A storm has broken out on Threads after Jassmine Takha posted that she had moved from Odesa to Minsk and planned to open a headwear shop for Muslim women. Her message went viral within hours. More than 1.6K users reacted to it the post drew over 3.4K comments and close to 1K reposts.
Takha shared a photo of herself in a hijab and said she wanted to build her own modest fashion brand in Belarus. What looked like an ordinary business idea quickly escalated into a dispute between Belarusians and Kazakhs.
Some Belarusian users took the announcement sharply. Others claimed that a shop selling Christian items in a Muslim-majority country would provoke anger.
Yet many voices pushed back against the hostility:
«Selling scarves does not trigger Muslim migration and does not convert Christian women to Islam. It is only clothing. The girl pays taxes so what is the issue?»
«Where is our famous tolerance? Why such hysteria over a simple business?»
Some linked hijab issues to the pressure faced by women in other countries:
«A hijab is not always a choice. Girls have been killed for it in Iran. I understand why some people are uneasy.»
Even so many stressed that hating Muslims living in Belarus is unacceptable.
The Kazakh segment of Threads entered the debate in force. Users reminded Belarusians that Kazakhstan hosts many Belarusian shops and products:
«In every shopping centre here you can buy Belarusian goods and nobody screams about forced culture.»
This fuelled heated arguments over tolerance national pride and cultural norms and the discussion soon moved far beyond the subject of the shop itself.
Takha later summed up the situation with some surprise:
«I thought it would be hard to attract new followers Muslim women in Belarus. I spent the weekend writing scripts for Reels and planning shoots and lighting. But it turned out to be simple a Threads post took one second and… my manager said ‘Jassmine you are now a celebrity in Minsk.’»
