‘Simply Me’
“I began wearing my hijab in the sixth grade,” she says. “It doesn’t just represent my faith – it embodies my culture and my identity. It allows me to stay true to myself and embrace my identity. The hijab speaks volumes about my journey in life, all that I’ve experienced and the future ahead of me. My hijab is simply me.”
Shalaby’s journey in life started in Alexandria, Egypt, where she grew up before moving to South Carolina when she was in high school to join her father, who’d been living and working in the Southeast since she was a child. Her siblings and mother eventually joined them in Charleston, and the family still has a home in Egypt and returns there frequently.
“In Egypt, people don’t look at women differently because we are a multifaith country,” she says. “It’s not like here, where I look different from the majority, which means I get more stares from strangers. It can be positive in some ways, but other times it can be negative and uncomfortable.”
The positive part of wearing something that makes her look different is that her classmates and professors recognize her and remember her name. That sense of being known and seen is one of the reasons Shalaby was interested in the College of Charleston. She wanted to be part of a community. It’s also what drove her to build a community for Arab students on campus.
“I wanted to raise awareness about Arab people and improve representation of our culture on campus,” she says.
With the help of Courtney Howard, a vice president at the College, she worked to create the first Arab American/Middle Eastern/North African Heritage Month on campus to showcase the culture of Arab students through music, food and dance.
“We want to show people that we’re just like everyone else,” says Shalaby, who also founded the Muslim Students Association in 2022 and serves as its executive director. In 2024, she served as the president of the Arabic Club, which fosters appreciation of Arabic language, culture and food and hosts events such as cooking nights. She is also the director of marketing at Phi Chi Theta and the president of the Photography Club.
“It’s about making a space where we can share our culture and beliefs with people from similar backgrounds or people who are interested to know more about this other side of the world,” she says. “It makes me feel that no matter how we are different from each other, we are all humans, and we need to respect and explore different cultures in life. It helped me build a community of friends at the College.”
After graduating with finance and prelaw degrees in May, Shalaby is taking a gap year that includes returning to Egypt to visit her family before applying to law school and starting a clothing business with modest styles.
“It’s hard to find them here,” she says. “I want to make clothes to fit anyone who is looking for something modest with the mix of East and West style.”