Every woman who has worn hijab to run errands in the humid temperatures dominating the Washington metropolitan region during summer knows the feeling of damp hair pressed up against her neck or sweat trickling down her scalp. In many of our home countries boosting year-round heat, the feeling is amplified, and leaving a cool home during the day is often an impossibility.
It seems, then, almost too obvious that the solution- a sweat-proof hijab, some form of hijabi under armour—is needed desperately. And for some reason it seems as though this necessity hasn’t been seriously considered at all. That is, of course, until now, when a group of University of Maryland students decided to create just that.
Meet the team of K. Sultana, headed by Omar Goheer, a rising junior at the University of Maryland, College Park. Goheer heard about how Muslim sisters complain about the impracticality of wearing ubiquitous and sweat-absorbant hijab fabrics such as cotton or polyester in unbearable temperatures. Curious, he probed the idea of a sweat-friendly hijab- and found it—a type of georgette which is now the signature product of the brand he named after his mother.
As revolutionary as the idea of a sweat-proof hijab is, it is the social enterprising aspect of K. Sultana which helps the brand stand out amongst its competitors. Goheer credits his mother, a single parent who started a daycare business, for raising him and helping him through school, as the driving force which has propelled his desire to see a world in which Muslim women are empowered and economically independent.
He enlisted the help of Islamic humanitarian organization Helping Hand, and is currently pursuing a relationship with the Baltimore women’s shelter Muslimat Al-Nisaa, to help his company become a resource for underprivileged Muslim women. As a result, K. Sultana, which is slated to launch online in mid-September 2014, will be donating 15% of all proceeds to Helping Hand’s various women’s empowerment efforts, including education empowerment. The pending relationship with Muslimat Al-Nisaa is planned to bring benefit to the women of the shelter by helping them become brand ambassadors for the company, and provide for themselves by partaking in person-to-person sales for the product.
“Our hope is for the consumer to choose K. Sultana when purchasing hijabs because of the feeling that knowing that buying a hijab can help her empower other women,” said Goheer. “That feeling of giving back is important to us.”
Though the company is small, comprising of Goheer and recent UMD graduates Mohammad Usman Zia as Vice President, Amnah Sultan as Chief Marketing Officer, and Hanifah Batool as Chief Finance Officer, the brand has already been highlighted for its socially conscious model and product. It won the university’s TerpStart Matching Scholarship program, designed to support innovative students dedicated to supporting other students through such endeavors. K. Sultana was profiled by University of Maryland’s Terp Magazine, upon winning the scholarship. In the profile, Goheer credits the college experience as “a period when you can make mistakes.. It helps you get to the next stage. This is a way to experiment, to learn, to try things.”
The hijabs retail for $24.99, with a $7.50 commission for person-to-person sales, and a 15% charitable support to Helping Hand’s women empowerment initiatives.
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