A 17-year-old Arab girl named Lamyaa recently got a text from a guy who claimed that her father would "beat her" if she decided to take her hijab off. So, she texted her father to prove him wrong.
It all started when Lamyaa - who is living in Pennsylvania, and a member of a local group chat - got into a discussion about U.S. President Donald Trump's views on Islam.
The group chat was first started by one of Lamyaa's friends for members to discuss the political situation in Trump's America.
When Lamyaa voiced her opinion on the matter, one member got a bit too aggressive.
"Stop defending Islam [expletive] shut up you couldn't take that scarf off or your dad would beat your ass," he wrote.
Lamyaa believes that her point of view on Islam is what triggered the aggressive response.
"I personally had very strong views [on Trump] considering the presidency did impact me because I am an Arab, Muslim woman," Lamyaa told BuzzFeed News.
"That guy didn't feel comfortable so he said what he said," she added.
Lamyaa did not stay silent. She shut him down by texting her father.
Soon after, Lamyaa texted her father, who is currently living in Saudi Arabia, and told him that she was thinking of taking off her hijab, just to see how he would actually react.
And his response was everything.
"Sweetheart that's not my decision to make. That's no man's decision to make. If it's what you feel like you want to do, go ahead. I'll support you no matter what," her father texted back.
That's when Lamyaa decided to put the entire conversation on Twitter. Her tweet ultimately went viral, garnering nearly 150K retweets at the time of writing. Her reason for doing so?
"I just wanted to show that misconceptions aren't always right. That person assumed something about me due to my religion, and I was able to prove him wrong," Lamyaa told StepFeed.
The conversation with her father went like this:
"Since this is a mentality a lot of you seem to have," Lamyaa captioned the tweet.
She later clarified that she isn't planning to take off her hijab ... but did this to prove a point.
How to combat misconceptions about Islam? "Speak to a Muslim," she said.
"Hate never solved anything and having hate in your heart for 1.7 billion people is not healthy or logical.
All you have to do is start a conversation. You can learn so much with just one meaningful and genuine conversation and many of us, Muslims, are willing to have that conversation with you. Are you?" Lamyaa told StepFeed.
But, there was some backlash.
While most of the comments Lamyaa received in the aftermath of her tweet were positive, many -particularly from other Muslim women- pointed out that they don't enjoy the same kind of liberties she does, and that her tweet erases their oppression.
But Lamyaa answered back with much compassion and understanding.
"A lot of women in different countries are forced into wearing the hijab, so I can see where that misconception comes in play.
However, that is not what the hijab symbolizes. These women are oppressed due to culture rather than religion," Lamyaa told StepFeed.
Rayana Khalaf contributed to this post.