"Salam sis,
Sorry for this surprise email. Jus curious do you wear tudung during working hrs. :)
How is the response from the management? ... Hope this won't disturb ya.."

Yes, it is true that you see pictures of me with the hijab and then without the hijab flying around on Facebook and the blog.
This is really a long story and I hope I did not bore her!

*lol*

Salam sis,

Truth is I do not. I always start going to a new company without wearing the hijab and then I will evaluate the situation.
Previously in my IBM days, I wore the hijab after 1 year in the industry.

This time around in Microsoft, I have not put on the hijab after almost 2 years in my department. Maybe it is because of the situation I am feeling in the office and the nature of people I have to work with. So its really a situation of 'masuk kandang kambing mengembek and masuk kandang lembu menguak'

My outside life is also very private with a lot of people in the office, unless they read my blog. None of my colleagues, except my Director is on my personal Facebook.

There is constantly a part of me that tries to avoid the hiring management discounting me of my credibility in the workforce despite the qualifications. So for me, my priority jobscope and salary scale. The least I can do for my parents who have educated me is to get a good job with good salary.

There are some people who insists that they should wear the hijab and stand by that principle that rezeki di tangan Tuhan. I respect those who view it that way. However, at the end of the day, they need to bear in mind that there are mouths to feed and bills to pay. But truthfully each is it to its own.

If you are planning to wear the hijab to work, you may want to consider 2 things:
1. Whether it is an MNC or SME. SMEs are more flexible with outlooks
2. Whether you will have to go out and see clients, work with events and so on because there are indeed some HR which do not prefer hijab ladies to be fronting occassions as such.

Some ladies i know will speak to their bosses first before they wear the hijab into office.
I did try once but was rejected. So things like this happen.

My pre-pregnancy office days are dressed in pants, long sleeve shirts (sometimes folded up) but the hijab will be in the handbag for after office hours, though there are times it is left at home.
My husband does not emphasize on hijab. To him, akhlak first then hijab.

So in that sense I am lucky to have the huband's blessings and he leaves the decision in my hands.

xoxo

#2 - Love Letters from You to Me with Nurshahida Ar

From: Nurshahida Ar

"Hi mima.. Remember me? U ate my piece of cake masa u buat hijab class.. Anyway jus to share.. Masa I pregnant my first one pun I have e same feelings. I'm small but baby 3.5kg. Rabak I tau!! Haha. U must tell ur Hubby to put on the gas mask bila the pain is about to come. U inhale until the pain goes away u take out the mask.Don keep on inhaling e gas tau, Blh mabuk n muntah. That will make u even more sick.Don worry u'll be fine, Insyaallah. Banyak kan baca u will be stronger than u can ever imagine.."

Yes, I do remember this sweet lady from one of the hijab classes I conducted at Al-Falah mosque last year!

Here we go:

Hi Shahida!

Yes, i do remember you.. hwo can i forget such a petite soft spoken lady!!! Yes you are very small.

Some ladies told me that the gas is very drying to the throat and that we cannot eat and drink during labour oso. I am fixing this brain to go without epidural and gas. Some advised me to baca surah Alam Nasrah during labour. My aunty who is a midwife in Oman told me to keep eating korma cos the arabs there did that and they don't need stitches!!! Imagine that!

But then again, I really do not know my threshold and the husband thinks I am too pampered to even have a threshold. I am just going to put my mind to it. My only concern is my asthma. I hope it doesnt get triggered when my Lil' Rania is coming out.

Then again, I know many women who would love to go through labour over and over again.

Thank you for the kind advise. I will share this with the husband!

*hugs*

xoxo

#1 - Love Letters from You to Me with Adilah Aziz

From: Adilah Aziz 

"Assalamualaikum. I would like to enquire. The way u wear ur inner scarf, u can make the curved shape at the forehead. Makes the face look a lil slender. I bought abt the same inner, it goes flat on the forehead! Then if I were to wear a shawl, my face will look round. Are there diff types of inner scarfs? Mine actually looks the same as urs."

Trust me, Adilah is not the only one who sends me a such a question. I have replied to many messages of the same nature.

Did you know that I really admire women who can show their full face wearing the hijab?

Can show off their nice eyebrows and properly done up eyeshadow.

It cannot work for me - especially now that I am pregnant and chubbier.

But even during my pre-pregnancy days, I was covering up half of my cheek because I inherited my dad's awesome genes.

His strong jawline.

So when I am chubby, I hide the cheeks.
When my face is quite chiseled, I hide my jaw.

"salam sis,
My inner scarf are all flat with the sole purpose to hold up hair. hehehe.
The trick is to bring the whole shawl/hijab forward. Cover half the eyebrow so that it hides half of the cheek.
If you notice, that is how i wear my hijab too! Give it a shot :)"
I do not really know how to explain it though I did show them how during my past hijab classes.
But try it.
The look suits me. It may suit you too!

xoxo

Introduction: Love Letters from You to Me

I do get emails or private messages from ladies who reads (and good to know that they enjoy) Velvet Chronicles.
It is really amazing how words (four-letter word, five-letter word, three-letter word or whatever) can touch people's hearts and lives. How they can feel you and what you write.

The power of language. It is amazing!
Which is why I thought of creating this segment called the 'Love Letters from You to Me'

Truth is, these ladies really underestimated their power of sending me sweet little notes about pregnancy, sharing with me their experiences which is sometimes more valuable than reading from books.
The reason why I call it Love Letters is also because I never received a nasty email.
*lol*

If it comes by, so be it.
I still appreciate the time they try to invest writing to me. I honestly find it very hard to reply to the ladies. When the body is feeling great and very hyped, I can reply almost instantenously.
But when the body is very tired or I just feel like putting all my gadgets aside or I just want to stare up to the ceiling, I will take a longer time to response.

Bottom line is that, I DO respond because I appreciate efforts from anyone, whether it is for me or for someone else.

So yes, I decided not to let it go to waste and will be sharing these love letters with you.
Their letters to me and my responses to them. You may get a tip or two from what these ladies are asking and probably you were just too shy to ask me, despite knowing that I seriously do not bite.

Now, here is the more serious part.
I will be ripping a lovely picture of you from Facebook (if i can get my hands on it) and put it together with your letters to me.

At least we all will know who is the lovely reader and writer.
Yes, it is a community I am trying to build.
Feminist community!
*muahahaha*

And really I will not sabotage you with what I think is a 'not-nice' picture.
So if you have a preferred picture, do send it to me and if you do wish to have your picture potrayed or letters published, do let me know.
I will respect your decision 101%

So till I get very (and I really mean very) strong objections, I should have this going on pretty soon.
:)

Till we catch up!

xoxo,