How Do I Let My Parents Know I’ve Embraced Islam?
Assalamu alaikum, dear brothers and sisters. I grew up in a Catholic household, completed my Baptism and Confirmation, and went to Sunday Bible classes until I was 14. Even now, when I visit home, I go to church with my parents if they ask. Almost four years ago, I said my shahada, alhamdulillah, and soon after started wearing hijab. I recall my mother making hurtful, stereotypical remarks about Muslims whenever they were on the news-I’d try to gently correct her, but she’d dig in her heels and stay closed-minded. Around the same time, my father picked me up from a hijabi Muslim friend’s house; I’d taken off my hijab just before he came, but on the drive home, he mentioned he’d noticed I was dressing more modestly and warned that if I ever thought of converting to Islam, I’d be thrown out. This all happened within a year of my shahada. A year later, a stranger assaulted me-touching my chest and waist-while I was in proper hijab. I couldn’t tell my father because of the hijab; I knew he’d yell at me about that instead of supporting me through a terrible ordeal. When I finally told him a year after, leaving out the hijab, he blamed me and called me foolish, so reasoning with him feels impossible. And my mother, though some might think she’s the easier one to approach, has been physically and emotionally abusive toward me for even longer than my father has been harsh. It’s scary, but I do want to tell them-not because I expect them to be joyful, but so I can practice my deen more freely, inshaAllah.