2026but I didn\u2019t, and was caught off guard.<\/p>\n

So, what is Prophet\u2019s Week?\u00a0 I didn\u2019t realize until this year that it is a week-long celebration to honor Prophet Mohammad\u2019s birthday.\u00a0 The flyer came home, Tuesday is culture day and Thursday is share-a-plate.\u00a0 I asked the ladies what they wanted to wear for culture day, and they said they wanted to dress Egyptian, and for share-a-plate, they wanted American Food.<\/p>\n

It is times like this that I feel completely inept at being their mother.\u00a0 It has been 6 years since I\u2019ve been to Egypt, 3 years since Khaled was last there.\u00a0 When my sister-in-law came for a visit 3 years ago, she brought Egyptian abayas for the ladies to wear.\u00a0 They love their Egyptian dresses, and wear them every chance they get.\u00a0 Except that now, Pea has outgrown hers, and Kate doesn\u2019t want to wear hand-me-downs.<\/p>\n

So on Friday, I found out that I had 3 days to come up with Egyptian style \u2018cultural\u2019 clothing.\u00a0 Websites were out of the question, they would never arrive on time.\u00a0 I asked around if anyone had something we could borrow or if they knew any shops and I came up empty-handed.\u00a0 Of course, everyone else was prepared, or their children were happy to dress American.<\/p>\n

I remembered watching All-American Muslim<\/a> this past fall and making sure to note the episode where the Zaban family<\/a> took their daughters shopping for hijabs.\u00a0 I\u2019ve got all the episodes still on my DVR, so I skimmed through them until I found the episode, and wrote down the name of the shop.\u00a0 When I watched this episode, the girls seemed so comfortable.\u00a0 The shop was unlike any Middle Eastern\/Islamic shopping experience I\u2019ve seen either here or overseas.\u00a0 I wanted to go there.<\/p>\n

The Hija Bee is a store owned by a young American Muslim husband and wife.\u00a0 They both grew up in The United States, and found a need in the community for American Style boutique shopping that focuses on the 16-30 ish age bracket.\u00a0 Lama and Abdul have filled that need with their shop.<\/p>\n

The Hija Bee is easily located on your GPS, and there is ample signage and convenient off the street parking.\u00a0 The store is bright, cheerful, clean, well-organized and very welcoming.\u00a0 There are an abundance of beautiful abayas, from simple to ornate, and in sizes that range from the littlest girls to the fully grown woman.\u00a0 When we went in, we asked if they might have something for the ladies, and we were led to a rack where they not only had a selection of abayas, but Islamic appropriate swimwear.\u00a0 We chose a few pieces and then went back to the dressing room and tried them on.\u00a0 Within minutes, the ladies had selected their new abayas, and Lama helped us choose coordinating hijabs to complement both their abayas and their skin tone.\u00a0 We were able to comfortably browse the vast hijab selection while each outfit was specially boxed and packaged in a hot pink bag.<\/p>\n

Both Kate and Pea felt like complete princesses when they got to carry their own bags.\u00a0 I was thrilled to find a shop that I knew I could visit without Khaled or one of my hijabi friends and be comfortable.\u00a0 I could bring the ladies on my own to The Hija Bee and feel welcome, get the help I needed and not feel judged.<\/p>\n

We ended up stopping at a few more stores that were recommended to us by a bookstore clerk, but those ended up being typical Middle Eastern shopping experiences.\u00a0 They were dark, overcrowded and not particularly clean.\u00a0 The shop owner was intimidating and had Arabic soap operas on the loud television.\u00a0 I knew right away that the prices doubled when I walked in with Khaled just like any place we go to overseas.\u00a0 We didn\u2019t buy anything else, and I told Khaled that the next time we need something I won\u2019t go to any other shop.\u00a0 Why should we?<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/a>On culture day the ladies were dressed to the nines in their new abayas and hijabs.\u00a0 They were so proud and everyone at school thought they looked so beautiful.\u00a0 I have been telling everyone I know about The Hija Bee because I want the store to do well.\u00a0 I want to have a place I can go shopping and feel comfortable, and I have no problem telling anyone where I got the outfits from.<\/p>\n

When I find a good deal, I share it, and when I find something or some place that will help people like me, raising Muslim children when you don\u2019t know where to begin, I tell them.\u00a0 You can find out more about The Hija Bee on Facebook <\/a>and this article on The Arab American website<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"