Friday 7 September 2012

Hijab - Islam & the West

By Mehran Niazi

There is no uniform approach to terminology for Islamic dress. HIJAB is an Arabic word, originally referring to a curtain or partition, which later came to refer to Islamic dress in general, but is now commonly metonymically reduced to the headscarf.
In the recent years, Islamic dress has been emerged as abiding sites of the contention in the relationship between Muslim communities and the State. Specifically, the wearing of Islamic headscarves by women in public places has raised questions about secularism, women's rights and national identity. It has always been seen by the Western feminist as oppressive and as a symbol of a Muslim woman's subservience to men. As a result, it often comes as a surprise to Western feminists that the veil has become increasingly common in the Muslim world and is often worn proudly by college girls as a symbol of an Islamic identity, freeing them symbolically from neo-colonial Western cultural imperialism and domination. For well over two decades, Muslim women have been positioned in the Australian popular media in opposition to the values of liberal democracy and the feminist agenda. Muslim women, as if the act of "unveiling" will somehow bestow the "equality" and "freedoms" that Western women enjoy. While 'HIJAB debates' occur in various guises in France, the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and elsewhere, questions of gender, race and religion have a particular pertinence in Australia, where a combination of recent events has generated unprecedented public and scholarly attention on sexual violence, 'Masculinist protection', and ideas of the nation. It was against this historical backdrop that the Australian popular media developed an interest in the HIJAB-the traditional veil worn by some Muslim women. The first Gulf War in 1991 marked the beginning of the veiled symbolism in the Australian popular media.
Recently FIFA said in a letter to the Iranian Football Federation that the Iranian women's team is not allowed to participate in the games in Singapore while wearing HIJAB, or head scarves.

FIFA says on its website that "the player's equipment must not carry any political, religious, or personal statements," and that "all items of clothing or equipment other than the basic must be inspected by the referee and determined not to be dangerous."
In 2007, an 11-year-old girl was not allowed to play in soccer game in Canada because she was wearing the HIJAB. The Quebec Soccer Association said the ban on the HIJAB is to protect children from being accidentally strangled. The secretary-general of Iran's National Olympic Committee has called on Muslim countries to protest the world soccer body's ban on head scarves for women during the Youth Olympic Games this summer.
On March 14, 2004, the French legislative council voted the ban on "religious symbols" in public schools. This uncommon law, which mainly targets Muslim young girls, was widely supported in France. After four years of the enactment of the law, one can hardly measure its consequences among the French Muslims. People still observe the case without real understanding.The French Muslims failed to build a unanimous strategy toward the crisis of hijab. They failed to make their voices heard through the media. The normal outcome was that their management of the crisis proved to be ineffective. Now, after four years of the enactment of the anti-hijab law, the situation appears to be the same.
The western media does not show the countless western women who have reverted to Islam, adopted the HIJAB, and are happy with it. Born, raised and educated in the west, they experienced freedom and spent life as they wanted. Then they studied Islam and reverted. What did Islam give them that they were missing? It filled the vacuum in their souls.
Should we listen to the western media or the western women who accept Islam after experiencing the so called freedom?
West think that the belt of freedom is held by them. NO. Islam is first to gave freedom to women. Islam gives women right to vote 1400 years ago, in America it is given in early 1900. Islam gives the right of property inheritance 1400 years ago, but in America laws for the inheritance are were rewritten in 1950's to give right of inheritance to women. How bad the status of women in west? We have given the rights 1400 years ago that the women of west dreams until this generation. It's amazing.
State has to make laws and we obey them, but they don't have the right to tell us what to wear and how to wear, this is our freedom. Veiling is not against west, veiling is against imperialism. There is a difference between west and imperialism. West is a culture and it's like a civilization just like any other culture or civilization. Imperialism is that when west tries to tell the world that we are the standard and everybody is ethnic. No, the west is as ethnic as Arab culture. HIJAB, scarf and covering body is also in other religions. Christianity also shows strength to wear it. Merry in the church wears scarf. Also in Hinduism ladies cover their body. If the nuns can wear the scarf then why the Muslim women is banned of wearing HIJAB?

We must show uniformity in our religion and culture. HIJAB is a mean source of perfection and achieving our goals. HIJAB is a choice for the women not a compulsion or oppression. It is on the will of the women not the by the enforcement of men. It's all by faith. It's what we are so there is no shame or hindrance to wear it. Covering is a sign of purity and dignity. A woman is not a sex object that she is turned out to be in the west. She is not an object of lust for every stranger. Just look at how the west treats women. Porn industries are thriving, filthy DVDs are sold everywhere, magazines of semi-nude women decorate even grocery stores, filthy magazines are sold even in corner stores, strip clubs are in abundance, and I can go on and on.

The west has left no stone unturned in shattering the dignity of a woman, and then they are ready to give lectures to others on how to treat women with dignity.
In your opinion, will the ban on hijab at French schools remain the same? How do you see the future of Muslims in France? How can they withstand the challenges they face in the French society?
Finally, why is the west so scared of the HIJAB? Is it a threat to their beauty and fashion industries or to their religion?
original link to article
[http://www.pakcolours.com/blog/hijab-islam-west/]
Writeen By
Mehran Hassan Khan Niazi
pakcolours@gmail.com
+92 332-7653132

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mehran_Niazi


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