First UK Hospital Introduces Disposable Sterile Hijabs

University Hospitals of Derby and Burton

A hospital is believed to be the first in the UK to introduce sterile, disposable hijabs for surgeons to wear while performing operations.

The brilliant idea came from Farah Roslan while she was a medical student with University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Trust.

Farah, who is a Muslim, wears a hijab on a daily basis but there were concerns her usual headscarf could have potentially carried infections.

With this in mind, Farah decided to think outside the box and began to undertake research into more sterile hijabs.

Pexels

She told BBC Radio Derby:

I’d been using [the same headscarf] all day which obviously wasn’t clean and ideal. I didn’t feel comfortable taking it off and I was pulled out from the theatre, respectfully, due to infection control.

The junior doctor said she had to find a middle ground between ‘dress code due to faith’ and the ‘passion’ of being in the operating theatre.

Farah, who’s originally from Malaysia, looked to her home country for creating a design and testing fabrics out.

The smart idea has had a great response from people online with one Twitter user saying:

Now this is the kind of content that i would like to see more often on Twitter. Good job!

Another tweeter congratulated the hospital on being ‘so inclusive’ while another simply said ‘love it!’.

Farah herself took to Twitter and said:

Thank you for taking my initiative on board! I hope that by providing the disposable headscarf, we will remove one of the major barriers in attracting a wider and more diverse talent pool in surgery. #womeninsurgery#inclusivity

Farah isn’t the only one making waves: back in April, Sports Illustrated had a hijab and burkini-wearing model on its front cover for the first time.

Halima Aden, 21, appeared in the May 2019 issue of the magazine, with the publication saying it was ‘absolutely thrilled’ to have her on the cover.

The 21-year-old, born into a Kenyan refugee camp, made history as the first model to pose for pictures in the modest Muslim swimwear. The photos were taken at Watamu Beach in her birth country.

The model has previously made history for becoming the first woman to wear a hijab in the Miss Minnesota USA pageant in 2016. A semi-finalist, Halima then went on to sign with IMG models.

From there, the 21-year-old became a successful international model while also becoming a champion for the expansion of the traditional definition of beauty.

If you have a story you want to tell, send it to UNILAD via [email protected]

Niamh Shackleton

Niamh Shackleton is a pint sized person and journalist at UNILAD. After studying Multimedia Journalism at the University of Salford, she did a year at Caters News Agency as a features writer in Birmingham before deciding that Manchester is (arguably) one of the best places in the world, and therefore moved back up north. She’s also UNILAD’s unofficial crazy animal lady.