Often there are memes that condemn Muslim countries where women are required by law to cover (wear a scarf over their hair or cover their faces or both). My well-meaning friends dont understand the complexities involved, so here is a primer. First, be aware that the Quran urges both men and women to cover, not (as Westerners assume) women alone. Note that covering is for protection when people go out, especially women because women are more vulnerable to rape: not only physical rape but just raping with the eyes. Second, let me note that I have many female Muslim personal friends (i.e., in real life, not FB). One of them, for instance, is a newspaper reporter and an arch-feminist. She covers because, as she explained to me, when she was a teenager she was already tired of men always staring at her (she happens to be extremely beautiful), and wanted to be treated seriously, as an equal. Another friend speaks of her spiritual hijab, saying she does not feel not fully dressed unless she is properly attired in her faith. In her very wise perspective, someone can be covered in a physical sense, and still be uncovered in a spiritual sense, and she finds that hypocritical. She is offended by Muslim women who are covered in a technical sense, but the clothing is translucent, transparent, and/or extremely tight to the point that they really are NOT covered. This woman thinks of covering as an outward manifestation of inward faith, and likens it to Christian or Buddhist nuns in their habits, and the like. And yet, this lady had no problem participating in the Native American sweat lodge, because, she explained, she had her spiritual cover still in place, and she knew we would all look at her with nothing but respect. A third friend find that where she lives in the United States there is a lot of extremely hateful, even potentially violent, bigotry. She is afraid to cover, as required by her faith. On the one hand, she wants to cover because often her Muslim clothing has elicited questions from curious non-Muslims, and she is always grateful for the opportunity to explain to them how beautiful and wonderful is Islam. On the other hand, she is often scared for her own safety. She wrestles constantly with this dilemma. A fourth friend is from a Muslim country where covering is not required (there are several such countries). She feels inwardly conflicted, not sure what is the proper path for her. But she finds that inner conflict a good thing in itself, because it gives her the opportunity to practice jihad. (That word, frequently misrepresented in the Western media, properly means the inward personal struggle to be a better person, to be more like the person G-d had in mind when G-d created you.) It is always foolishness to judge other cultures by the values of your own culture. Westerners need to learn about Islam before they judge it. The ignorance I often encounter about Islam is appalling to me. In short, it is Western, non-Muslim thinking that concludes that no woman would freely choose to cover if she had a choice. The fact is that most Muslim women have a full choice how to dress -- but it is a different culture from that of Westerners, and Westerners need to understand the culture in order to understand the choice. But Westerners do not understand the culture: instead, they just judge it and dismiss it. Westerners are trained to think that those Muslim women who choose to cover even if not required to do so are indoctrinated and thus unable to think for themselves. However I am sure that women in Muslim countries do think for themselves, and, even where it is mandatory to cover, I am sure that most of them would still want to cover, and would not choose to dress like Western women. How do I know this? Because the same thing is true in the West. It is mandatory in most places in the West for women to wear clothes that cover, at minimum, their nipples and their genital area and most of the buttocks. Does anyone seriously think Western women are indoctrinated into covering these parts of their body, and thus they are unable to think for themselves? If such laws were repealed, does anyone seriously think that most Western women would immediately choose to go about in public with bare breasts and genitalia? In short, a double standard is being invoked here, for the sole reason of denigrating Islam, and anyone who accepts this double standard is being manipulated by the Western media. The Western media are right that in a few countries such dress is mandatory. But the media blow this fact out of proportion. Why? Because the owners of the media, the plutocrats, are training the West to hate all Muslims, so they can start more wars in Muslim countries and take control of their petroleum. As for me, personally, I dont care in the least what a woman or a man wears. My own faith requires me to evaluate others not in terms of unimportant things like clothing, but important things like -- their character, their faith, their willingness to create things of beauty and goodness, their kindness, their ability to forgive, their patience, their wisdom. I dont give a hoot whether a woman or man is stark naked or dressed in a suit of armor. But I do care deeply about whether someone is living an honorable life.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Oct 2014 12:16:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015