Living diversity.

(From Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Byline: Rina Jimenez-David

WE were having an exercise on leadership and change. Asked to choose a partner at random, I paired off with Hajiya Bilkisu, another journalist among the 26 International Family Planning Leadership Program (IFPLP) fellows, who is from Nigeria. The exercise required each pair to turn their backs on each other and make five changes in appearance.

When we turned to each other, I found that Bilkisu, aside from taking off her shoes or loosening her collar, had changed the style of her headgear. When we were next asked to make five more changes on our persons, I found that Bilkisu, with a few folds and sweeps, had altered once more the way the cotton scarf covering her head was styled. A devout Muslim ("Hajiya" is a title borne by women who have made the "haj" or pilgrimage to Mecca), Bilkisu keeps her hair modestly covered. But the way she or another Nigerian fellow, Dr. Clara Ejembi, styled their headgear, the practice of keeping one's hair under wraps seemed more fun and fashion than a religious obligation.

Another Nigerian fellow, Amina Garba, a government official, seemed to prefer more conservative wear than Bilkisu or Clara. Unlike the two women's elaborately knotted scarves, Amina preferred a veil draped simply over her head and covering her shoulders. But she told me, as we chatted on the bus on the way to the Monteray Bay Aquarium, that in fact she felt quite uneasy in the outfits she had donned for our American stay. "At home, I usually wear all-black and long-sleeved outfits," she said, gesturing at the colorful embroidered gown she was wearing. Apparently, eschewing her dark, floor-length outfits at least temporarily while she was in our company was Amina's way of blending into the environment.

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BUT simply by virtue of their religion, or even just their names, some of the fellows had a most difficult time "blending in," not in this time of post 9/11 hysteria in the United States and the reign of the Homeland Security Department which at the time of our visit had just declared the mainland under "orange alert."