u/Miserable-Cap3075

السلام عليكم brothers and sister​, I know most salafis believe that niqab is mandatory and have good evidence of this, women wear it to obey Allah's command and be like the wives of the prophet PBUH.

However, the main reasons I want to wear it is because of men, I noticed that when I go out wearing jeans or showing my hair I get hit on a LOT! And I don't mean being assaulted or harassed tho it does happen, I mean men will act like they want to help me or be my friends just to hit on me and try to pressure me into sinful stuff.

I was told that the way I dress gives people the wrong idea about my intentions, so I've been trying to cover up more. I don't own a niqab right now but I started to only wear abaya, proper hijab and a mask for now. ​​​​​

I'm wondering if it's fine to wear the niqab for this reason?​

I was born and raised in a Muslim country but during my teenage​ years I went through an atheist phase for a while, I'm 21 now and Allah has guided me back to Islam.

Problem is during my phase my family sent me to a non-muslim country to study, long story short I ended up with lots of non-muslim friends who aren't the best people to keep around especially if you want to seek tuba.

I want to start wearing the hijab again and start behaving like a proper Muslimah but I'm scared of how will my friends react to the sudden change, I don't want to cut them off completcompletely, tho I'll cut off the male friends.

Any advice?​