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Three and a half years ago, when Nassrene Elmadhun was 8-1/2 months pregnant with her first child, she never dreamed she would ever go out without wearing hijab.
Since her early teens in Colorado, Dr. Elmadhun has worn a headscarf, both as an expression of her traditional Muslim faith and her commitment to its requirements for public modesty. She wore it throughout her years as a doctor in Boston, where she became the chief surgical resident at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a top trauma center and affiliate of Harvard Medical School.
She was wearing it on April 15, 2013, when her husband texted her. A bomb had exploded near him at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. "I got my scrubs on and waddled into the hospital and did my best to aid the victims," says Elmadhun. "I still have my fleece with 'Boston Strong.' It's something that will be forever burned into my memory."
That day marked a turning point, however.
Instead of second glances, she became the object of angry stares. Instead of folks assuming she's from another country, or expressing surprise, they began to openly associate her with the Tsarnaev brothers, who perpetrated the Boston bombings.
"I was feeling less and less welcome in my own community, and more and more like there was a target on my back."
It was then when Elmadhun made the wrenching personal decision to stop wearing her headscarf.
Read: Muslim woman pushed down stairs in NYC, called 'terrorist'
"You feel fear, it's human nature," says Mariana Aguilera, who converted to Islam 10 years ago, a Brooklyn-based website that celebrates Muslim lifestyles and fashion.
"But this is more than about our fear," says Ms. Aguilera.
Indeed, if Muslim women wearing hijab across the country have been feeling especially vulnerable during the current political climate in which few can recall such open hostility.
It's a theology that is shared by some Orthodox Jewish women, who often wear wigs to cover their heads in public. In some Orthodox Christian, Roman Catholic, and Protestant traditions, too, women are sometimes required to cover their heads in places of worship - a practice common in the United States just decades ago.
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