“Women keep the faith with head coverings” in AZCentral

Women keep the faith with head coverings

Islamic, Orthodox Jewish females wear hijab in heat

Jose R. Gonzalez Arizona Republic | USA TODAY NETWORK

A wide-brim straw hat provided shade for April Slater on the balmy afternoon of July 25 at the Mesa Urban Garden. Beads of perspiration collected on her smiling face as framed by her hijab, an Islamic religious head covering. The surface temperatures for the garden near First Avenue and Hibbert Street near downtown Mesa reached 121 degrees with humidity at 30%. Slater remained cheerful between watering the tomatoes growing in her small vegetable lot and picking figs from a nearby tree. A Mesa resident, Slater is regularly confronted with questions about how comfortable she is in the hijab she wears in public, particularly under Arizona’s intense summer heat.

She replies with quick candor. “Yes, it is hot. It’s OK to be hot. But everybody around me is hot,” Slater said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. “The people who have on shorts and T-shirts are hot.”

The numbers back her up. From the first official day of summer, June 20, through July 31, the National Weather Service in Phoenix measured high temperatures between 108 and 118 degrees in Phoenix. According to the National Weather Service, 97 degrees was June’s average temperature in Phoenix — the city’s hottest recorded average for the month. July’s average temperature in Phoenix was 101.1 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

Slater, along with an Orthodox Jewish woman and a nun, spoke with The Republic about the importance of religious headwear and other clothing items in the face of the Valley’s sweltering seasonal heat. “Yes, it is hot. It’s OK to be hot.” April Slater Mesa resident

Pleasing God: ‘I choose to dress in this manner of modesty’

Summertime means Slater will opt for “very flowy, very airy” sundresses, and she will sport long-sleeved, 100% cotton shirts under sleeveless dresses or tops covering up to her elbow. Linen is also a favorite fabric.

The 55-year-old Slater has been wearing a hijab since 1999 when she became what Islam recognizes as a revert, meaning she converted to the faith. Among U.S. Muslim women, four in 10 wear a head covering, called a hijab, in public, according to a 2017 survey by the Pew Research Center.

Slater follows the teachings of the Quran, which she said instructs her on corporeal covering. The hadith, which is the narrative record of the Prophet Muhammad, instructs Muslims on what exactly it is they should cover, she shared. The hijab leaves Slater’s hair, ears and neck unseen. She also covers her arms and legs while in public to complete the concealing of what Muslims call the awrah.

“I want to please God. I want to please Allah. By following his word, I choose to dress in this manner of modesty,” Slater said.

Not blending in: ‘It represents so much of identity for me’

Similarly to Slater, Karolyn Benger’s religious beliefs shape her wardrobe. She was born into Judaism, and some 20-25 years ago the 40-somethingyear- old Phoenix resident began adopting Orthodox Jewish customs exalting tzniut, or what is considered modesty within the faith.

Tznuit, Benger explained, begins influencing a woman’s clothing upon her being wed.

Since marriage, Benger’s head coverings have ranged from wigs to scarves and the occasional bobo, which is a more broadly covering traditional Jewish head wrap. She stopped using wigs years ago as she wanted her Orthodox Judaism to be more apparent to others.

“It represents so much of identity for me,” Benger said about the headscarf. “I feel a strong joy that I’m representing myself as an Orthodox Jew, as someone who chooses to cover her hair. And using the scarf in particular gives me that joy because I don’t blend in.”

She restricts her clothing to skirts draped below her knees, baggy slacks and apparel that is sleeved and does not fall below her neckline. During these warmer months, Benger wears looser materials, and dresses, that help the body “breathe better,” she said.

Modesty within Orthodox Judaism is “all-encompassing,” Benger said, pointing out that conduct and speech are also a par t of tzniut.

A matter of sacrifice: ‘That was part of who you were’

Like Benger, Slater and many others in the Phoenix area, Sister Raphael Quinn is a transplant.

Having taken her vows as a nun four years earlier as an 18-year-old in her native Ireland, Quinn donned what she said was a “very, very, very heavy” habit and white veil in 1963 when she first arrived in Phoenix.

The stifling heat she felt as she disembarked an airplane at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport’s Terminal 2 was a departure from the chilly weather back home. This would be the climate she would face while teaching at Ss. Simon and Jude School in Phoenix.

Retiring in January 2023 after 51 years as the school’s principal, Quinn said those early years in Phoenix were filled with enthusiasm, as she was a young nun responding to a divine calling. “Definitely was a sacrifice. You didn’t just dwell on that. That was part of who you were,” Quinn said about wearing the habit in hot weather. She reasoned, “This is what I’m doing, and I’m helping to bring God’s message of love and peace into the hearts of others.”

Of the roughly 120 nuns serving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, Quinn is among the fewer than 20-25% who do not wear a habit.

Her order, known as the Loreto Sisters, dropped the requirement for wearing a full habit and veil in Phoenix in the early 1980s, she said. The Second Vatican Council in the 1960s had ended the mandate for women to wear head coverings in church. She said the Loreto Sisters in Phoenix started dressing in a more Valley climate-suitable way. Their modified habit let their hair show, and their dress was now white.

Reach breaking news reporter Jose R. Gonzalez at jose.gonzalez@gannett. com or on X, formerly Twitter: @jrgzztx .

April Slater works in her garden at the Mesa Urban Garden on July 25. MARK HENLE/THE REPUBLIC

Phoenix resident Karolyn Benger is seen here wearing a headscarf. Head coverings are an important part of Benger’s identity as an Orthodox Jewish woman, she said. PROVIDED BY KAROLYN BENGER