From: Ishrat Sharif <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: FW: Yvonnne Ridley - How I
came to Love the Veil
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 2006 10:01:35 +0000
> > How I Came To Love The Veil
> > Yvonne Ridley, Washington post - London, USA
> > Monday, October 23, 2006
> > I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed
creatures -- until I was captured by the Taliban. In
September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist
attacks on the United States , I snuck into
Afghanistan , clad in a head-to-toe blue burqa,
intending to write a newspaper account of life under
the repressive regime. Instead, I was discovered,
arrested and detained for 10 days. I spat and swore at
my captors; they called me a "bad" woman but let me go
after I promised to read the Koran and study Islam.
(Frankly, I'm not sure who was happier when I was
freed -- they or I.)
> > Back home in London , I kept my word about
studying Islam -- and was amazed by what I discovered.
I'd been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your
wife and oppress your daughters; instead, I found
passages promoting the liberation of women.
Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to
Islam, provoking a mixture of astonishment,
disappointment and encouragement among friends and
relatives.
> > Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch
here in Britain as former foreign secretary Jack Straw
describes the Muslim nikab -- a face veil that reveals
only the eyes -- as an unwelcome barrier to
integration, with Prime Minister Tony Blair, writer
Salman Rushdie and even Italian Prime Minister Romano
Prodi leaping to his defense.
> > Having been on both sides of the veil, I can tell
you that most Western male politicians and journalists
who lament the oppression of women in the Islamic
world have no idea what they are talking about. They
go on about veils, child brides, female circumcision,
honor killings and forced marriages, and they wrongly
blame Islam for all this -- their arrogance surpassed
only by their ignorance.
> > These cultural issues and customs have nothing to
do with Islam. A careful reading of the Koran shows
that just about everything that Western feminists
fought for in the 1970s was available to Muslim women
1,400 years ago. Women in Islam are considered equal
to men in spirituality, education and worth, and a
woman's gift for childbirth and child-rearing is
regarded as a positive attribute.
> > When Islam offers women so much, why are Western
men so obsessed with Muslim women's attire? Even
British government ministers Gordon Brown and John
Reid have made disparaging remarks about the nikab --
and they hail from across the Scottish border, where
men wear skirts.
> > When I converted to Islam and began wearing a
headscarf, the repercussions were enormous. All I did
was cover my head and hair -- but I instantly became a
second-class citizen. I knew I'd hear from the odd
Islamophobe, but I didn't expect so much open
hostility from strangers. Cabs passed me by at night,
their "for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie, after
dropping off a white passenger right in front of me,
glared at me when I rapped on his window, then drove
off. Another said, "Don't leave a bomb in the back
seat" and asked, "Where's bin Laden hiding?"
> > Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women
to dress modestly, but the majority of Muslim women I
know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the face
uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a
personal statement: My dress tells you that I am a
Muslim and that I expect to be treated respectfully,
much as a Wall Street banker would say that a business
suit defines him as an executive to be taken
seriously. And, especially among converts to the faith
like me, the attention of men who confront women with
inappropriate, leering behavior is not tolerable.
> > I was a Western feminist for many years, but I've
discovered that Muslim feminists are more radical than
their secular counterparts. We hate those ghastly
beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003
when judges of the Miss Earth competition hailed the
emergence of a bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan , Vida
Samadzai, as a giant leap for women's liberation. They
even gave Samadzai a special award for "representing
the victory of women's rights."
> > Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and
the nikab political symbols, too, a way of rejecting
Western excesses such as binge drinking, casual sex
and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on
the length of your skirt and the size of your
surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on your
character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is
achieved through piety -- not beauty, wealth, power,
position or sex.
> > I didn't know whether to scream or laugh when
Italy's Prodi joined the debate last week by declaring
that it is "common sense" not to wear the nikab
because it makes social relations "more difficult."
Nonsense. If this is the case, then why are
cellphones, landlines, e-mail, text messaging and fax
machines in daily use? And no one switches off the
radio because they can't see the presenter's face.
> > Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I
have a right to an education and that it is my duty to
seek out knowledge, regardless of whether I am single
or married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we
told that women must wash, clean or cook for men. As
for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives --
it's simply not true. Critics of Islam will quote
random Koranic verses or hadith, but usually out of
context. If a man does raise a finger against his
wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body,
which is the Koran's way of saying, "Don't beat your
wife, stupid."
> > It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the
place and treatment of women. According to a recent
National Domestic Violence Hotline survey, 4 million
American women experience a serious assault by a
partner during an average 12-month period. More than
three women are killed by their husbands and
boyfriends every day -- that is nearly 5,500 since
9/11.
> > Violent men don't come from any particular
religious or cultural category; one in three women
around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or
otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the
hotline survey. This is a global problem that
transcends religion, wealth, class, race and culture.
> > But it is also true that in the West, men still
believe that they are superior to women, despite
protests to the contrary. They still receive better
pay for equal work -- whether in the mailroom or the
boardroom -- and women are still treated as sexualized
commodities whose power and influence flow directly
from their appearance.
> > And for those who are still trying to claim that
Islam oppresses women, recall this 1992 statement from
the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering his views on
empowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family
political movement that encourages women to leave
their husbands, kill their children, practice
witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."
> > Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not.
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > Yvonne Ridley is political editor of Islam Channel
TV in London and coauthor
> > of "In the Hands of the Taliban: Her Extraordinary
Story" (Robson Books).
> >
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom
(i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue
with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone
astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.} (Holy
Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in
His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites
(men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I
am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if
Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of
camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever
calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who
follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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