Asslamualkuim. In class today my teacher gave us essay reading to do, this essay in particular was about a Muslim girl who was telling the world that her body is her OWN business and no one else’s. I really enjoyed reading the essay and I have posted it below. Read on after to see what I have to say about the Hijaab and Veil.
My body is my own business By Sultana Yusufali
09 Oct 2006
I probably do not fit into the preconceived notion of a “rebel.” I have no visible tattoos and minimal piercings. I do not possess a leather jacket. In fact, when most people look at me, their first thought usually is something along the lines of “oppressed female.”
The brave individuals who have mustered the courage to ask me about the way I dress usually have questions like: “Do your parents make you wear that?” Or “Don’t you find that really unfair?”
A while back, a couple of girls in Montreal were kicked out of school for dressing like I do. It seems strange that a little piece of cloth would make for such controversy. Perhaps the fear is that I am harbouring an Uzi underneath it. You never can tell with those Muslim fundamentalists.
Of course, the issue at hand is more than a mere piece of cloth. I am a Muslim woman who, like millions of other Muslim women across the globe, chooses to wear the hijaab. There are many different ways to wear it, but in essence, what we do is cover our entire bodies except for our hands and faces. If you’re the kind of person who has watched a lot of popular movies, you’d probably think of harem girls and belly-dancers, women who are kept in seclusion except for the private pleasure of their male masters. In the true Islamic faith, nothing could be further from the truth. And the concept of the hijaab, contrary to popular opinion, is actually one of the most fundamental aspects of female empowerment. When I cover myself, I make it virtually impossible for people to judge me according to the way I look. I cannot be categorized because of my attractiveness or lack thereof. Compare this to life in today’s society: We are constantly sizing one another up on the basis of our clothing, jewellery, hair and make-up. What kind of depth can there be in a world like this?
Yes, I have a body, a physical manifestation upon this Earth. But it is the vessel of an intelligent mind and a strong spirit. It is not for the beholder to leer at or to use in advertisements to sell everything from beer to cars. Because of the superficiality of the world in which we live, external appearances are so stressed that the value of the individual counts for almost nothing. It is a myth that women in today’s society are liberated. What kind of freedom can there be when a woman cannot walk down the street without every aspect of her physical self being “checked out”? When I wear the hijab I feel safe from all of this. I can rest assured that no one is looking at me and making assumptions about my character from the length of my skirt. There is a barrier between me and those who would exploit me. I am first and foremost a human being, equal to any man, and not vulnerable because of my sexuality. One of the saddest truths of our time is the question of the beauty myth and female self-image. Reading popular teenage magazines, you can instantly find out what kind of body image is “in” or “out.” And if you have the “wrong” body type, well, then, you’re just going to have to change it, aren’t you? After all, there is no way that you can be overweight and still be beautiful.
Look at any advertisement. Is a woman being used to sell the product? How old is she? How attractive is she? What is she wearing? More often than not, that woman will be no older than her early 20s, taller, slimmer and more attractive than average, dressed in skimpy clothing. Why do we allow ourselves to be manipulated like this? Whether the ’90s woman wishes to believe it or not, she is being forced into a mould. She is being coerced into selling herself, into compromising herself. This is why we have 13-year-old girls sticking their fingers down their throats and overweight adolescents hanging themselves.
When people ask me if I feel oppressed, I can honestly say no. I made this decision out of my own free will. I like the fact that I am taking control of the way other people perceive me. I enjoy the fact that I don’t give anyone anything to look at and that I have released myself from the bondage of the swinging pendulum of the fashion industry and other institutions that exploit females.
My body is my own business. Nobody can tell me how I should look or whether or not I am beautiful. I know that there is more to me than that. I am also able to say no comfortably when people ask me if I feel as though my sexuality is being repressed. I have taken control of my sexuality.
I am thankful I will never have to suffer the fate of trying to lose/gain weight or trying to find the exact lipstick shade that will go with my skin colour. I have made choices about what my priorities are and these are not among them.
So next time you see me, don’t look at me sympathetically. I am not under duress or a male-worshipping female captive from those barbarous Arabic deserts. I’ve been liberated. I am a W O M A N…..Yes a MUSLIM WOMAN.
Reading the above article, what crosses your mind? Do you sill presume that Muslim women are oppressed? I hope not. We Muslim women are given the free right in everything; unless forbidden in Islam. When clearly thought, there is nothing in Islam that a women can’t do. She is allowed same rights that men are. Yes, women aren’t allowed to lead salaah (prayer) but everything else? A Muslim is allowed. As a Canadian born citizen, I've rights and I'm happy to be given those rights. It shouldn’t be up to the government nor to any ruler of a country to decide what the women should shouldn’t wear, that’s like saying Jewish men wear their hats or the seihk, wear their turban- a Muslim woman has her veil or in other words the face mask. It’s not much of a mask it’s a cloth that you tie from behind and it’s really really comfortable. There are many ways to wear the veil some women wear it half- their foreheads show then. The picture above is how most women wear their veils some wear it like the picture below
I wear a veil and quite proud of wearing it too. When I was in 7th grade, I wanted to go to an Islamic all girls’ school; ya we have something like that in Canada can you imagine that? Anyways, once in my school I started to see all the girls around me and alot of them were Arab who wore veils; I wanted to follow suit. I just about wanted to do it so much that my dad had to stop me cuz I was young. Well I was, wasn’t I? Only 12. But once the summer of 7th grade started I started wearing the veil. I was so happy and so proud. Men would look at me and show disgust, women would be walking, seeing me in their path they would start talking bad about Islam and walk about 50 miles away from me (I am exaggerating) but that's how it was back then, and I'm talking about 2007/08. I wouldn’t say that it was the hardest year of my life but it wasn’t easy. My aunts and uncle pretty much had predicted it considering how religious my family is. However, when they all heard it was my OWN choice and my father had no say in it they all were shocked. My aunts and uncle at that time weren’t religious as they are now. But as my elders say “it takes time for flowers to grow” just about it takes time for everything. As my family was in the transition mode from modern life to religious, no one in our relations wanted to accept it. But they did. Two of my aunts wear the veil, my sister and cousin does too, my dad’s youngest sister is still going through the phase of wearing the hijaab and abaya.
French Senate bans burka
Bill awaits President Nicolas Sarkozy's signature
Last Updated: Tuesday, September 14, 2010 | 2:34 PM ET
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The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of a ban on Muslim women wearing burkas such as the one worn by this woman at Trocadero square near the Eiffel Tower in Paris on June 24, 2009. (Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters) The French Senate voted overwhelmingly Tuesday for a bill banning the burka-style Islamic veil everywhere from post offices to streets, a move that affects only a tiny minority of the country's Muslim women but has significant symbolic repercussions. The Senate voted 246 to 1 in favour of the bill, which has already passed in the lower chamber, the National Assembly. It will need President Nicolas Sarkozy's signature to become law. Dissenters have 10 days to challenge the measure in the constitutional Council watchdog, but that is considered unlikely. Legislative leaders said they wanted the constitutional Council to examine it. "This law was the object of long and complex debates," the Senate president, Gerard Larcher, and National Assembly head Bernard Accoyer said in a joint statement explaining their move. They said they want to be certain there is "no uncertainty" about it conforming to the constitution. The measure affects fewer than 2,000 women, but Muslims believe it is one more blow to France's second religion, and risks raising the level of Islamophobia in a country where mosques, like synagogues, are sporadic targets of hate. Some women have vowed to wear a full-face veil despite the law. The proposed law was passed overwhelmingly by the National Assembly on July 13. The green light from the Senate would make it definitive once the president signs off on it — barring amendments and an eventual legal challenge. In France, the terms "burka" and "niqab" often are used interchangeably. The latter is a full-face veil, often in black. Unlike the burka, it does not obscure a woman's eyes. 'A law that is unlawful'The measure would outlaw face-covering veils in streets, including those worn by tourists from the Middle East and elsewhere. It is aimed at ensuring gender equality, women's dignity and security, as well as upholding France's secular values and way of life. Kenza Drider, however, said she'll flirt with arrest to wear her veil as she pleases. "It is a law that is unlawful," said Drider, a mother of four from Avignon, in southern France. "It is ... against individual liberty, freedom of religion, liberty of conscience," she said. "I will continue to live my life as I always have with my full veil," she told Associated Press Television News. Drider was the only woman who wears a full-faced veil to be interviewed by a parliamentary panel that spent six months deciding whether to move ahead with legislation. Muslim leaders concur that Islam does not require a woman to hide her face. But they have voiced concerns that a law forbidding them to do so would stigmatize the French Muslim population, which at an estimated five million is the second largest in France and the largest in western Europe. Numerous Muslim women who wear the face-covering veil have said they are now being harassed in the streets. Identity crisisRaphael Liogier, a sociology professor who heads the Observatory of the Religious in Aix-en-Provence, said Muslims in France are already targeted by hate-mongers and the ban on face-covering veils "will officialize Islamophobia." "With the identity crisis that France has today, the scapegoat is the Muslim," he said. 'I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it.'—Oum Al Khyr, Muslim Frenchwoman Ironically, instead of helping some women integrate, the measure may keep them cloistered in their homes to avoid exposing their faces in public. "I won't go out. I'll send people to shop for me. I'll stay home, very simply," said Oum Al Khyr, who wears a niqab that hides all but the eyes. "I'll spend my time praying," said the single woman "over 45" who lives in Montreuil on Paris's eastern edge. "I'll exclude myself from society when I wanted to live in it." The law banning the veil would take effect only after a six-month period. Full veils 'not welcome': SarkozyThe Interior Ministry estimates the number of women who fully cover themselves at some 1,900, with a quarter of them converts to Islam and two-thirds with French nationality. The French parliament wasted no time in working to get a ban in place, opening an inquiry shortly after Conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy said in June 2009 that full veils that hide the face are "not welcome" in France. The bill calls for the equivalent of $198.75 Cdn in fines or citizenship classes for any woman caught covering her face, or both. It also carries stiff penalties for anyone such as husbands or brothers convicted of forcing the veil on a woman. The $39,750 fine and year in prison are doubled if the victim is a minor. It was unclear, however, how authorities planned to enforce such a law. "I will accept the fine with great pleasure," said Drider, vowing to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg if she gets caught. © The Canadian Press, 2010 All I can say to that is okay then... we Muslims have rights and those rights include freedom of religion. In Québec it has also been decreed that when a women comes into any government building, she has to show her face if she is wearing a veil. Why? Why is it such a big deal that a woman is covering her face? She’s covering her beauty that no man should be allowed to see other than her husband. When I go to an airport or a bank I know that I have to show my face; that permission is given in Islam, that in a time of need you may show your face. But why un-necessarily? I really see no reason. My own fellow Muslim disagrees upon this- some do not all- but those who do, shame on you. As a Muslim you should care for your women and see that, their banning the veil is a type of harassment. When I read the news and see all this crap being talked I can only shake my head and pray to Allah for guiding us to his straight path. |
Many people say that in the Quran it is not written that women have to wear the veil. But it clearly states in the Quran that women do. And I will prove that it does.
In surah Al-Ahzab, ayah 59 it says
“O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veil) all over their bodies (i.e. screen themselves completely except eyes or one eye to see the way). That will be better, that they should be known (as free respectable women) so as not to be annoyed. And Allah is Ever Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.”
So there you have it. Muslim women do have to wear the veil. It makes them look and feel respected. It shows the modesty in them, shows how different she is rather than a non-Muslim woman (no offense to anyone).
Seeing the picture on the side, what do you see? Would the government of any country stop women to wear skirts, let them be mini or long, shorts, tank tops, dresses that show more skin than the actual dress? No, they wouldn’t. So why a Muslim woman should be ruled by her country’s government, when all the other women walk freely wearing whatever they like? Did you know that just cuz a woman or I being Muslim are stopped from playing sports? Working in pharmacies? Swimming? Surfing? No. We are liberated women and can do what we like. No man has any right over us neither does any government. We Muslim women are not slaves or oppressed by our fathers, brothers and husbands, but wearing something we love! I am proud to be a Muslim WOMAN WHO WEARS THE VEIL!
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| Women shpping in their veils is a normal aspect |
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| Hell ya! We Muslimah's know better fashion! lol |
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| We even go to collage/university to get qualified and graduate |
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| Women in hijaab surfing |
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| C'mon we gotta play basketball now |
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| No one said we couldn't sit by the lake |
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| Everyone is an athlete. And this woman is a swimmer. |
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| A pharmacists |
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| SWAG! |
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| Did you know Muslim woman did fashion shows? cuz that's what they are doing. |
Little girls who are the age of 6 or even 4 start to wear the hijaab.....my own little cousin does! Their parents do not force them, or beat them, but the little girls see their older sisters, their mothers wearing the hijaab and want to wear it too. The hijaab and the veil are quite influential. Below are some pictures that I hope express more than words. Oh but in my conclusion I will say again; I was never forced to do anything and never will. I am a liberated woman who has my rights and will do as I like. Islam has told me to cover myself and I will. I love my veil and I love my religion and will do so till I die. PROUD TO BE MUSLIM! 
"Veil shows "how different" you are compared to what..? your lesser non Muslim counterpart.?
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