DEARBORN, Mich. – Miss Wayne County was met with cheers when she rode in Dearborn’s Memorial Day parade, but the reaction online has been a different story.
Ameera Hashwi, who wears a hijab as part of her Muslim faith, faced a wave of negative comments on social media following her appearance.
The backlash, she says, is nothing new. She said it started the moment she was crowned Miss Wayne County.
“I try to disconnect myself from those comments as much as possible,” Hashwi said. “I recognize a lot of people are uneducated. They don’t know what Islam is, and they’ve been fed a certain narrative of Islam.”
When hateful comments appear directly on her page, Hashwi says her response is consistent.
“I just delete them, not even for myself, just for other people because I don’t want a young impressionable girl to see that comment hating her religion,” Hashwi said.
Despite the hate, Hashwi says she is focused on what her visibility means to others, especially young girls.
“I had a little girl scream to her mom, ‘Look mom, it’s a princess, and she wears a hijab,’ and I just felt so happy in that moment because that little girl had representation,” Hashwi said.
That sense of representation is what keeps her in the spotlight, even at a cost.
“I’m not the first Muslim woman to do the parade. I’m just the first visibly Muslim one,” Hashwi said.
Hashwi hopes her presence makes it easier for those who come after her.
“Hopefully, whoever is next it won’t be that big of a shock, so they don’t have to deal with the same level of hate, things that I’ve gotten because I have encouraged other people who wear the hijab to enter,” Hashwi said.