ST. PAUL, Minnesota — After spending months working in clinics and hospitals across the U.S. at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yasmin Samatar and Firaoli Adam had grown tired of having to constantly change their hijabs throughout the day.
As health care workers, Samatar and Adam, both Muslim, are required to wear protective equipment that limits the spread of disease. Unfortunately, existing equipment could not adequately conceal their head coverings, forcing them to change into a new hijab every day, sometimes multiple times a day, during 12-hour shifts.
They conjured the idea to create a disposable hijab while working as traveling respiratory therapists in Boston in 2021, where they noticed one hospital stocked beard covers for male health care workers.
