It may be flip and not relevant to your talk with your mother. But; you can not be a bad atheist; (which means not a theist) anymore than you can be bad at not playing golf, or bad at not being an airline pilot.

Yea...I've been told I'm too smart on many occasions. I blow it off as either jealousy, or people not wanting to face reality. Knowledge and being aware of the facts is NEVER a bad thing.

not a good atheist because you KNOW too much... did you tell her that it is BECAUSE you know so much that you're an atheist?

as for the hijab, the last person (here) with whom i argued that freedom of religion includes freedom to do wear a hijab, for the same reason you stated, i was verbally abused on the false assumption that i was a muslim (as if that would be a good excuse for verbal abuse!) when i say abuse i mean my attacker was totally vile, not simply that he disagreed with me or even that he refused to believe i was neither a muslim nor any theist at all. i hope i can assume your argument with your mom, even if it got heated, was not characterized by that kind of vitriol!

g

Ummm..totally optional? You better ask the males in the family about that. Freedom of religion in America? Perhaps, but not freedom from patriarchal rules of oppression.

The freedom "of" religion is totally different than the freedom "from" religion.

in order to dispute​ bullcrap you have to educate yourself in bullcrap.