i hope you will now stop crying about “freedom of choice in Islam”

I, for one, am greatful.

Basics of Islam:

Q1. What is Islam?
A1. SUBMISSION TO ALLAH.

@hois  : http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl?queryinput=87.101.128.182

and without going into a long winded argument, I’d just like to agree with Bedu that it’s pretty much up to individual women how they wish to dress and whether or not they want to wear niqab.

Niqab is most often seen as a sign of oppression, but like another commentator said – if a woman is somehow oppressed, or in an emotionally abusive relationship , taking her niqab away will not change things for her. Most often there are so many other contributing factors to someone’s suffering, the niqab is easy target.

OK, this is referring to women who wear it for religious reasons… Some women consider the niqab fardh (required), and so they always wear it. Others consider it recommended, but not required, so they usually wear it but sometimes take it off in certain situations, like when traveling to the West where it’s going to cause them problems.

I also know women who don’t wear it, but put one one occasionally if they’re going to certain souqs where they feel more comfortable among a lot of men, or when they’re wearing makeup, etc.

I also disagree with what you say about higher class women vs. middle class women.

I’m very late in joining this discussion but wanted to point out (some parts of this comment appear on other blogs) that headcovering or face veil in orthodox Judaism is dat Yehudit (i.e., Jewish Law stemming from Jewish practice) rather than dat Moshe (Mosaic Law which is Torah-derived). Roughly it is like Quranic law Vs Sunnah. Both dat Yehudit and Sunnah relied heavily on cultural norms and customs of ancient times.

I believe that covering the head and even the face is recommended in the Quran (contrary to what many assert here) but it is more related to a cultural and societal need than religious edict.

All free women in ancient Arabia covered their faces according to dat Yehudit and Pagan cultural practices. Covering the hair/face grew out of a specific situation; women were told to cover their hair/face not to be recognized as Muslim per se but to be recognized as free women as opposed to the uncovered slave women and so not be harassed. These slave women when they were free also covered their faces (especially if they were elite and Jewish) but once they were captured they were not allowed the ‘’freedom of the luxury to appear elite and free.’’ When these ‘’covered’’ women were captured they had to uncover as slave women and become part of the booty. Imagine that shock and humiliation involved for these women to suddenly expose their faces/hair! But those times and political situations demanded that a woman in a veil remove it when captured. I have never heard anyone say that was unfair or totalitarian.

IMHO, burqa/veiling/niqaab/hijab are social choices which are confused as religious law. In highly rich and upper class families in the GCC, it is a personal choice. These very rich women wear Western clothes in the West and in their countries pull down a drop-down full-face veil on their faces when out and about because they are too good to be seen and recognised. For the Middle class burqa/veiling/niqaab/hijab is often the choice of the patriarchs. I accept that many women wear it because they think it is a religious requirement but there are also many women who are forced to wear it. Mostly the lower-middle class women wear it both for cultural and religious reasons.

Whether a woman wears it because she thinks Allah wants it (as opposed to Allah asking them to wear it for social reasons of those times), or she wears because her father/husband/brother forces her, it is not a personal choice. There is no personal choice in religion – when you believe something is compulsory and that is why you do it, you give up what you want for what God wants. I have not met any Muslim woman who believes that hijab is a socio-cultural need (and so must be worn when there is need by using logic and exercising caution) and not a religious law. Muslim women either wear it or don’t. They do not wear and remove it depending on socio-cultural situations. That I feel is where we fail.

In Muslim countries veiling works very well to make all women look identical and therefore unrecognizable and non-individual. Veiling contains a very powerful force. A woman inside a veil may feel scorned but there is still a strange protection that the veil offers – the person scorning her will never know who they are scorning; what she looks like – and that gives power to the woman.
But in the West that same veil is a cause of concern. It defeats the whole purpose of veiling because Muslim women who veil are easily recognizable. And if the Prophet was alive today, post 9/11, would he have asked Muslim women to cover their heads/faces in France or Germany or even Australia to be easily recognizable (and therefore targeted)? Would he have said, ‘cover your faces/heads so you may be known (and therefore given trouble)’? Hijab of every form was to prevent women from seeming ‘available’ (as slave women). It was to make free women stand out and not stick out as sore thumbs, which is what is happening now.

Thank you, Bedu.

American Bedu