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THE QUESTION OF HIJAB AND CHOICE


By Sound Vision Staff Writer

The discussion at the Islam Awareness Week exhibition started out nicely enough. We talked about women`s rights, domestic violence, sexual abuse, heavy, heavy issues. It was interesting, she was a feminist, and I, a Muslim woman. But we connected.

Then, as always, the topic turned to Hijab. She started out politely enough, complimenting me on mine and the way I wore it. She asked why I wore it. Faith and personal choice, I replied, the words practically a mantra now after speaking to several women about it in the past. But I began to feel that familiar knot in my stomach. I knew what the next question would be.

“As a feminist, I support your right to wear Hijab because it`s a choice. But if you really believe in choice, don`t you support the right of women NOT to wear Hijab in Iran, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, where Hijab is forced on women?”

I gulped. What could I say? I looked at my feet, and then looked up. She had me cornered.

******

“I just find it incredibly difficult to negotiate this question,” says Kathy Bullock, a Hijabi who completed a PhD. thesis on The Politics of the Veil from the University of Toronto`s Political Science Department in January.

Muslims and Liberals, especially those who are feminists, occasionally butt heads over this issue.

For liberals, Bullock explains, their views on Hijab are clear. “For them, even the mere fact that it`s a thorny question for us it`s a problem because for them the issue is clear: the individual has the right to dress as they choose.”

She notes that Muslims, on the other hand, do favor kind of state enforcement of Shariah, and by extension, Hijab.

The three countries most usually cited for Hijab enforcement are Afghanistan, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Hijab, more specifically the Burqa, has been enforced in Afghanistan since the Taliban took over major parts of the country in 1996 following years of civil war. The Burqa covers the entire body, head and face.

In Iran, Bullock says Hijab has been enforced since 1981, two years after the Islamic Revolution took over the country`s leadership, with the support of most Iranians.

In Saudi Arabia, Bullock says she knows of no exact law making Hijab mandatory in the state, but it seems custom, social and family pressure play a role in ensuring Hijab, as well as the Niqab or face covering, is worn.

In all three cases, some form of violence has been associated with not complying to Hijab in these countries, including beating and whipping.

The perception of many liberals is that Islam is violent, misogynist, and anti-personal choice, with an Islamic state ideally interfering in every aspect of its citizens` lives.

A RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION-SOME POINTS

Jamal Badawi is part of the North American Fiqh Council. He notes that there is no precedent in Islamic teaching for state enforcement of HIjab. However, there is evidence of positive pressure and encouragement to wearing Islamic dress.

Badawi offers a few ways the “liberal” question can be answered:

1. WE DO NOT SUPPORT WHAT CONTRADICTS ISLAM

This point has to be mentioned at the outset, in order to set the guidelines for the response to this question.

“One cannot say I support the ‘right` to disregard the teaching of Islam,” says Badawi in an interview with Sound Vision from his home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. “That`s the trick in this question.”

This is also important to remember because liberals do not view not wearing Hijab as a wrong.

2. WE SUPPORT THE RIGHT METHOD THOUGH

“What one can say safely is that we support the Prophetic approach in bringing about change as it was done in the matter of Hijab without resort to compulsion or force,” explains Badawi.”

Bullock agrees that it`s important to separate the obligation of Hijab from the violence that is often associated with its enforcement in some Muslim societies. She notes a Muslim should condemn violence, for example, but that it can be separated from the issue of Hijab enforcement by the state.

3. NO SOCIETY HAS ABSOLUTE FREEDOM

In response to the enforcement of Hijab in some Muslim countries, Badawi says:

”When we say choice, there is no even liberal democracy in our century that allows free choice in the absolute sense. For instance, even in the Western world if a woman or man wants to make a ‘choice` of walking naked in a public place, we know that this is not regarded as an acceptable ‘choice`.”

“That shows that societies have the right to set reasonable limits on choices so as not to harm society at large or its ‘moral values`. It is in the same vain that it would not be inappropriate for an Islamic state to set those reasonable limits.”

Bullock suggests making parallels between dress cods in Muslim countries and Western countries. For instance, in most of the West, women cannot go topless on the streets (although it is legal in the Canadian province of Ontario).

4. IN AN ISLAMIC STATE THERE SHOULD BE CHOICE IN TYPE OF HIJAB

Badawi points out that Muslim states should allow for differences in interpretation of the Hijab, most notably, whether the face of a Muslim woman can remain uncovered or not.

“I must say that the reasonableness of those limits [on dress] should imply that no one particular interpretation should be forced on all so long as there is another legitimate interpretation,” he says.

“If there are these two Fiqh positions, nobody has the right to enforce stricter limits if there is another legitimate interpretation which excludes the covering of the face.”

5. NO VIGILANTE GROUPS TO ENFORCE HIJAB

“It must be emphasized that the concept of vigilante is unacceptable in certain kinds of enforcement of the law,” says Badawi. “So long as there is a state in place, an Islamic state, it would be the duty of the state to enforce it on other levels.”

“It is not the right of individuals or groups to enforce criminal law, for example, otherwise it would be a total chaos, because these are matters that require due process of law in front of competent judges”

“One cannot refer to the broad Quranic injunction to enjoin the good and forbid the evil to justify enforcement of criminal law. Organizations however, may within the boundaries of the law advise and encourage the enjoining the good and forbidding the evil just as individuals do.”

6. HIJAB: GET OVER IT

The “over obsession” with Hijab also needs to be addressed when such a question is brought up, says Badawi.

“Given the nature of what`s happening in Muslim societies today there are lots of other wrongs on a more basic level that need to be corrected,” he notes.

“Like the issue of Iman [Faith] and only after that is attained, detailed issues like this [Hijab] would fall in place without much pressure.”

Dear Sisters, Meet Maria Sharapova
ALYA KAZAAK, a refugee case manager at ACCESS in Dearborn, says her choice to wear hijab was ``the most positive decision I have made.``

WEARING HIJAB: VEIL OF VALOR

3 Muslim females talk about a lasting symbol of faith, pride
November 6, 2001

BY EMILIA ASKARI
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Alya Kazak had been thinking about wearing hijab, a scarf that would publicly identify her as Muslim, for a long time.

It was just a rectangle of cloth, plain and black. But it was heavy with symbolism -- a reminder of her faith, her modesty, her wish that strangers would be attracted by her personality and not her physical beauty.

So what if she worked in a Victoria`s Secret selling cosmetics? Sure, there was a conflict there. But the life of an American Muslim is punctuated with cultural clashes. This one didn`t seem any bigger than most.

Or did it?

The first day Kazak took up the veil, tears were pouring down her face as she drove toward the Somerset Collection.

She pulled over to the side of the road, daubed her eye makeup and prayed.

Please make this an easy transition for me. Please make me strong.

Today, about two and a half years later, Kazak is among tens of thousands of Muslim women in Michigan who wear hijab -- pronounced hee-JAHB -- in public. The practice often is misunderstood by non-Muslims, who may associate it with female oppression. But most hijabis, as women who wear the scarves are called, say that covering their hair was a personal choice. They credit the veils with improving their relationships with people and God.

Here are the stories of three Muslim females in metro Detroit and their experiences with hijabs. They share faith in Islam and belief that publicly identifying themselves as Muslims is more important since Sept. 11.

Wearing hijab ``clarified for me my identity as a Muslim woman,`` says Kazak, who left her part-time job at Victoria`s Secret when her schedule of Oakland University classes changed. Now that she`s graduated, she works full-time as a case manager for refugees at ACCESS, the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services in Dearborn.

The scarf she wraps around her head each morning has liberated Kazak from the coquettish games other people play, she says. ``I notice a different level of respect, and I just love that. Self-esteem . . . I just feel so much better about myself, so much more respectable. I feel my personality come out with my scarf.``

She burbles with confidence, happy to demonstrate how she pins the scarf after matching its color to her day`s outfit. ``It`s like a declaration: Hello, I am Muslim,`` says Kazak, 22. She lives with her parents and sister in Bloomfield Hills, driving to work in a car sporting a vanity license and floor mats emblazoned with her nickname, Princess.

Kazak, who is of Palestinian descent, says taking up the veil was ``the most positive decision I have made in my life.``

With the world`s attention focused on Muslims in the wake of the attacks, Kazak says she feels people staring a bit longer at her veil, giving her a wider berth as she passes them on the street or in the mall. Still, she has been lucky. No one has bothered her because she follows the religion that`s also claimed by the killers of thousands of Americans.

Another story
Zaiba Lateef has not been so lucky. Perhaps that`s because she is 15 and immersed in a peer culture where teasing and showing off are huge preoccupations.

The first shove came out of nowhere on Sept. 11, hours after the 5,000 or so students in the adjoining campuses of Plymouth-Canton and Salem high schools had watched the twin towers collapse on television.

Lateef, whose parents immigrated to Michigan from India, had just finished her American Literature class.

Then from the crowd of people filling the hallway came a boy`s voice hissing an expletive, followed by ``terrorist.`` And someone`s shoulder slammed Lateef into the wall of lockers.

``It was such a blackout,`` Lateef recalls. ``I was so confused. I was so scared.`` She turned to see who had pushed her. But it was impossible to tell.

Lateef has worn hijab since she was nine. All girls in fifth grade and up are required to cover their hair at the Crescent School, a private Muslim elementary school in Canton that Lateef attended.

Despite the fact that hijab was part of her school uniform, Lateef says she never felt forced to wear it. ``It was more like a reward`` for being old enough and mature enough, she says.

After the incident in the hallway, some of Lateef`s relatives suggested that perhaps it would be best if the slim, analytical girl stopped wearing hijab for a while. But Lateef wouldn`t hear of it. ``I want to keep wearing hijab to show people that Islam is a true and beautiful religion,`` she says. ``I`m proud to be a Muslim. This is a time when I need to be strong.``

Weeks passed before it happened again. Then, in early October, she was standing in the second floor Spanish hall a few minutes before school was scheduled to start. A heavy shoe kicked her hard in the shin as a boy called out the same insult, laughing.

This time it wasn`t as much of a shock. She turned and made a mental note of the boy`s face, his green nylon ski jacket, and the bright orange fleece jacket worn by the girl who was with him, laughing.

Then Lateef says she saw a friend walking down the hall and broke down in tears. ``I couldn`t even talk,`` she says. ``I couldn`t walk. I just kept crying.``

A week later, she says that she and another friend were walking in a breezeway between two school buildings. A group of boys came up from behind them. One yelled, ``Can I have one of those?`` He reached for Lateef`s hijab. Another put an arm around her friend and grabbed at the bun of hair beneath her veil.

Lateef and her friend ran for an open door, choking back tears. She had trouble breathing. She was scared and angry and sad all at once. She leaned against a wall of lockers, caught her breath and went to her next class with a lump in her throat.

At Lateef`s mosque, it seemed like everyone was talking of the young girl`s troubles. The news eventually reached Haaris Ahmad, executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations` Michigan office. He decided to intercede among the Lateef family, the school, and the families of the boys.

In the end, the boy in the green jacketapologized for kicking Lateef. Lateef forgave him. School officials agreed to enhance their efforts to teach cultural tolerance, developing what Ahmad calls a model program for other schools. Among the school`s first actions was to encourage all of its students to attend an open house at a nearby mosque for extra credit.

The boy was there with his family. He appeared delighted when a woman wrote his first name in Arabic script, noting that it was the name of an Islamic prophet.

Although wearing hijab in public and while praying is encouraged by Islamic teachings, many Muslim women regard the practice as optional. There was a time, perhaps a decade or so ago, when professional, educated women were less likely to wear hijab than their Muslim sisters who were less educated or whose lives centered more on the home.

In fact, some countries with large Muslim populations such as Turkey have tried to discourage or even forbid women from wearing hijab in an effort to modernize.

In the last 10 or 15 years, however, it has become less unusual in this country and many others around the world to see women like Dr. Razan Kadry wearing hijab as they see patients and consult with other physicians at Detroit Medical Center.

Kadry is a dermatology resident born in Pontiac of Syrian-American parents.

She has no recollection of the exact day, when she was 14, she made the decision to wear hijab. But in retrospect, Kadry sees it as a turning point. ``I was a very timid person,`` she says. ``I was good in school, but I wasn`t stellar.`` Covering her hair gave her the confidence to excel.

``It opened doors of opportunity,`` she says. ``I was able to focus not so much on my appearance and social things but on what I needed to do at school. My grades shot through the roof. Everything fell into place.``

She wound up skipping three grades and entering Oakland University at 15, then graduated from Wayne State`s medical school.

Kadry feels that wearing hijab around the hospital makes it easier for her to do her job.

``People deal with me on a much more professional and friendly level because I veil,`` she explains.

Because she wears hijab -- perhaps also because she is married and a mother -- men treat Kadry, 27, as a comrade, barely noticing her physical appearance.

That camaraderie abruptly faded on Sept. 11 as news of the attacks spread. ``For a moment I felt there was a huge wall around me,`` Kadry says. ``Then I started speaking, saying that the people who did this could not have been real Muslims.``

The mood changed as everyone realized that she was just as shocked and horrified as they were by the attacks.

Her boss went out of his way to speak with her in private, expressing concern for her safety and suggesting that perhaps she might want to remove her hijab until feelings cooled down.

``I told him that was like asking a black person to bleach the color out of their skin,`` Kadry said. ``Now more than ever I have to stay steadfast. I must wear hijab and be a better example.``

Dear Sisters, Meet Maria Sharapova Over 1,000 People protested outside the French embassy at the French government`s proposed ban on the muslim headscarf in state schools.

Pictures by Adrian Cousins

What’s the Taj Mahal like from the inside? And Other Stories This story goes on to show that the minds of the people living in India and Pakistan are not biased or prejudiced . It is only the governments of the two countries and fundamentalist parties, who try their best to manipulate the minds of young people.

Welocome to Pakistan. Do Come again! :)

Affright Simply but well written. The expression of fleeting emotions was very well done.

U were right on every one being on their guard nowadays!

Let it Be ... brilliant!

Sometimes, nothing is in your hands. all efforts go in vain. Fate takes its toll on you. What can one do then? Just let it be!

Just Another Stupid Love Story Love..and the things it makes one do...

Simply written but touches the heart!

WoW!

Poem Number New Year Can`t really comment on the merits of the poem. I think i the verse``still in my skin`` has also been borrowed from somewhere. I think i have heard it before .. but can`t really remember.

Too many people in Pakistan are trying to be something they are not. They are moving way from their culture. They are losing their identity.

By the way, as for ecstacy, it is readily used by individuals in certain hi-fi parties in Pakistan by some youngters. :)

Doesn`t mean the same as ekstasis though!