Hmm…..hijab is a personal issue. It depends on the girl….

How is the oh so liberal attitude of the west not an ingrained thinking? All cultures try to inculcate/impose their values on their kids when growing up. Its western hogwash and utter arrogance to say that the so called liberal thinking our women have or display is true feminism. As always it all boils down on how you define it…

Arnab, no one denies it is a personal decision - it is just not a “feminist” decision.

Santa, I wish you had left your real name so that if you were a man, I could ignore you and if you were a woman, I could feel sorry for you.

What a great job at drawing moral equivalence between liberal values and conservative ones! It must be real easy to do so when you have never had to live with real conservatives forcing you to follow their traditions. Also illuminating is your jumping to conclusions about the liberal values being Western, since I believe they are just basic humanity - neither Eastern nor Western.

I am of Indian descent and lived 22 years in India, so I don’t know what you mean by “our women”. I bet you call yourself a liberal in real life though!

Do note that I never ascribed feminism to this girl, only questioned whether or not hijab could be redefined within the feminist movement, in which hijab is almost always considered inherently misogynist.

Clearly hijab has different connotations around the world. My question is in regards to the U.S. in which opposition to hijab tends to be snubbed for interplaying sexist and racist reasons instead of purely sexist reasons alone.

Here is some food for thought - what if you were brought up in a culture and by parents who believe you are a slut for exposing your head and the only way you can be a good, little girl is by wearing a hijab or a long skirt or a chador or whatever it is that makes you a non-entity covered up by shapeless wear…is that foisting?

Also, she wears typical Western clothing and makeup, etc. The only difference in appearance between her and her classmates is the head scarf.

Lauren, thanks for the comments and I am glad to have a chance to talk this out with you. I completely see where you are coming from and your point-of-view as a Westerner looking in colors your view as much as my point-of-view as an insider who sees a lot more than the Westerners are allowed to see in Eastern families, even in the US. That doesn’t make your points any less valid - I am just saying there could be another side to it too.

As an example, there was an Indian (Hindu) couple (D, the husband and J, the wife) my husband and I hung out with - we were pretty close. We were all in a Middle-Eastern restaurant for dinner, when J wanted to taste a little wine from my glass and had a few sips. Later on, I dragged her with me to the dance floor, so we could dance a bit. By the time we came back, her husband looked very upset, but I couldn’t figure out why. I found out from my husband later on, that he was upset his wife had dared to dance in public and drink against his wishes! Of course, if you saw them you wouldn’t suspect him of such tight control of her life since she has short cropped hair, wears jeans/t-shirts and looks every bit Westernized.

I guess my point is that to a lot of Eastern immigrants, looking Western is a point of conformity - they do it so they don’t stand out in the crowd. Mentally, their attitudes are as conservative as can be.

i did not jump to conclusion the way you have written makes it clear that in your worldview west = liberal and east = conservative… And as for leaving names, you shud just be responding to my comment. what difference does it make if i call myself santa, ryan, ram, rehman or fatima, becky, or winnie the pooh…

Santa, you are jumping into conclusions when you are assuming that anything liberal has got to be Western. It is almost like you cannot imagine any other culture having liberal values - that is so insulting in itself that I cannot honestly respond to you unless I know what you are. You sounds too much like a troll for me to take you seriously enough.

Feminism in its essentiality means standing up for a woman’s rights. Feminism transcends culture, class, society, race, origin etc, quite simply put stands outside the influence of all of the above. Its quite sad to see how some feminist groups, enmeshed in “so called culture” have lost the quintessence of feminism.
Megha

Islam has a system of hijaab. The Glorious Qur�an first mentions hijaab for the men and then for the women. Hijaab for the men is mentioned in the following verse:
“Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty: that will make for greater purity for them: and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do.”
[Al-Qur�an 24:30]

The moment a man looks at a woman and if any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind, he should lower his gaze.

HIJAB FOR WOMEN
Hijaab for women is mentioned in the following verse:
“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what (must ordinarily) appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands� fathers, their sons….”

[Al-Qur�an 24:31]

The extent of hijaab for a woman is that her complete body should be covered. The only part that can be seen, are the face and the hands up to the wrists. If they wish to cover, they can even cover these parts of the body. However some Islamic scholars insist that even the face should be covered
HIJAB PREVENTS MOLESTATION
The reason why Allah has prescribed Hijaab for the women is given in the Qur�an in the folowing verse of Surah Al-Ahzab:
“O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women,that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And Allah is Oft-Forgiving, most Merciful.”



[Al-Qur�an 33:59]

The Qur�an says that Hijaab has been prescribed for the women so that they are recognized as modest women this would prevent them from being molested.



EXAMPLE OF TWIN SISTERS
Suppose two sisters who are twins and who are equally beautiful, walk down a street. One of them is wearing the Islamic Hijaab i.e. the complete body is covered except for the face and the hands up to the wrists, and the other twin is wearing a mini skirt or shorts. Around the corner there is a hooligan who is waiting for an opportunity to tease a girl. Who will he tease? The girl wearing the Islamic Hijaab or the girl wearing the mini skirt or shorts? Dresses that expose more than they conceal, are an indirect temptation to the opposite sex for teasing, molestation and rape. The Qur�an rightly says that the hijaab prevents women from being molested.
U.S.A. HAS ONE OF THE HIGHEST RATE OF RAPE
The United States of America is supposed to be one of the most advanced countries of the world. An F.B.I report in the year 1990 says that 1,02,555 cases of rape were reported. It further says that only 16% of the cases of rapes are reported. Thus, in order to know the actual number of rapes that took place in 1990, the reported figure should be multiplied by 6.25. We get a total of 6,40,968 rape cases that took place in the year 1990. If the total is divided by 365 the number of days in a year, we get an average of 1,756 rape incidents everyday.
Later another report said that an average of 1900 cases of rape are committed in U.S.A every day. According to National Crime Victimization Survey Bureau of Justice Statistics (U. S. Dept. of Justice) in 1996 alone 3,07,000 cases of rape were reported. Only 31% of the actual cases of rape were reported. Thus, 3,07,000 X 3.226 = 9,90,322 rapes took place in 1996. That is, an average of 2,713 cases of rape took place everyday in America in 1996. Every 32 seconds one rape is taking place in America. Maybe American rapists got bolder. The FBI report of 1990 continues and says that out of the rape cases that were reported only 10% of the rapist were arrested, that is only 1.6% of the actual rapes committed. Out of those arrested, 50% were let free before the trial. This would mean that only 0.8% of the rapists faced a trial. In other words if a person commits 125 rapes the chances that he will get a punishment for rape is only once. Many would consider this a good gamble. And the report says that of those people who faced trial 50% received sentences of less than a year�s imprisonment though the American law says rape carries a seven year sentence of imprisonment. For a rapist, the judge is lenient to first time offenders. Imagine a person commits 125 rapes and the chances of being convicted is only once, and 50% of the time the judge will grant leniency and give a sentence of less than a year!

Results achieved when Islamic Shariah Implemented
Suppose the Islamic shariah is implemented in America. Whenever a man looks at a woman and if any brazen or unashamed thought comes to his mind, he lowers his gaze. Every woman wears the Islamic Hijaab, that is the complete body is covered except the face and the hands upto the wrists. After this if any man commits rape, he gets capital punishment. The question is, will the rate of rape in America increase, will it remain the same or will it decrease? Naturally it will decrease. Islamic Shariah gets results.

IF U WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT ISLAM AND ITS PRINCIPLES, GO TO www.irf.net

Megha, my thoughts exactly - I think equal rights and opportunities to women are universal human rights and have absolutely nothing to do with where the women live or are brought up. They haev got nothing to with Western or Eastern values.

Santa, Syed just made my point for me. Do you still think that with people like him around who want to cover up women “for their own good” in the guise of false modesty, the Hijab can be anything but a sign of oppression by the patriarchy?

I am totally against imposing restrictions on women as to how they behave and carry themselves…

on another note and related to my earlier comments,correct me if i am wrong, i have been following your blog for quite whenever i read your posts which talk about culture/liberalism etc, it gives me a feeling that you somehow try to drive the point that now as you are in the united states you have achieved the all the freedoms whic you were denied in india/eastern culture, there is a nice sprinkling of over compensation about your loyalty to your adopted land, the USA… sorry if you think that i am judging you but i am just expressing what i feel honestly…

Santa, I am completely against restrictions too - I think women should be as free to make their choices as men are.

You are definitely right in that I personally feel like I have a lot more freedom here in the US than I had back in India. My parents, my mom especially had brought me up pretty liberally, but the society around the place I grew up was just not tolerant enough of anyone who didn’t conform. I still resent the fact that I was an outsider for much of my life for standing up for myself.

Sad part is that when I visited there just a few weeks ago, everything is still exactly as it was. I ordered a cocktail at a 3-star restaurant during dinner and the waiter looks at me incredulously and tells me “ma’am, that is a cocktail!”, as if he cannot believe how scandalous I am by drinking in public. This is the reason why I would never go back, since I value the freedom I have here in the US and I am unabashedly proud of it.

Does that mean there are no problems for women in the US? Hardly! I work in a full-time job as a software engineer and face sexism (overtly and covertly) all the time. Warts and all, I still think my life out here is way better than the one I left behind.

shanti, from your perspective, is freedom letting you free to have drink in public? getting sexually abused by anyone? thats what i got from your point. Can you believe that most of the crimes, especially accidents and rapes happen while a person is drunk! tell me, is it not good to see drinking as a taboo!! As a matter of fact it is equally not good for both men and women….

Syed, it is also not good to impose things on women by the name of religion. Religion should be anti-ascetic movement, which should give you ecstatic joy. Therefore, religion has to come from inside. You cannot force religious elements on someone because that really is not helping.

By the way, usually a woman get raped by a man. Therefore, a man is responsible here. There is no need to hijab if a man can stay into his barrier. However, alas, the Islamists won’t think like that. It’s all the mistake of women for having a “sexy” body for the Islamists.

Shanti, why don’t you understand that there is nothing called “universal truth” or “universal value” that you can establish universally? Just because you have adopted what you think is a “liberal” does not make other cultures “conservative”. Such notions make me sick. Keep it in mind that what you think is “oppression” may not be oppression at all. I see hijab as a harmless practice. And your remarks are wrong when you say: “… in a culture and by parents who believe you are a slut for exposing your head …” No Muslim parents believe that their daughter is slut. How can you say that! This is a very offensive and gross statement. Muslim women are required by Islam to wear hijab. It is God’s order. So you can’t say that they must not or should not wear hijab. What you can say is that those who don’t want to wear hijab should not be forced to wear it. That’s a very good point.

I can discard all your statements regarding what hijab represents. Surely, you don’t have the intellectual ability to grasp and explain the beauty of it.

Ibrahim, I would love for you to explain the “beauty” of wearing hijab to me. It is really interesting to me that those who are defending the practice so far are people who don’t have to do it. Very interesting!

to me, the islamists are :evil: and their hair is very :mad: i think they should just be :beam: and get a little silly:tongue3: frankly, i am just :huh::huh::huh: about this, but this is a very interesting article that makes me :blush: thanks for making me :nice:

I am a recent American convert. I choose to wear hijab because the reasons and explanations behind it make sense to me. If you care to know more I would be more than happy to explain. However the only way I can give you information is if you are willing to receive it. The choice is yours.