Nasrieen Habib is 37 years old and she lives in North Minneapolis with her family. Nasrieen loves to spend time in nature, but she didn’t feel safe doing it alone, so she created a group for women who look like her. We recently sat down to discuss Hiking Hijabie, the group she founded in 2022 to provide a safe space for Muslim women to explore the great outdoors of Minnesota. We began by talking about her “Minnesota story”. Nasrieen describes having complete culture shock when she first moved here. “I was trying to decode the hidden messages of what people were saying versus what they mean”. She called it the, “Minnesota nice of it” and notes it was like learning another second language.
Nasrieen talked about how she suffered from seasonal depression in her first Minnesota winter. She had never experienced that before college. Through counseling, she was able to identify the problem and decided not to medicate but to seek other remedies for her condition. Outdoor recreation was the solution that she discovered worked best for her and it is still how she combats her seasonal affective disorder. Nasrieen noted that after fall, most people in her community don’t do much until the weather warms up. As she put it, “Nobody steps outside in the Somali/Muslim community after the fall”. Nasireen always felt odd for wanting to try these new things like camping and hiking. She explains how the Somali people are nomads back home, so living outdoors and camping is easy, “but teaching women the necessary skills is different”.
Nasrieen also talks about clothing and how she needed to learn to dress for the weather. Proper clothing for outdoor recreation activities is an issue for Muslim women who choose to dress modestly. “Traditional modest clothing is not designed for outdoor recreation. We want to have clothing that is modest and comfortable.” She feels that there is no good reason for the current lack of access to modest gear and clothing options. Nasrieen has sourced some good options herself and offers them for sale to others but they currently have to come to her house since there is no storefront offering these things. She sees the demand as being great enough to support retailers dedicating some space to modest options that appeal to women who seek modesty in their clothing. These observations led to a discussion about what it means to dress modestly and how her group handles different levels of covering up. She notes that everyone who attends Hiking Hijabie events are from the same ethnic and religious background, but they may dress very differently. She has women who choose to fully cover up and those who don’t wear a head covering at all. Everyone accepts and supports each other during the activities. There’s room within the group for difference. The main point is that the group allows for doing events with people who understand your choice and identify with you.
We talked more about her faith and how it played a role in her creating Hiking Hijabie. Nasrieen notes that it was Islamic values that led her to the outdoors in the first place. She explains to me that the Quran teaches, “Go into nature so you can be grateful”. This led her to do just that and discover her love for the outdoors. “You can’t look around and not see God”. She tells me the Quran also teaches that people should take care of nature and Nasireen feels you need to go into nature and experience it to fully appreciate the beauty and understand the importance of sustainability. Creating Hiking Hijabie means more people experience the outdoors and have the opportunity to feel as grateful as she does for the gift that it is. This, in turn, may lead to more people focusing on stewarding our natural spaces.
When I asked Nasrieen what exactly Hiking Hijabie offers in its programming I was met with a large smile and an enthusiastic, “Anything Outdoors! I’m all for it!” So far, Hiking Hijabie has traveled to 3 National Parks and 10 State Parks. They have done camping, day trips, kayaking, bouldering and bike lessons. She focuses on creating events and activities that allow people to learn new skills and experience the outdoors in new ways. She notes she’s just trying to get people to try something new. She tells me that sometimes moms will come by themselves and then may bring their family with them to future events. She shares an example of a mother who showed up alone to a snow tubing event since her family refused to join. The woman had a great time and the next time the group went tubing, her entire family joined her. “It was -5 degrees and they loved it! Anything I offer, people are down to try.” She talks about how many members of her community may have missed out on doing these activities when they were younger due to not even knowing it was possible. She is proud to know she’s creating a space for families to have fun together and make some memories and allow the adults to have fun too. Nasireen talks about how many families are disconnected these days due to technology. She feels that outdoor recreation helps reconnect people and bring families together in more meaningful ways.
When I asked about some of the challenges Nasrieen has faced she told me about the discomfort of being in outdoor spaces sometimes due to the headscarf and the lack of interaction or even eye contact people make with her and the other members of the group. “These people don’t want to acknowledge that we’re walking the same path”. While I know she is referring to the physical trail, I can’t help but ascribe a deeper meaning to this statement. I point this out to her and she pauses for a moment before telling me that part of being a Muslim is that you must treat people equally and remember we’re all brothers and sisters. She wishes people would know that Muslims aren’t that different from everyone else. “We have the same values and feel emotions in the same way. It’s just how we go about it is different”. Nasrieen says she thinks the majority of people understand this but that many people choose to ignore the problems and stay silent. It’s this inability to rely on others that led to the formation of Hiking Hijabie. Her first event had 9 adults and 4 kids at the hike. In a month they had 80 members and that number grew to a few hundred over the next couple of months. The group continues to grow.
We talked about the advantages she feels her lived experience has given her and this is where Nasrieen’s optimism shines through. “My personality, for sure. I don’t care what other people think, or do, or how they act. I am going to be true to myself”. Nasrieen talks about her love of advocating for her community and her desire to share her passions with others. She loves seeing a first-timer have fun and recognizing that she helped facilitate the experience. Every time she hears words of support or hears from someone how they would have never experienced that thing without the group, she is energized to carry on. Nasrieen feels she is personally able to witness God’s beauty. “We forget to look up because of technology. No coverage is God’s way of redirecting us.” She says this last bit with a smile and a twinkle in her eye as she laughs at her own observation. When we talk about what she’s learned about humans impact on nature Nasireen shares how she has personally struggled with environmentalism. She had to take a step back from trying so hard to force messages on people. These days she focuses on organic conversations when in nature to share her feeling with others. “It’s not my job to change people but I can educate”. This change in mindset has led to her being much less frustrated and angry with others. She’s trying to follow her teachings from the Quran in how she deals with people but she notes that she feels so strongly about caring for our shared natural places because this is what has led to the issues in her homeland of Somalia. “Somalia has had famine over the past 30 years because of the way we live in the West”. As we move on to more general lessons learned, Nasrieen talks about her realizing that everyone has strengths you cannot see or understand. She talks about how you cannot decide for people what they can and can’t do. She tells another story about how when she was planning the Glacier National Park trip a girl signed up and then the girl’s mother told Nasireen about her concerns due to the girl’s existing health issues. Nasireen made sure to let the group know they would all complete things together as a group and that everyone should ask for the help or accommodations they needed. While hiking Avalanche Trail they went slower than anticipated, but the whole group was supporting this girl. They ended up having to hike back the last two miles after sunset, by the time they got back, it was pitch black. Nasrieen is smiling ear to ear as she recalls this hike. I asked her what was making her smile so much and she said it was remembering the girl’s strength to endure and the way the group took care of her needs.
As we wrapped up I asked for any last words of wisdom she had and she said, “Don’t wait for somebody else to start it. You can be the one. Maybe that person is you. If you’re passionate, just do it. We need more Muslim hiking groups in Minnesota. One is not enough. We need more leaders”.
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