Photo by: Rick Danzl/The News-Gazette Central High School students Malaak Saadah, right, and Yasmin Araud speak while hosting a discussion Tuesday in the school library about Islam and the hijab in advance of today's World Hijab Day.

CHAMPAIGN — Central High School sophomore Malaak Saadah wears her hijab each day as a reminder to herself: Be humble and kind.

Junior Yasmin Araud wears hers to express her freedom of choice and to reflect positivity on all her "sisters" who wear the headscarf.

Today, dozens of other female Central students will join Saadah, Araud and their Muslim peers in wearing the hijab, the traditional Muslim headscarf, to school. It's World Hijab Day, designed to raise awareness about Islam and create solidarity across religions and communities.

In anticipation, Saadah and Araud hosted a discussion in Central's library Tuesday over the lunch hour. Several teachers helped the two organize the talk, and Principal Joe Williams provided the pizza.

More than 130 students turned out. "We were expecting maybe 60," said Saadah, who opened the discussion by explaining that the root of the word Islam means "peace." As Muslims who were born and raised in the Islam faith, Saadah and Araud explained to their peers the founding pillars of their religion and answered questions about everything from the symbolism behind the hijab, to the meaning of the word "halaal," to how many times a day Muslims pray.

They even incorporated games into the discussion to lighten up the conversation, Saadah said.

"I wanted to do this discussion ahead of the event because with the refugee ban being in the news and the labels they get, I feel like this is needed because it educates people about what Islam truly is and it helps people be more sympathetic," Saadah said.

"Education is important in the current political climate. Events like this help spread goodness and spread peace and ideas and understanding."

The two Muslim students started planning for the event weeks ago, long before President Donald Trump issued his controversial executive order restricting immigration from seven mostly Muslim countries.

Now, the organizers hope they're able to spread an even stronger message of solidarity.

Any students — male, female, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, non-religious — who want to participate in World Hijab Day today at Central were asked to bring a scarf to school and meet at 8 a.m. on University Avenue, where Muslim students will help their peers properly tie the scarf.

While the hijab is designed for Muslim women to wear, modesty is also encouraged of Muslim men, who have to wear special clothes to make sure they are covered during prayers, the girls said. Male students wishing to participate can wear scarves around their neck today.

The pair hope what students experience this week will not only send a message of unity across the school — "We know our peers support us and we're not going to get kicked out of this country that is as much theirs as it is ours," Saadah said — but also help teach them that their belief systems are not all that different.

"People never realize how similar Islam and Christianity and other religions are," Saadah said. "... This is a good age to have these conversations. People are open-minded and more ready to learn and experience new things."

"If a person is not taught at a younger age that Islam, for example, is not an oppressive religion, they may carry those stereotypes in adulthood," Araud added. "Now is the time to talk about this."