The Muslim Woman

Just a few days back, a survey was made among the ethnic minorities in UK, which states that the Muslim women from Pakistan and Bangladesh are suffering from job discrimination because of their religious attire. A lot of outcry was heard from many outgoing young Muslim women who feel quite differently. However, coming back to the issue on the recent report published by Minister for Women Ruth Kelly, she says that ‘Women in Hijab’ should get more job opportunities in the front-line media irrespective of their headscarves. Now what pointed Mrs. Kelly to point this thing? Well, as everyone knows, according to survey, employment rate among ethnic minorities from Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin is just about 24% and this precisely had pushed the minister to come up with refreshing idea to help the Muslim women. Via: THE TELEGRAPH

Women in the Muslim community might cry aloud that they are embracing the cultural values and trying to get along the mainstream life in Europe: paradoxically it is just the opposite. A study made by Geneve Abdo (liaison for the Alliance of Civilizations at the United Nations and author of “Mecca and Main Street”) says something very different. With the American President paying a heavy price these days with all the bomb attacks by the jihadist and the constant threats by the rebel parties, one can easily decipher the power that the Muslim terrorist groups possess. Let’s not move away from the main point of discussion. Coming back to the Muslim women in Europe, the present generation Muslims in America post the 7/11 attack have become quite withdrawn. They are opting to mix with people within the religion rather then making friends with the non-Muslims. To be quite honest, they are trying hard to preserve their Islamic identity over and above the American way of lifestyle. Women are becoming more conscious about their religious dress, the ‘hijab’ and men are seen sporting the typically designed cap known as ‘Kufi’. Well, people to end this discussion will be to cut down the thoughts midway: until I come upon reasons that are more logical, I will wind up my pen on this article. Via: CHRON

Muslim girls in the US have no problems with their traditional attire, hijab. They have tagged it as a source of strength, pride and a tool to spread correct information about much-stereotyped Islam. However, in the past years, the issue has ignited a kind of controversy over wearing of the veil in public. Muslims are of the view that France has actually set fire to the debate by barring hair veil in state schools in 2004. This has been followed by other European countries primarily Germany. However, the situation is not the same in the United States, people of Muslim communities are of the view that they don’t have to face any kind of discrimination in the nation and that they are free to do the kind of activities, which every youth in the nation are subjected to do. Whether, it’s hanging out with friends or going for a party or in practicing their religion. Even for younger Muslim girls, wearing hijab at public middle schools enhances their self-confidence and makes them feel distinguished among their peers. And majority of them feel that that they did not feel isolated by their attire. The girls also use their hijabs to spread correct information about much-stereotyped Islam. For example, when people ask the reason of covering hair, a girl explained to them that the hair is the symbol of sensuality and beauty, and that I try to hide that. Ala Gebarin, 17, also takes into her strides stares and remarks she might come across. I am aware that my hijab can be intimidating, but it is only a layer of clothing, said she. Read

After a younger Muslim girl’s expulsion from a Quebec soccer tournament, five other teams too walked out of it. The girl, Asi was asked to move out because she was in her traditional hijab. League’s spokesperson Lyes Arfa stated that the ban on hijabs is to protect children from being accidentally strangled, which is quite a possibility during the match. The confederation had already made the organizers aware of the rule, which prohibits the wearing of veil or any other religious item. Asi’s team was aware of the rule, but didn’t anticipated it’s imposition. So when it was, many players and adults were outraged. Well, I guess, it was not an issue to be offended at. After all, the league had already announced its norms and so it’s sheer foolishness on the part of the players of not heeding to it. Anyhow, if a person is living in some other country then it becomes obligatory on the part of the person to go according to the country’s rules and regulations and this applies for games as well. Read

The eviction of a young Muslim girl from soccer tournament for wearing hijab has created a political uproar in Canada. Liberal MP Omar Alghabra said that it was irrational on part of the federation in asking her to stepping out of the soccer match just because she was in hijab he supported his point by stressing that even he used to tuck-in his shirt while playing soccer as a youth. However, Quebec Premier Jean Chrarest still supported the soccer referee’s ejection for safety reasons. He said They have their rules, and they’re for safety. It’s up to them to apply the rules, and they applied them in the way they saw fit … and I don’t have a problem with that. His decision to take a public stand on the issue officially brings to Canada what has been a heated political debate that has been raging in Europe and Australia in recent years. France and the UK have had many cases where burkas or headscarves have been banned or politicians have raised concerns. But until recently, such controversies have not been seen in Canada. Read

The veil is increasingly becoming a torment in Britain, not for those who wear it, but for the rest. Even in a secularly tolerant society like Britain, the veil is becoming hard to absorb. And efforts are going on to place legal curbs on the burqa to the dismay of the Muslim community. Muslim women in Britain wear black gowns that cover them from head to toe in leaving only a slit for their eyes. There have been many instances where citizens of Britain have shown their reluctance to accept the veil draped Muslim women. The past year has seen numerous examples, where the veil-covered women have been targets of abuse. An immigration judge told a lawyer dressed in a niqab that she could not represent a client for he could not hear her. A student lost a case she was fighting for being barred from wearing a niqab. Moreover, the British education authorities are proposing to disallow niqab in schools altogether. While few like David Sexton, columnist for The Evening Standard, find Britain to be too deferential toward the veil. Young Muslim women who started wearing niqab since Sept. 11, 2001 concede that it is a frontal expression of Islamic identity, which they have embraced as a form of rebellion against the policies of British Government in Iraq and at home. Few feel it is an act of faith towards Alha, while some take it as a symbol of Muslim identity and solidarity in the British society, which is increasingly becoming intolerant towards the burqa and taunting them. There is also a group of Muslim women who find the niqab objectionable. Imran Ahmad, author of ‘Unimagined’, an autobiography of growing up Muslim in Britain, and head of British Muslims for Secular Democracy feels that the veil is offensive, something steeped in subjugation. While few Muslim women in Britain wear the headscarf, called the hijab, covering all or some of their hair, some wear the nikab. Like in France, Turkey and Tunisia, where students in state schools and female civil servants are banned from covering their hair, UK is also trying to bring in a similar legislation. Muslim women have been wearing burka or nikab for time immemorial. While few have been forced to wear it as a compulsion, some wear it as a ritual, while the rest for their self-pleasure. But, burqa is considered as a kind of subjugation and backwardness, but when religion permits, what can others do? And, more importantly, why? Image Va: IHT

It is still a paradox as to what many religious leaders of the Islamic community preaches and practices. Some says that it is the duty of the Muslim women to draw the veil whether they are amidst the public forum or at home, but the unfortunate killing of an innocent 16-year-old Canadian Muslim girl has nothing to do with Islam, this is what the Islamic community has to say to the world. As word goes around and the entire nation is mourning her death, the leaders are refusing any connection of their faith to the victim’s death. Since time immemorial, every Muslim woman around the globe is following the practice of wearing hijab very religiously. However, this duty is being vehemently criticized by many organizations and high profile figures. Yet, even today, since it is a cultural phenomenon, no one dares to defy the practice. Yet, the refusal of Aqsa Parvez, the victim, to wear the hijab snatched the girl’s life. The girl was caught up in a never-ending battle with her family because of her reluctance to wear the Islamic veil, said one her school friends. Ultimately, her denial took the family by storm and this resulted in her brutal murder by her father. This gruesome case has kicked off serious debates in the public, in regards to the rights of a woman in Canada’s Islamic society. While many say that, it is indeed an act of savagery; whereas, Islamic leaders say that Aqsa’s death has nothing to do with their faith. This riddle is open for discussion and is still present in the society and no one knows whether anyone can solve this issue ever. Ultimately, it is upon the global society how they deal with such unfortunate incidents and what laws will be constituted and implemented to tackle such grave matters. Image Credit: NationalPost Read more

Though women are cattle for some men, these latter are constantly disturbed and agitated by mere cows. So when I hear of Iraqi terrorists insisting on killing Christian women if they do not cover their faces in Basra University, I wonder about whom to write on here – the poor women or the poorer men? Before we blame these violent Iraqi men, I have to mention in all fairness that even in so called non-fundamentalists societies women are the proverbial soft targets. Women are always under scrutiny and in the focus of the omniscient ‘male-gaze’. So these threats that university student at Basra are facing are not to be judged as fallouts of terrorism or Islamic fundamentalism. Rather we must see such events as universal illnesses and analyze them as such. May be then we can at least somewhat calm the fears of our women. TimesOnline UK reports the case of three women, one 21 year old Zeena and two others, were recently forced by Shia fundamentalists to toe their hardcore Islamic line and wear the ‘hijab’. It is of no consequence that Zeena had pointed out to her tormentor that her Christian Faith does not ask her to cover her face in public. Wall-writings both inside and outside the university warn women to never move without their faces covered in public. Some of these graffiti invoke God as a witness to this fair warning before killing the shameless women who dare to disobey this dictat. Advertisements which show women with faces uncovered are sprayed with dark paints in Iraq. Religious and personal freedom is dying. Shias are mercilessly persecuting the Sunnis, as per the report. Pity all these, when one remembers the great Islamic scholars whose liberal spirit brought Humanism and the subsequent Renaissance to Europe. Islam is one of the world’s greatest religions and a very culturally rich one at that. But cowards are twisting it to their own perverted purposes. The New Chaldean Cardinal has been roundly trounced by these zealots. It is only insecurity and the need to dominate which compel some of my brothers in Basra to misbehave with women there. Instead of threatening women, they need to visit counselors and receive therapy to help tide over their fears of intimacy with women. The problem is not with religious fundamentalism but with the twisted psyches of some men irrespective of religion, race and color. The same impulse which leads an American white male to abuse his trembling wife is at work here. It is the very same impulse which made three young men in Assam enjoy stripping a cornered tribal girl in Guwahati is at work here. The animal in us has now shed off its mask in Basra. When the Allies leave Basra, then the real evil will be out. Via: Times Online Image: World Prout Assembly

The parents of one of the girls previously suspended from Gabriel Havez filed some sort of defamation suit against its principal. Following these events, teachers at a center school in Nantua held a general strike in protest against the scarf in school. A second government statement reiterated the need to respect the principle of secularity in public schools.

In September 1994, a new memorandum, the “Franois Bayrou memo” was issued, delineating the difference concerning “discreet” religious symbols able to be brought into classes, and “ostentatious” religious symbols (like the hijab), which were to remain forbidden in public establishments. Between 1994 together with 2003 around 100 feminine students were suspended or even expelled from middle and high schools for using the scarf in category. In nearly half these cases, their exclusions were annulled by the French courts.

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In France and Turkey, the emphasis is in the secular nature of the state of Hawaii, along with the symbolic nature of that Islamic dress, together with bans apply at state institutions (courts, civil service) and within state-funded education. These bans also cover Islamic headscarves, which in some other countries are viewed as less controversial, even though law court staff in the Netherlands are also not allowed to wear Islamic headscarves with grounds of ‘state neutrality’. An apparently less politicised issue is that in certain professions (teaching), a ban on “veils” (niqab) is actually justified, since face-to-face communication and eye contact becomes necessary. That argument has featured prominently in judgements in Britain and also the Netherlands, after students or teachers were banned from wearing face-covering clothing. Continue reading “women to be rotting in jail under Islamic dress code” »