Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah in book India in Transition wrote:
“Suttee, infant marriage, the compulsion of permanent widowhood and the enervating restrictions of Purdah are so many hateful caricatures of the teachings of the Prophet and of the earliest and purest of the sacred writings of Hinduism, namely respect and honour for women by protecting the persons of the bearers of the race from risks of violence. These and other social evils have handicapped India that it is impossible to conceive if her taking a proper place in the midst of free nations until the broad principle of equality between the sexes has been generally accepted by her people.”
On Occasion of Delhi Durbar He said, “There is no authority either in the Quran or from the history of Islam for the observance of kind of Purdah as it exist among muslims today. It condemns half the population to slavery or to retirement from an active and gainful life.”
Mawlana Hazir Imam said in one of His interviews that, “ My Grandfather made it quite clear to the Ismaili community that women were not to wear the veil and they no longer do.” (Sunday Times Weekly Review December 12, 1965)
In Memoirs of Aga Khan Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah said, “I have always sought to encourage the emancipation and education of women. In my grandfather's and my father's time the Ismailis were far ahead of any other Muslim sect in the matter of the abolition of the strict veil, even in extremely conservative countries. I have absolutely abolished it; nowadays you will never find an Ismaili woman wearing the veil.”
As per Farman not any Imam or Prophet has said to wear burkha.
Here some references of Imam’s saying not to wear veil or burkha.
Farman in Jangbar 5-7-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 20-8-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 17-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 29-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Karachi 30 April 1920 (KIM Part 2)
A Speech in All India Mohmmaden Educational Conference (Noorum Mubin)
Pir Shams in Ginan Eji duniya preet keejiye says that
Eji Purkh nari aik chey aney jhajhwa chey ghat halo chalo sarvey aik chey soho dharam ni vaat.
That means that men and women are one [equal status] although they are made differently [or have different looks] but the way to follow the religion is same for both.
Aisha binte Talha was very beautiful and she was grand daughter of Abu Baker Sidiq the first muslim caliph. She never used to wear a veil or burkha. When her husband argued why she not wore hijab she replied beauty is the blessing of Allah and how can she thank Allah by hiding blessing of Allah in veil. I am thankful to God for making me beautiful physically so why should I hide this from others?
Hejab
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star_munir
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As per latest news the top militant in Lal Masjid Pakistan tried to run away wearing "hijab" but was caught.
So the person who was preaching to do terrorism in name of religion, brainwashing others to do jihad and sacrifice your life to get place in heaven he himself tried to wore hijab to run away along with his wife.......
So this can be point that it may be one of the reason that why fundamentalist and extremist favours veil as theives, terrorist etc can hide themselves in veil when they feel need.
So the person who was preaching to do terrorism in name of religion, brainwashing others to do jihad and sacrifice your life to get place in heaven he himself tried to wore hijab to run away along with his wife.......
So this can be point that it may be one of the reason that why fundamentalist and extremist favours veil as theives, terrorist etc can hide themselves in veil when they feel need.
Intolerance unleashed
Quebec women's group off base with call to ban religious attire
Calgary Herald
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Suggestions by the Quebec Council on the Status of Women that hijabs, yarmulkas and other visible religious symbols be banned in the public sector are offensive, racist and run counter to the tenets of religious freedom Canadians cherish, and which the Charter of Rights supports.
The council wants teachers, doctors and other public-sector workers to be prohibited from wearing anything more overt than necklaces with crosses or Stars of David.
This is the road France travelled a year ago, and it is one down which Canada should not follow.
The hijab is a head scarf and a symbol of religious devotion. It does not obscure the wearer's face. And Jewish men who wear yarmulkas as they go about their daily business, do so because keeping their heads covered represents their constant devotion to God.
Just as it is the right of Sikh men to wear turbans -- a right which has been championed all the way up through the ranks of the RCMP -- so too it is the right of Muslims and Jews to wear garments that represent their respective faiths.
It is ironic that a group professing to be dedicated to equality for women wants to stomp on the equality of Muslim women and take away their choice to wear religious attire.
The council claims it is pushing for equality and tolerance in insisting that Muslim women doff their hijabs and niqabs, but all it is really doing is disrespecting their freedom to choose.
The council focused especially on female teachers sending negative messages of submission to secular students by wearing niqabs -- veils -- in class.
They insist these teachers are poor role models.
On the contrary, what better way for students in a multicultural country such as Canada to learn respect for other cultures as well as for freedom of religion, than to be exposed to such concepts on an informal basis every day in the classroom?
A teacher who has no qualms about demonstrating the convictions she holds regarding the values of her faith is an excellent role model in a society where too often the only values accorded respect are those an individual makes up on the spot because they feel good at the moment.
This by no means implies that dress trumps everything all the time or that anyone claiming a certain type of apparel represents his or her religious beliefs must always prevail.
A woman showing up in the corporate suite of offices dressed in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops will rightly be told in no uncertain terms that her clothing is inappropriate for the business world.
Private industry has every right to set out dress codes for employees, and business owners, for example, who feel that someone whose face is veiled is not the best person to deal with customers in a particular type of retail environment, needs to have the leeway to make decisions on who will get the job.
That is a completely different situation from the sort of state-sanctioned blanket ban on attire that the Quebec group is advocating.
It is patronizing and demeaning for the council to decide on behalf of Muslim women what is oppressive and what is not. Muslim women are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, thank you.
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Quebec women's group off base with call to ban religious attire
Calgary Herald
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Suggestions by the Quebec Council on the Status of Women that hijabs, yarmulkas and other visible religious symbols be banned in the public sector are offensive, racist and run counter to the tenets of religious freedom Canadians cherish, and which the Charter of Rights supports.
The council wants teachers, doctors and other public-sector workers to be prohibited from wearing anything more overt than necklaces with crosses or Stars of David.
This is the road France travelled a year ago, and it is one down which Canada should not follow.
The hijab is a head scarf and a symbol of religious devotion. It does not obscure the wearer's face. And Jewish men who wear yarmulkas as they go about their daily business, do so because keeping their heads covered represents their constant devotion to God.
Just as it is the right of Sikh men to wear turbans -- a right which has been championed all the way up through the ranks of the RCMP -- so too it is the right of Muslims and Jews to wear garments that represent their respective faiths.
It is ironic that a group professing to be dedicated to equality for women wants to stomp on the equality of Muslim women and take away their choice to wear religious attire.
The council claims it is pushing for equality and tolerance in insisting that Muslim women doff their hijabs and niqabs, but all it is really doing is disrespecting their freedom to choose.
The council focused especially on female teachers sending negative messages of submission to secular students by wearing niqabs -- veils -- in class.
They insist these teachers are poor role models.
On the contrary, what better way for students in a multicultural country such as Canada to learn respect for other cultures as well as for freedom of religion, than to be exposed to such concepts on an informal basis every day in the classroom?
A teacher who has no qualms about demonstrating the convictions she holds regarding the values of her faith is an excellent role model in a society where too often the only values accorded respect are those an individual makes up on the spot because they feel good at the moment.
This by no means implies that dress trumps everything all the time or that anyone claiming a certain type of apparel represents his or her religious beliefs must always prevail.
A woman showing up in the corporate suite of offices dressed in shorts, T-shirt and flip-flops will rightly be told in no uncertain terms that her clothing is inappropriate for the business world.
Private industry has every right to set out dress codes for employees, and business owners, for example, who feel that someone whose face is veiled is not the best person to deal with customers in a particular type of retail environment, needs to have the leeway to make decisions on who will get the job.
That is a completely different situation from the sort of state-sanctioned blanket ban on attire that the Quebec group is advocating.
It is patronizing and demeaning for the council to decide on behalf of Muslim women what is oppressive and what is not. Muslim women are perfectly capable of speaking for themselves, thank you.
© The Calgary Herald 2007
[quote="star_munir"]Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah in book India in
Farman in Jangbar 5-7-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 20-8-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 17-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 29-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Karachi 30 April 1920 (KIM Part 2)
?[/quot]
There are clear faramins of Imam Sultan Muhammad shah about burqa/parda etc.
if any ismaili want to read the faramins on this topic i have in pdf format and will pleased to forward you.
yaamf_77@hotmail.com
Farman in Jangbar 5-7-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 20-8-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 17-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 29-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Karachi 30 April 1920 (KIM Part 2)
?[/quot]
There are clear faramins of Imam Sultan Muhammad shah about burqa/parda etc.
if any ismaili want to read the faramins on this topic i have in pdf format and will pleased to forward you.
yaamf_77@hotmail.com
yaamf77 wrote:This is not a complex issue its simple no words and arguments have worth we should read faramins and share to make things clearstar_munir wrote:Imam Sultan Mohamed Shah in book India in
Farman in Jangbar 5-7-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 20-8-1899 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 17-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Jangbar 29-8-1905 (KIM Part 1)
Farman in Karachi 30 April 1920 (KIM Part 2)
?[/quot]
There are clear faramins of Imam Sultan Muhammad shah about burqa/parda etc.
if any ismaili want to read the faramins on this topic i have in pdf format and will pleased to forward you.
yaamf_77@hotmail.com
yaamf_77@hotmail.com
Law would force Muslim voters to show their faces
Mike De Souza
CanWest News Service
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Canadians would be allowed to hide their face before voting in a federal election for health reasons, but not because of their religion, under new legislation introduced Friday by the minority Conservative government.
If adopted, the legislation would force a woman wearing a veil because of her religion to show her face before voting, but it would exclude a person wearing bandages to cover facial wounds from an injury or surgery, said Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Lawrence Cannon.
He argued that the legislation was a necessary response to fix a loophole in the Canada Elections Act which caused controversy during federal byelections last month in Quebec.
"We've seen cases where people have not identified themselves, and willingly tried to deviate from electoral integrity," said Cannon, who is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political lieutenant in Quebec. "I've been told, for instance, in one poll in St-Hyacinthe (east of Montreal), some people came in there with masks on, they came in with veils, other people came in with other ridiculous attire."
Although Cannon said the exception for medical problems distinguished the government proposal from a private member's bill introduced earlier in the week by the Bloc Quebecois, the sovereigntist party accused the Conservatives of tabling their own legislation to score political points.
But Bloc deputy House leader Monique Guay said her party would likely co-operate with the Conservatives to resolve the issue as soon as possible, since a general election could happen at any time if the minority government was defeated on a confidence issue in the Commons.
"We won't play petty politics with this," she said after question period. "What we want is for everybody to be treated equally and for everybody to vote with their face revealed. We know that in Quebec, this was done in (provincial elections), the law was modified, and if there are other modifications that would be good for the voters, than we will do those (also)."
If adopted, the legislation could be enforced by having Elections Canada staff take voters aside into separate rooms to show their faces before voting, but Cannon said it would be up to the chief electoral officer to decide how to apply the new rules.
The Liberals and the New Democrats suggested that the Bloc and the Tories were blowing the issue out of proportion.
"What I don't like about this whole project is the idea that we take a bunch of women wearing veils and we make a whole big deal about this," said Michael Ignatieff, deputy Liberal leader. "They're citizens, they have to vote, they should identify themselves and then we work out how to do it.''
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Mike De Souza
CanWest News Service
Saturday, October 27, 2007
Canadians would be allowed to hide their face before voting in a federal election for health reasons, but not because of their religion, under new legislation introduced Friday by the minority Conservative government.
If adopted, the legislation would force a woman wearing a veil because of her religion to show her face before voting, but it would exclude a person wearing bandages to cover facial wounds from an injury or surgery, said Transport, Infrastructure and Communities Minister Lawrence Cannon.
He argued that the legislation was a necessary response to fix a loophole in the Canada Elections Act which caused controversy during federal byelections last month in Quebec.
"We've seen cases where people have not identified themselves, and willingly tried to deviate from electoral integrity," said Cannon, who is Prime Minister Stephen Harper's political lieutenant in Quebec. "I've been told, for instance, in one poll in St-Hyacinthe (east of Montreal), some people came in there with masks on, they came in with veils, other people came in with other ridiculous attire."
Although Cannon said the exception for medical problems distinguished the government proposal from a private member's bill introduced earlier in the week by the Bloc Quebecois, the sovereigntist party accused the Conservatives of tabling their own legislation to score political points.
But Bloc deputy House leader Monique Guay said her party would likely co-operate with the Conservatives to resolve the issue as soon as possible, since a general election could happen at any time if the minority government was defeated on a confidence issue in the Commons.
"We won't play petty politics with this," she said after question period. "What we want is for everybody to be treated equally and for everybody to vote with their face revealed. We know that in Quebec, this was done in (provincial elections), the law was modified, and if there are other modifications that would be good for the voters, than we will do those (also)."
If adopted, the legislation could be enforced by having Elections Canada staff take voters aside into separate rooms to show their faces before voting, but Cannon said it would be up to the chief electoral officer to decide how to apply the new rules.
The Liberals and the New Democrats suggested that the Bloc and the Tories were blowing the issue out of proportion.
"What I don't like about this whole project is the idea that we take a bunch of women wearing veils and we make a whole big deal about this," said Michael Ignatieff, deputy Liberal leader. "They're citizens, they have to vote, they should identify themselves and then we work out how to do it.''
© The Calgary Herald 2007
My understanding of the issue is based on some books that I have read.
Muhammad's house was also the community's mosque: the center of religious and social life in the Ummah. People were constantly coming in and out of this compound at all hours of the day. When delegations from other tribes come to speak with Muhammad, they would set up their tents for days at a time inside the open courtyard, just a few feet away from the apartments in which Muhammad's wives slept. And new emigrants who arrived in Yatrib would often stay within the mosque's walls until they could find suitable homes.
Following verses give special directives to the wives of Muhammad though some commentators believe that all women should imitate their example.
"Wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women. So, if you fear God, do not be too complaisant in your speech, lest the lecherous-hearted should lust after you. Talk with such people in plain and simple words. Abide still in your homes and do not display your finery as women used to do in the days of ignorance. Attend to your prayers, give alms and obey God and His Messenger. O woman of this house, the Almighty wants to cleanse you from the filth [these hypocrites want to besmear you with] and to fully purify you. Communicate what is taught to you of the verses of God and the wisdom revealed by Him [to your visitors]. The Almighty is very discerning and all-knowing. Quran 33:32-33"
According to other studies, nowhere in the whole of the Quran is the term hijab applied to any woman other than the wives of Muhammad. Muslim women probably began wearing the veil as a way to emulate the Prophet's wives, who were revered as `the Mothers of the Ummah,` but the veil was neither compulsory nor, for that matter, widely adopted until generations after Muhammad's death.
Muhammad's house was also the community's mosque: the center of religious and social life in the Ummah. People were constantly coming in and out of this compound at all hours of the day. When delegations from other tribes come to speak with Muhammad, they would set up their tents for days at a time inside the open courtyard, just a few feet away from the apartments in which Muhammad's wives slept. And new emigrants who arrived in Yatrib would often stay within the mosque's walls until they could find suitable homes.
Following verses give special directives to the wives of Muhammad though some commentators believe that all women should imitate their example.
"Wives of the Prophet, you are not like other women. So, if you fear God, do not be too complaisant in your speech, lest the lecherous-hearted should lust after you. Talk with such people in plain and simple words. Abide still in your homes and do not display your finery as women used to do in the days of ignorance. Attend to your prayers, give alms and obey God and His Messenger. O woman of this house, the Almighty wants to cleanse you from the filth [these hypocrites want to besmear you with] and to fully purify you. Communicate what is taught to you of the verses of God and the wisdom revealed by Him [to your visitors]. The Almighty is very discerning and all-knowing. Quran 33:32-33"
According to other studies, nowhere in the whole of the Quran is the term hijab applied to any woman other than the wives of Muhammad. Muslim women probably began wearing the veil as a way to emulate the Prophet's wives, who were revered as `the Mothers of the Ummah,` but the veil was neither compulsory nor, for that matter, widely adopted until generations after Muhammad's death.
Soccer player's hijab sparks ejection
Referee sends Calgary teen off the field
Sean Myers
Calgary Herald
Monday, November 26, 2007
The family of a 14-year-old girl is demanding an apology from a referee who refused to allow her to play indoor soccer while wearing a religious headscarf.
But the head of referee development for Alberta's governing soccer body says wearing hijabs can pose a threat to player safety.
Safaa Menhem arrived late in the first half of her game with the Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team at the Calgary Soccer Centre on Saturday. After her first shift in the game, the referee told the coach she couldn't play if she wore her hijab.
The Calgary girl said Sunday she couldn't understand why she was not allowed to play.
"I was very embarrassed," she said. "I felt very hurt. I was confused because I've been playing for five seasons and nothing like this has ever happened."
At halftime, the rest of the team -- with the support of parents in the stands -- threatened to forfeit the game in protest, but Safaa urged them to continue playing.
"She walked off the field with her head down in tears thinking she'd done something wrong, which she hadn't," said her eldest brother, Hekmet Menhem, 27, who may face disciplinary action for confronting the referee on the field.
"The look I saw on her face when she came off killed me. That's when I snapped."
Assistant coach Andre Giesbers was behind the bench while the head coach was out of town taking in the Grey Cup.
He said Safaa has played five games this season without incident.
"The ref said it was for safety reasons," said Giesbers. "He told me we could get a letter from Calgary Minor Soccer allowing her to play. So I asked him to let her finish the game and we would get the letter for next week's game, but he wasn't flexible. He said, 'I made the call.'
"She's been playing since the beginning of the year without any problems. We need to get this fixed so she plays next week with her headscarf on."
In February, a girls soccer team made up of Grade 6 students from Nepean, Ont., forfeited a tournament in Laval, Que., when one of the players was ordered by a referee to remove her hijab. Four other teams from Ottawa also forfeited their games in protest.
The referee's decision was upheld by the Quebec soccer federation.
Two years ago, a Calgary Sikh teenager was ejected from a tournament in Langley, B.C., for refusing to take off his patka, a type of headscarf that sits on top of the head.
In that case, the B.C. Soccer Association ruled that the referee was in error and that players are free to wear religious headgear such as turbans.
Gary Roy, the referee development officer with the Alberta Soccer Association, said he supports the decision the Calgary referee made on Saturday.
"This is definitely not about religion, far from it. It's about safety," said Roy. "And it's not a discretionary call. Referees are specifically trained in what is permitted and what is not permitted."
Roy noted that the Canadian Soccer Association upheld the Quebec decision and the international governing body, FIFA, has ruled that no headgear is permitted to be worn during games.
"The reason is, that if a player is wearing a hijab that is tied under the chin and someone decides to grab her by her hijab while she's running down the field, it could result in a serious injury," said Roy. "We've also forbidden sweatbands."
"This is the concern of the officials," he added.
When asked why the rule wasn't enforced consistently in all the games Safaa has played, Roy said it's a problem of policing.
"We have 3,000 referees in the province. We have a lack of manpower to police this," said Roy. "We can only deal with it when issues like this come up."
Daryl Leinweber, executive director of the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, said he needed to review the match sheets from the game before making a comment, but added the association's focus is to be "inclusive not exclusive."
Ontario and B.C. both allow religious headgear to be worn.
Coaches and parents on the Calgary team say they support Safaa in wearing her hijab.
It was due to Safaa's insistence that the team continued playing without her Saturday.
"We were really proud of her for that," said soccer parent Heather McLeod. "That took a lot of courage."
Teammate Tallon Smith, 14, left the field with her friend and has written a letter addressed to soccer officials titled "The Biggest Disappointment."
"I was surprised, I've heard of this happening in other places, but I never expected it to happen to our team," said Tallon.
"They're taking the fun away from the sport."
smyers@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Referee sends Calgary teen off the field
Sean Myers
Calgary Herald
Monday, November 26, 2007
The family of a 14-year-old girl is demanding an apology from a referee who refused to allow her to play indoor soccer while wearing a religious headscarf.
But the head of referee development for Alberta's governing soccer body says wearing hijabs can pose a threat to player safety.
Safaa Menhem arrived late in the first half of her game with the Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team at the Calgary Soccer Centre on Saturday. After her first shift in the game, the referee told the coach she couldn't play if she wore her hijab.
The Calgary girl said Sunday she couldn't understand why she was not allowed to play.
"I was very embarrassed," she said. "I felt very hurt. I was confused because I've been playing for five seasons and nothing like this has ever happened."
At halftime, the rest of the team -- with the support of parents in the stands -- threatened to forfeit the game in protest, but Safaa urged them to continue playing.
"She walked off the field with her head down in tears thinking she'd done something wrong, which she hadn't," said her eldest brother, Hekmet Menhem, 27, who may face disciplinary action for confronting the referee on the field.
"The look I saw on her face when she came off killed me. That's when I snapped."
Assistant coach Andre Giesbers was behind the bench while the head coach was out of town taking in the Grey Cup.
He said Safaa has played five games this season without incident.
"The ref said it was for safety reasons," said Giesbers. "He told me we could get a letter from Calgary Minor Soccer allowing her to play. So I asked him to let her finish the game and we would get the letter for next week's game, but he wasn't flexible. He said, 'I made the call.'
"She's been playing since the beginning of the year without any problems. We need to get this fixed so she plays next week with her headscarf on."
In February, a girls soccer team made up of Grade 6 students from Nepean, Ont., forfeited a tournament in Laval, Que., when one of the players was ordered by a referee to remove her hijab. Four other teams from Ottawa also forfeited their games in protest.
The referee's decision was upheld by the Quebec soccer federation.
Two years ago, a Calgary Sikh teenager was ejected from a tournament in Langley, B.C., for refusing to take off his patka, a type of headscarf that sits on top of the head.
In that case, the B.C. Soccer Association ruled that the referee was in error and that players are free to wear religious headgear such as turbans.
Gary Roy, the referee development officer with the Alberta Soccer Association, said he supports the decision the Calgary referee made on Saturday.
"This is definitely not about religion, far from it. It's about safety," said Roy. "And it's not a discretionary call. Referees are specifically trained in what is permitted and what is not permitted."
Roy noted that the Canadian Soccer Association upheld the Quebec decision and the international governing body, FIFA, has ruled that no headgear is permitted to be worn during games.
"The reason is, that if a player is wearing a hijab that is tied under the chin and someone decides to grab her by her hijab while she's running down the field, it could result in a serious injury," said Roy. "We've also forbidden sweatbands."
"This is the concern of the officials," he added.
When asked why the rule wasn't enforced consistently in all the games Safaa has played, Roy said it's a problem of policing.
"We have 3,000 referees in the province. We have a lack of manpower to police this," said Roy. "We can only deal with it when issues like this come up."
Daryl Leinweber, executive director of the Calgary Minor Soccer Association, said he needed to review the match sheets from the game before making a comment, but added the association's focus is to be "inclusive not exclusive."
Ontario and B.C. both allow religious headgear to be worn.
Coaches and parents on the Calgary team say they support Safaa in wearing her hijab.
It was due to Safaa's insistence that the team continued playing without her Saturday.
"We were really proud of her for that," said soccer parent Heather McLeod. "That took a lot of courage."
Teammate Tallon Smith, 14, left the field with her friend and has written a letter addressed to soccer officials titled "The Biggest Disappointment."
"I was surprised, I've heard of this happening in other places, but I never expected it to happen to our team," said Tallon.
"They're taking the fun away from the sport."
smyers@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Hijab safety issues should be based on fact, not fear
Calgary Herald
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Every sport carries an element of risk, but the chances of a hijab causing injury during a soccer match is so slim, the odds of it ever happening would render it a fluke accident by any standard. There's never been a single injury caused from wearing the religious headscarf that anyone can document, least of all local soccer authorities.
Yet, the Alberta Soccer Association stands by the referee who ejected a 14-year-old Calgary girl from her game Sunday, after she refused to take off her hijab.
In defence of the referee, he acted on his interpretation of a vague rule established by the International Football Association Board.
Without naming the hijab, the rule says players "must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player."
The hijab falling into that category is open to interpretation, and has been the subject of not only controversy across the country, but inconsistency.
The soccer associations of Ontario and British Columbia allow players to wear religious headgear, but Quebec's doesn't.
Let's not forget these are girls who are playing for the fun of the game.
Do they really need to be subjected to inflexible rules with the same degree of rigidity as found at the highest level of competition?
Safety standards need to be determined by facts, not fear of a hypothetical chance of injury. The risk is so slim, some experts believe it falls into the category of fantasy. "I don't know what sort of imagination you have to have to see this as a safety risk," says former soccer coach Maureen Simmonds, the director of McGill University's school of physical and occupational therapy.
If safety is the issue, then the soccer association could recognize sports hijabs and set out how they may be modified to address concerns. Intentionally or not, the soccer association's action sends a message that marginalizes girls who wear religious headscarves.
Yet, if Muslim women's participation in Canadian society is going to be increased, society must allow Muslim girls to wear their hijabs so that they may feel comfortable in public.
The tragedy is the soccer association has made tremendous gains in making soccer a more inclusive sport, adopting a strict policy to remove immediately any referee who shows prejudice or violates religious codes of ethics.
Those gains risk being erased unless the association acts quickly to remove the ambiguity around the hijab and find away to allow for its modification.
© The Calgary Herald 2007
****
Trying to be Canadian -- and thwarted
Zijad Delic
For The Calgary Herald
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Here we go again with the hijab and soccer, but this time in Calgary. After all the unnecessary furor over hijabs and sports in Quebec, I thought this could happen only in Quebec -- and never in Alberta, where the contributions of Muslims to Calgary and the province in general have been well recognized.
I was wrong! I thought the referee and the province's minister of recreation would surely know better than to take Albertans down the media circus path, as happened recently in Quebec. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The referee and minister of recreation agree the hijab worn by Calgary soccer player Safaa Menhem is a dangerous piece of clothing and she needs to be protected from her hijab. It is a safety issue, they say. So now, referees are competing to save the lives of Muslim girls. What kind of absurd game are these people in authority playing? It certainly bears little resemblance to the wholesomeness of amateur sport.
This is just one more unnecessary controversy into which Canadians are drawn almost daily, one which diverts our local and national attention away from more important issues that really matter to all. What about homicides, drugs, child poverty and family violence in Calgary? These reality issues should be enough to keep politicians' hands full. But, of course, they are everyday issues in Calgary, while non-typical sports field attire is an attention-getting novelty. So now the bandwagon cry is hijab! That's the new reality.
For years, and even more so recently, Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular have been criticized for not participating more fully in the diverse activities offered by Canadian society. In the past, there were perhaps some grounds for criticism, but things are very different now.
Whether they wear the hijab or not, Muslim girls and women are participating in every aspect of Canadian cultural and community life, including the playing of various team sports. In fact, their religion encourages them to do so, as long as basic modesty and ethical principles are respected.
When Muslim women or girls want to participate, however, they still run into those who try to discourage them from activities in which they clearly excel. The naysayers try to support a variety of excuses why Muslim women should not be full participants in athletics and sports. One of their deterrents is the hijab, the traditional head scarf.
We first blame Muslim women for not participating in society and then, when they start, we stand in their way; we make them feel bad about themselves and their religion. What an appalling and discouraging double standard! How can people with a little authority make such drastic decisions without taking the trouble to understand why a piece of apparel such as the hijab is so important? Once again, the Muslim community is dismissed by those who know or care far too little about "these people" and their religion.
The hijab -- a modest and elegant piece of fabric that numerous Muslim women and girls don by choice in public -- cannot harm anyone. It never happened. But the recent uninformed ruling of Mr. Referee at a soccer game where Safaa's team was playing deeply harmed the feelings of many, especially those of Safaa herself, a skilled athlete who just wants to play soccer like the rest of her teammates.
Instead of choosing the Canadian way -- through informed, enlightened and pragmatic good sense -- to settle the question of whether it is proper to allow athletes to wear sports-appropriate hijabs, the referee who ousted Safaa put another barrier in the way of young Muslim women in their quest to develop a healthy sense of integrated self-identity, both Canadian and Islamic.
Canada's soccer authorities need to demonstrate that they are genuinely attuned to the realities of Canadian multicultural life. Ours is a pluralistic society that demands we ensure safe and healthy spaces for all our citizens, so that no one is prevented by something as innocuous as a hijab, yarmulke, turban or any recognized religious attire, from participating freely, fully, skillfully and enjoyably in the life of this dynamic country.
We owe this opportunity to our young people; after all, they are our future and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, not humiliated for their belief system.
Establishing consistent rules of the game is one thing, but arbitrarily and unnecessarily wounding players' feelings is quite another. Sadly, it is a case where a decision made in haste and ignorance, with only personal preference as a guideline, resulted in a detrimental effect on the self-esteem of those directly affected and in a loss of credibility among Canadians for those whom we trusted to oversee fair play.
Safaa and many other young Muslim girls hope that this and any future decisions on the hijab in sports will not be left up to just anybody. Most "anybodies" do not understand the traditions and sensitivities they are dealing with. Until then, Safaa -- with her hijab proudly in place -- will keep practising with her soccer team in hopes that, sooner rather than later, this unnecessary mess will be solved for good.
Players in many sports wear headbands and/or sweatbands and the like and are not being thrown out of competition over a mere piece of cloth. But in this country, where all are equal -- but for a few, some are more equal than others -- the hijab seems to be a bit different question!
An Angus Reid Forum poll (not scientific, but revealing nevertheless: results of the poll retrieved from http://rm.angusreidforum.com) gives an overview of the true Canadian-ness of the hijab issue. When asked, "Do you think wearing a hijab on a school soccer team should be forbidden or allowed?" 28 per cent said "forbidden" and 72 per cent "allowed" a hijab on the field.
This is what Canada is all about! Long live Canada!
Imam Dr. Zijad Delic is the national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Calgary Herald
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Every sport carries an element of risk, but the chances of a hijab causing injury during a soccer match is so slim, the odds of it ever happening would render it a fluke accident by any standard. There's never been a single injury caused from wearing the religious headscarf that anyone can document, least of all local soccer authorities.
Yet, the Alberta Soccer Association stands by the referee who ejected a 14-year-old Calgary girl from her game Sunday, after she refused to take off her hijab.
In defence of the referee, he acted on his interpretation of a vague rule established by the International Football Association Board.
Without naming the hijab, the rule says players "must not use equipment or wear anything that is dangerous to himself or another player."
The hijab falling into that category is open to interpretation, and has been the subject of not only controversy across the country, but inconsistency.
The soccer associations of Ontario and British Columbia allow players to wear religious headgear, but Quebec's doesn't.
Let's not forget these are girls who are playing for the fun of the game.
Do they really need to be subjected to inflexible rules with the same degree of rigidity as found at the highest level of competition?
Safety standards need to be determined by facts, not fear of a hypothetical chance of injury. The risk is so slim, some experts believe it falls into the category of fantasy. "I don't know what sort of imagination you have to have to see this as a safety risk," says former soccer coach Maureen Simmonds, the director of McGill University's school of physical and occupational therapy.
If safety is the issue, then the soccer association could recognize sports hijabs and set out how they may be modified to address concerns. Intentionally or not, the soccer association's action sends a message that marginalizes girls who wear religious headscarves.
Yet, if Muslim women's participation in Canadian society is going to be increased, society must allow Muslim girls to wear their hijabs so that they may feel comfortable in public.
The tragedy is the soccer association has made tremendous gains in making soccer a more inclusive sport, adopting a strict policy to remove immediately any referee who shows prejudice or violates religious codes of ethics.
Those gains risk being erased unless the association acts quickly to remove the ambiguity around the hijab and find away to allow for its modification.
© The Calgary Herald 2007
****
Trying to be Canadian -- and thwarted
Zijad Delic
For The Calgary Herald
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Here we go again with the hijab and soccer, but this time in Calgary. After all the unnecessary furor over hijabs and sports in Quebec, I thought this could happen only in Quebec -- and never in Alberta, where the contributions of Muslims to Calgary and the province in general have been well recognized.
I was wrong! I thought the referee and the province's minister of recreation would surely know better than to take Albertans down the media circus path, as happened recently in Quebec. Unfortunately, that is not the case.
The referee and minister of recreation agree the hijab worn by Calgary soccer player Safaa Menhem is a dangerous piece of clothing and she needs to be protected from her hijab. It is a safety issue, they say. So now, referees are competing to save the lives of Muslim girls. What kind of absurd game are these people in authority playing? It certainly bears little resemblance to the wholesomeness of amateur sport.
This is just one more unnecessary controversy into which Canadians are drawn almost daily, one which diverts our local and national attention away from more important issues that really matter to all. What about homicides, drugs, child poverty and family violence in Calgary? These reality issues should be enough to keep politicians' hands full. But, of course, they are everyday issues in Calgary, while non-typical sports field attire is an attention-getting novelty. So now the bandwagon cry is hijab! That's the new reality.
For years, and even more so recently, Muslims in general and Muslim women in particular have been criticized for not participating more fully in the diverse activities offered by Canadian society. In the past, there were perhaps some grounds for criticism, but things are very different now.
Whether they wear the hijab or not, Muslim girls and women are participating in every aspect of Canadian cultural and community life, including the playing of various team sports. In fact, their religion encourages them to do so, as long as basic modesty and ethical principles are respected.
When Muslim women or girls want to participate, however, they still run into those who try to discourage them from activities in which they clearly excel. The naysayers try to support a variety of excuses why Muslim women should not be full participants in athletics and sports. One of their deterrents is the hijab, the traditional head scarf.
We first blame Muslim women for not participating in society and then, when they start, we stand in their way; we make them feel bad about themselves and their religion. What an appalling and discouraging double standard! How can people with a little authority make such drastic decisions without taking the trouble to understand why a piece of apparel such as the hijab is so important? Once again, the Muslim community is dismissed by those who know or care far too little about "these people" and their religion.
The hijab -- a modest and elegant piece of fabric that numerous Muslim women and girls don by choice in public -- cannot harm anyone. It never happened. But the recent uninformed ruling of Mr. Referee at a soccer game where Safaa's team was playing deeply harmed the feelings of many, especially those of Safaa herself, a skilled athlete who just wants to play soccer like the rest of her teammates.
Instead of choosing the Canadian way -- through informed, enlightened and pragmatic good sense -- to settle the question of whether it is proper to allow athletes to wear sports-appropriate hijabs, the referee who ousted Safaa put another barrier in the way of young Muslim women in their quest to develop a healthy sense of integrated self-identity, both Canadian and Islamic.
Canada's soccer authorities need to demonstrate that they are genuinely attuned to the realities of Canadian multicultural life. Ours is a pluralistic society that demands we ensure safe and healthy spaces for all our citizens, so that no one is prevented by something as innocuous as a hijab, yarmulke, turban or any recognized religious attire, from participating freely, fully, skillfully and enjoyably in the life of this dynamic country.
We owe this opportunity to our young people; after all, they are our future and deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, not humiliated for their belief system.
Establishing consistent rules of the game is one thing, but arbitrarily and unnecessarily wounding players' feelings is quite another. Sadly, it is a case where a decision made in haste and ignorance, with only personal preference as a guideline, resulted in a detrimental effect on the self-esteem of those directly affected and in a loss of credibility among Canadians for those whom we trusted to oversee fair play.
Safaa and many other young Muslim girls hope that this and any future decisions on the hijab in sports will not be left up to just anybody. Most "anybodies" do not understand the traditions and sensitivities they are dealing with. Until then, Safaa -- with her hijab proudly in place -- will keep practising with her soccer team in hopes that, sooner rather than later, this unnecessary mess will be solved for good.
Players in many sports wear headbands and/or sweatbands and the like and are not being thrown out of competition over a mere piece of cloth. But in this country, where all are equal -- but for a few, some are more equal than others -- the hijab seems to be a bit different question!
An Angus Reid Forum poll (not scientific, but revealing nevertheless: results of the poll retrieved from http://rm.angusreidforum.com) gives an overview of the true Canadian-ness of the hijab issue. When asked, "Do you think wearing a hijab on a school soccer team should be forbidden or allowed?" 28 per cent said "forbidden" and 72 per cent "allowed" a hijab on the field.
This is what Canada is all about! Long live Canada!
Imam Dr. Zijad Delic is the national executive director of the Canadian Islamic Congress
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Hijab dilemma sidestepped
Hijab dilemma sidestepped
Jamie Komarnicki
Calgary Herald
Sunday, December 02, 2007
When Safaa Menhem stepped out of the locker room with her soccer teammates before Saturday's game, her hijab was wrapped snugly around her head and draped around her neck.
Minutes later, when Safaa played her first shift on the soccer pitch since she was ejected from a game last week, the religious head scarf was fastened at the back of her head.
The transformation from hijab to bandana took advantage of a loophole in the laws of the game that allowed the 14-year-old Muslim girl to help her Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team to a 4-1 victory at the Calgary Soccer Centre on Saturday.
"I was happy I was able to play," said Safaa, grinning broadly as she came off the pitch arm-in-arm with beaming teammates.
Last week, a referee told her that for her own safety and that of other players, Safaa couldn't play while wearing a hijab.
The move kicked off a flurry of controversy as soccer officials scrambled to come up with a definitive position on the issue.
And on Friday, the Alberta Soccer Association advised its referees not to let players wear a hijab during a game while its board members work on a clear ruling.
In the meantime, Safaa feared she was banned from playing her favourite sport as long as she wore the hijab, a head scarf worn by Muslim women, in keeping with a Qur'anic directive.
But by tying the head scarf so it fastened at the back of her head rather than draping around the front of her neck, the girl was able to satisfy the safety component of the rules, said Gary Roy, the former referee development officer who helped come up with the "Band-Aid" solution for Saturday's game.
"We were trying to come up with a solution to help her conform to the safety issue," said Roy.
"It respects the Alberta Soccer Association ruling and at the same time gets the girl on the field to play," he said.
Safaa didn't know she was allowed to play until the last minute, she said.
Cheers erupted from the bleachers where her parents, six siblings and a number of friends sat watching as Safaa stepped onto the field shortly into the first half of the game.
The young girl grew up watching older siblings' soccer practices and games, said her brother, Hekmet Menhem. It gave birth to her own passion for the game.
"It means the world to her," Menhem said. "In our house, our mom is always yelling at us when we kick the ball around and break things," he joked.
Wearing her No. 6 jersey, Safaa played several shifts Saturday, tugging self-consciously at the headgear she admitted felt loose and distracting.
The family will craft more secure bandanas for her to wear in the future, said Menhem.
Bandanas are generally not allowed on the field, unless deemed medically necessary by each individual referee, or, in this case, for religious reasons, said Roy.
The referee has the final say on issues of non-compulsory equipment, he said, a point the provincial soccer body acknowledged.
"The referee has the last say, so obviously we're not going to challenge that," said the soccer association's executive director Ron Axelson, who wasn't at Saturday's game.
"We're still going to proceed and make a ruling, hopefully on a long-term basis, so we don't have to go through this again."
Officials welcome clarity on the issue, especially in light of Calgary's burgeoning cultural landscape, said Roy.
"We've had our conflict, now it's resolution time," he said.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
Hijab dilemma sidestepped
Jamie Komarnicki
Calgary Herald
Sunday, December 02, 2007
When Safaa Menhem stepped out of the locker room with her soccer teammates before Saturday's game, her hijab was wrapped snugly around her head and draped around her neck.
Minutes later, when Safaa played her first shift on the soccer pitch since she was ejected from a game last week, the religious head scarf was fastened at the back of her head.
The transformation from hijab to bandana took advantage of a loophole in the laws of the game that allowed the 14-year-old Muslim girl to help her Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team to a 4-1 victory at the Calgary Soccer Centre on Saturday.
"I was happy I was able to play," said Safaa, grinning broadly as she came off the pitch arm-in-arm with beaming teammates.
Last week, a referee told her that for her own safety and that of other players, Safaa couldn't play while wearing a hijab.
The move kicked off a flurry of controversy as soccer officials scrambled to come up with a definitive position on the issue.
And on Friday, the Alberta Soccer Association advised its referees not to let players wear a hijab during a game while its board members work on a clear ruling.
In the meantime, Safaa feared she was banned from playing her favourite sport as long as she wore the hijab, a head scarf worn by Muslim women, in keeping with a Qur'anic directive.
But by tying the head scarf so it fastened at the back of her head rather than draping around the front of her neck, the girl was able to satisfy the safety component of the rules, said Gary Roy, the former referee development officer who helped come up with the "Band-Aid" solution for Saturday's game.
"We were trying to come up with a solution to help her conform to the safety issue," said Roy.
"It respects the Alberta Soccer Association ruling and at the same time gets the girl on the field to play," he said.
Safaa didn't know she was allowed to play until the last minute, she said.
Cheers erupted from the bleachers where her parents, six siblings and a number of friends sat watching as Safaa stepped onto the field shortly into the first half of the game.
The young girl grew up watching older siblings' soccer practices and games, said her brother, Hekmet Menhem. It gave birth to her own passion for the game.
"It means the world to her," Menhem said. "In our house, our mom is always yelling at us when we kick the ball around and break things," he joked.
Wearing her No. 6 jersey, Safaa played several shifts Saturday, tugging self-consciously at the headgear she admitted felt loose and distracting.
The family will craft more secure bandanas for her to wear in the future, said Menhem.
Bandanas are generally not allowed on the field, unless deemed medically necessary by each individual referee, or, in this case, for religious reasons, said Roy.
The referee has the final say on issues of non-compulsory equipment, he said, a point the provincial soccer body acknowledged.
"The referee has the last say, so obviously we're not going to challenge that," said the soccer association's executive director Ron Axelson, who wasn't at Saturday's game.
"We're still going to proceed and make a ruling, hopefully on a long-term basis, so we don't have to go through this again."
Officials welcome clarity on the issue, especially in light of Calgary's burgeoning cultural landscape, said Roy.
"We've had our conflict, now it's resolution time," he said.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
Teen dead after alleged attack by father
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 | 9:58 AM ET
CBC News
Peel Regional Police on Tuesday released the name of a 16-year-old Mississauga teen who died after allegedly being attacked by her father.
Aqsa Parvez was found in her Longhorn Trail home on Monday morning without any vital signs.
Paramedics revived her and took her to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, where she died late Monday night.
Police said they received a call from a man who said he'd just killed his daughter.
The victim's father, Muhammad Parvez, 57, was arrested at the scene. He will appear in court on Tuesday and face murder charges.
Aqsa Parvez's friends told CBC News that the teen had been having arguments with her father because he allegedly wanted her to wear a traditional hijab.
"She kinda wanted to go a different way from the way her family wanted her to go," said one friend.
They also said that she wanted to escape the family conflict by running away.
On the family's quiet street, neighbours were dismayed, calling the events "a tragedy."
One neighbour said she was "praying for the family."
At the teen's school, Applewood Heights Secondary School, grief counsellors have been called in and tributes are being arranged.
"Aqsa was well-known at the school," said Sylvia Link, communications manager for the Peel District School Board.
"She had a wide circle of friends and … those closest to her really are [the] most affected. But anyone at the school, you know our school is like a family, you know anyone at the school is really going to be shocked and saddened by this tragic news."
Waqas Parvez, the victim's 26-year-old brother, has also been arrested and charged with obstructing police.
Last Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2007 | 9:58 AM ET
CBC News
Peel Regional Police on Tuesday released the name of a 16-year-old Mississauga teen who died after allegedly being attacked by her father.
Aqsa Parvez was found in her Longhorn Trail home on Monday morning without any vital signs.
Paramedics revived her and took her to Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, where she died late Monday night.
Police said they received a call from a man who said he'd just killed his daughter.
The victim's father, Muhammad Parvez, 57, was arrested at the scene. He will appear in court on Tuesday and face murder charges.
Aqsa Parvez's friends told CBC News that the teen had been having arguments with her father because he allegedly wanted her to wear a traditional hijab.
"She kinda wanted to go a different way from the way her family wanted her to go," said one friend.
They also said that she wanted to escape the family conflict by running away.
On the family's quiet street, neighbours were dismayed, calling the events "a tragedy."
One neighbour said she was "praying for the family."
At the teen's school, Applewood Heights Secondary School, grief counsellors have been called in and tributes are being arranged.
"Aqsa was well-known at the school," said Sylvia Link, communications manager for the Peel District School Board.
"She had a wide circle of friends and … those closest to her really are [the] most affected. But anyone at the school, you know our school is like a family, you know anyone at the school is really going to be shocked and saddened by this tragic news."
Waqas Parvez, the victim's 26-year-old brother, has also been arrested and charged with obstructing police.
It's no sin to shun the hijab
Tarek Fatah
Founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress
December 17, 2007
Globe and Mail
In Khaled Hosseini's novel about life in Afghanistan, A Thousand
Splendid Suns, the character Nana, a poor unwed mother, tells her
five-year-old daughter, Mariam: "Learn this now and learn it well, my
daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing
finger always finds a woman. Always."
In 25 words, the author sums up the way too many men govern the lives of women in the world of Islam. Like the daughter, Mariam, millions of
Muslim girls are told very early in life by their mothers that their
place in society is one of submission; submission, not to God, but to
Man.
One such girl was 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez, or Axa as she spelled her
name. Axa sought to defy the medieval misogyny that novelist Hosseini
alludes to in his bestseller. She paid the ultimate price for her love
of life: death.
Axa's body had not yet received a decent burial when the mandarins of
Canada's mosque establishment appeared before the media on Thursday.
They had come to do damage control, to ensure the publicity surrounding
the young girl's death, allegedly at the cruel hands of her own father,
did not trigger a negative image about them and their sermons. However,
in their clumsy attempt, they managed to do exactly what they had come
to avert. They talked about the price a Muslim must be prepared to "pay"
if she strays away from their prescribed path of Islam. Imam Alaa
El-Sayyed of Mississauga's Islamic Society of North America mosque told
the press conference: "We cannot let culture supersede religion. If we
stay away from the teachings of Islam, we will pay for it."
We don't know how many times this warning was given to the late Axa
Parvez before she had to pay for her transgressions. If these cold
steely words were not enough, Imam El-Sayyed went a step further and
talked about the higher status of women who cover their heads. "Women
who wear hijabs occupy higher positions in Islam, according to religious
teachings," he said. Axa, he would say, had a lower place in Islam
because she had refused to wear the hijab.
Axa's death hangs like a pall of gloom over the Muslim communities of
Canada. One of our daughters has been killed but the religious leaders
of the community seem more interested in damage control to their
reputations than the enormity of the crime. Axa Parvez is now being
portrayed as somehow having invited her fate. While repeatedly denying
that Islamic teachings or tradition had any role to play in the murder,
the imams at the press conference betrayed their true feelings when
grilled by reporters. Imam Iqbal Nadvi of Oakville's Al-Falah Islamic
Centre mosque said that "parents fail and bring shame upon themselves if
a child chooses to abandon holy writings and not wear the hijab. It is
their duty to convince their kids that this is part of their culture."
One would have hoped Islamic leaders would urge parents to spare the rod and treat their daughters with compassion and love. One would have hoped that these imams would finally admit that the Koran does not mandate the wearing of the hijab, so parents need not force it on their daughters.
Instead, journalists heard a cold-hearted diatribe that bordered on
blaming Axa Parvez for her death. Imam Iqbal Nadvi told the press
conference, "This girl, she refused to stay at home. There were feelings
that she is going in the wrong direction ... going with some other boy
or some other thing."
The imams were not alone. Some young Muslim men on the Internet social site, Facebook, referred to the dead girl as a "slut," while others
e-mailed me suggesting she was pushing drugs; one panicked caller asked
me, "Mr. Fatah, is it true the girl was pregnant when she died?" I was
left speechless at the callous attitude of so many people.
There is something seriously dysfunctional in how the traditional Muslim
leadership has reacted to the murder of Axa. Instead of outrage at the
accused murderer, the attention was focused on the "image of the Muslim
community."
We cannot get back Axa Parvez, but we can show her some respect and make public our disgust at men who slander her behind her back. Imams owe it to their congregations to tell them the hijab does not elevate Muslim
girls to some superior level in the eyes of God. They need to assure
young Muslim women who choose not to wear the head cover that they are not committing a sin.
Tarek Fatah is author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an
Islamic State, to be published in March.
Tarek Fatah
Founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress
December 17, 2007
Globe and Mail
In Khaled Hosseini's novel about life in Afghanistan, A Thousand
Splendid Suns, the character Nana, a poor unwed mother, tells her
five-year-old daughter, Mariam: "Learn this now and learn it well, my
daughter: Like a compass needle that points north, a man's accusing
finger always finds a woman. Always."
In 25 words, the author sums up the way too many men govern the lives of women in the world of Islam. Like the daughter, Mariam, millions of
Muslim girls are told very early in life by their mothers that their
place in society is one of submission; submission, not to God, but to
Man.
One such girl was 16-year-old Aqsa Parvez, or Axa as she spelled her
name. Axa sought to defy the medieval misogyny that novelist Hosseini
alludes to in his bestseller. She paid the ultimate price for her love
of life: death.
Axa's body had not yet received a decent burial when the mandarins of
Canada's mosque establishment appeared before the media on Thursday.
They had come to do damage control, to ensure the publicity surrounding
the young girl's death, allegedly at the cruel hands of her own father,
did not trigger a negative image about them and their sermons. However,
in their clumsy attempt, they managed to do exactly what they had come
to avert. They talked about the price a Muslim must be prepared to "pay"
if she strays away from their prescribed path of Islam. Imam Alaa
El-Sayyed of Mississauga's Islamic Society of North America mosque told
the press conference: "We cannot let culture supersede religion. If we
stay away from the teachings of Islam, we will pay for it."
We don't know how many times this warning was given to the late Axa
Parvez before she had to pay for her transgressions. If these cold
steely words were not enough, Imam El-Sayyed went a step further and
talked about the higher status of women who cover their heads. "Women
who wear hijabs occupy higher positions in Islam, according to religious
teachings," he said. Axa, he would say, had a lower place in Islam
because she had refused to wear the hijab.
Axa's death hangs like a pall of gloom over the Muslim communities of
Canada. One of our daughters has been killed but the religious leaders
of the community seem more interested in damage control to their
reputations than the enormity of the crime. Axa Parvez is now being
portrayed as somehow having invited her fate. While repeatedly denying
that Islamic teachings or tradition had any role to play in the murder,
the imams at the press conference betrayed their true feelings when
grilled by reporters. Imam Iqbal Nadvi of Oakville's Al-Falah Islamic
Centre mosque said that "parents fail and bring shame upon themselves if
a child chooses to abandon holy writings and not wear the hijab. It is
their duty to convince their kids that this is part of their culture."
One would have hoped Islamic leaders would urge parents to spare the rod and treat their daughters with compassion and love. One would have hoped that these imams would finally admit that the Koran does not mandate the wearing of the hijab, so parents need not force it on their daughters.
Instead, journalists heard a cold-hearted diatribe that bordered on
blaming Axa Parvez for her death. Imam Iqbal Nadvi told the press
conference, "This girl, she refused to stay at home. There were feelings
that she is going in the wrong direction ... going with some other boy
or some other thing."
The imams were not alone. Some young Muslim men on the Internet social site, Facebook, referred to the dead girl as a "slut," while others
e-mailed me suggesting she was pushing drugs; one panicked caller asked
me, "Mr. Fatah, is it true the girl was pregnant when she died?" I was
left speechless at the callous attitude of so many people.
There is something seriously dysfunctional in how the traditional Muslim
leadership has reacted to the murder of Axa. Instead of outrage at the
accused murderer, the attention was focused on the "image of the Muslim
community."
We cannot get back Axa Parvez, but we can show her some respect and make public our disgust at men who slander her behind her back. Imams owe it to their congregations to tell them the hijab does not elevate Muslim
girls to some superior level in the eyes of God. They need to assure
young Muslim women who choose not to wear the head cover that they are not committing a sin.
Tarek Fatah is author of Chasing a Mirage: The Tragic Illusion of an
Islamic State, to be published in March.
Hijabs approved in soccer decision
Muslim teen's fight sparks changes
Jamie Komarnicki
Calgary Herald; with files from CanWest News Service
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Weeks after a Calgary Muslim girl was told she couldn't play soccer while wearing a hijab, a new provincial ruling allows players to wear the religious headgear on the field.
The decision clears up a storm of controversy kicked off after 14-year-old Safaa Menhem was pulled from a game with her Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team at the Calgary Soccer Centre because a referee said her hijab was unsafe.
Soccer officials said the decision was based on safety, though Muslim groups expressed concerns about discrimination.
The hijab is a religious head scarf worn by some Muslim women in keeping with a Qur'anic directive that they dress modestly.
The Alberta Soccer Association banned hijabs while it came up with a clear decision.
"The goal here was to make it as common sense as possible, but at the same time, continuing to take the safety factor into consideration," said Ron Axelson, the association's executive director.
Players can wear a sports-friendly hijab approved by the game's referee, according to the ruling released Tuesday.
Sports hijabs are generally fastened with something such as Velcro, which easily comes loose when tugged.
The association will also come up with guidelines on what type of regular hijabs can be worn, likely by next month said Axelson.
Though reluctant to champion the right to wear her hijab, Safaa said she's proud she stuck with her decision.
"It felt good," Safaa said.
"I know that I'm doing something so that no one else is going to have to go through all this," said Safaa.
The incident shook up the team and they're glad to get back to focusing on the sport, said her team's assistant coach Andre Giesbers.
"I'm sorry it's taken so long for it to get done, but at least it's in black and white," said Giesbers, who applauded the ruling.
"I think everybody had to kind of step back and review what decisions were made and how to fix it."
The decision was also welcomed by a Muslim female soccer team in Edmonton.
"I was pretty confident they would change their minds and make the right decision," said Nahhid Alami, coach of the Al-Ikhwat team.
The team was sidelined earlier this month after the temporary ban, as 13 of the 18 women on the team, aged 16 to 25, wear hijab.
Alberta joins British Columbia and Ontario in allowing female soccer players to wear hijab while playing. The head scarf is banned in Quebec.
Two years ago, a Calgary Sikh teenager was ejected from a tournament in Langley, B.C., for refusing to take off his patka, a type of head scarf that sits on top of the head. In that case, the B.C. Soccer Association ruled the referee was in error and players are free to wear religious headgear such as turbans. Judo Canada also has rules banning hijabs.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007
Muslim teen's fight sparks changes
Jamie Komarnicki
Calgary Herald; with files from CanWest News Service
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Weeks after a Calgary Muslim girl was told she couldn't play soccer while wearing a hijab, a new provincial ruling allows players to wear the religious headgear on the field.
The decision clears up a storm of controversy kicked off after 14-year-old Safaa Menhem was pulled from a game with her Chinook Phantom under-16 girls team at the Calgary Soccer Centre because a referee said her hijab was unsafe.
Soccer officials said the decision was based on safety, though Muslim groups expressed concerns about discrimination.
The hijab is a religious head scarf worn by some Muslim women in keeping with a Qur'anic directive that they dress modestly.
The Alberta Soccer Association banned hijabs while it came up with a clear decision.
"The goal here was to make it as common sense as possible, but at the same time, continuing to take the safety factor into consideration," said Ron Axelson, the association's executive director.
Players can wear a sports-friendly hijab approved by the game's referee, according to the ruling released Tuesday.
Sports hijabs are generally fastened with something such as Velcro, which easily comes loose when tugged.
The association will also come up with guidelines on what type of regular hijabs can be worn, likely by next month said Axelson.
Though reluctant to champion the right to wear her hijab, Safaa said she's proud she stuck with her decision.
"It felt good," Safaa said.
"I know that I'm doing something so that no one else is going to have to go through all this," said Safaa.
The incident shook up the team and they're glad to get back to focusing on the sport, said her team's assistant coach Andre Giesbers.
"I'm sorry it's taken so long for it to get done, but at least it's in black and white," said Giesbers, who applauded the ruling.
"I think everybody had to kind of step back and review what decisions were made and how to fix it."
The decision was also welcomed by a Muslim female soccer team in Edmonton.
"I was pretty confident they would change their minds and make the right decision," said Nahhid Alami, coach of the Al-Ikhwat team.
The team was sidelined earlier this month after the temporary ban, as 13 of the 18 women on the team, aged 16 to 25, wear hijab.
Alberta joins British Columbia and Ontario in allowing female soccer players to wear hijab while playing. The head scarf is banned in Quebec.
Two years ago, a Calgary Sikh teenager was ejected from a tournament in Langley, B.C., for refusing to take off his patka, a type of head scarf that sits on top of the head. In that case, the B.C. Soccer Association ruled the referee was in error and players are free to wear religious headgear such as turbans. Judo Canada also has rules banning hijabs.
jkomarnicki@theherald.canwest.com
© The Calgary Herald 2007
New move to lift Turkey scarf ban
The governing party in Turkey and a key opposition party have agreed to work together to lift a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities.
The Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and the nationalist MHP said it was an issue of human rights and freedoms.
Together the two parties have enough votes in parliament to overturn the constitutional ban on headscarves.
Headscarves were banned in schools and universities in 1980 after a coup by the pro-secular armed forces.
The Turkish army sees itself as the guardian of the secular tradition laid out by Kemal Ataturk, who created the modern Turkish state - secular, but Muslim majority - out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire after World War I.
It regards the public wearing of headscarves as a political statement aimed at undermining secular principles.
'Rights and freedoms'
However, opinion polls suggest there is strong public support for lifting the ban.
And some women refuse to go to university because of it.
"The issue of the headscarf was evaluated in terms of rights and freedoms," the two parties said in a statement.
A power struggle last year between secular forces and the governing AK Party ended with the AKP being comprehensively re-elected in July.
It is not yet clear how the secular elite - army generals, judges and university officials - will react to the government's latest move.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 207109.stm
Published: 2008/01/24 15:58:33 GMT
The governing party in Turkey and a key opposition party have agreed to work together to lift a ban on the Islamic headscarf in universities.
The Islamist-rooted ruling AK Party and the nationalist MHP said it was an issue of human rights and freedoms.
Together the two parties have enough votes in parliament to overturn the constitutional ban on headscarves.
Headscarves were banned in schools and universities in 1980 after a coup by the pro-secular armed forces.
The Turkish army sees itself as the guardian of the secular tradition laid out by Kemal Ataturk, who created the modern Turkish state - secular, but Muslim majority - out of the ruins of the Ottoman empire after World War I.
It regards the public wearing of headscarves as a political statement aimed at undermining secular principles.
'Rights and freedoms'
However, opinion polls suggest there is strong public support for lifting the ban.
And some women refuse to go to university because of it.
"The issue of the headscarf was evaluated in terms of rights and freedoms," the two parties said in a statement.
A power struggle last year between secular forces and the governing AK Party ended with the AKP being comprehensively re-elected in July.
It is not yet clear how the secular elite - army generals, judges and university officials - will react to the government's latest move.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/e ... 207109.stm
Published: 2008/01/24 15:58:33 GMT
http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... 5525.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Me without my hijab
Removing my head covering changed how I saw myself and the world.
By Zainab Mineeia
June 8, 2008
When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear.
I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be judged.
Still, I was filled with anxiety. As I flew toward the United States, I wondered how I would feel when the moment came to appear with my head uncovered.
I knew, of course, that most women in the United States didn't cover their heads. Despite that, I worried that my appearance would draw attention. I was going to stand bare in front of everyone. My neck, my hair, the top of my chest would all be exposed. This might (or might not) go unnoticed by others, but I would be keenly aware of it. I didn't know if I was ready to handle this feeling.
When I arrived at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, at the end of the first leg of my journey, my head was still covered. I let my hair out briefly, but then I covered it again, unsure of myself. I packed the hijab away for good when I arrived at Denver International Airport.
I had talked with my parents about the fact that I might take off the hijab upon my arrival in the States; fortunately they were supportive of the idea. In fact, just a few days before leaving Iraq, I was sitting in the living room with my father.
"My daughter, when you arrive at the Jordanian airport, take your hijab off and fold it in your bag. There is no need to wear it anymore," he said while smoking his cigarette.
I did not comment, nor did I look him in the eye. I was embarrassed and did not want to talk about the subject with him or my mother. I was not used to talking to them about such sensitive, personal subjects. But his words meant a lot to me. Having his blessing was important.
Coming from Iraq, a conservative society in which Islam is the main religion, the hijab was something I had always known. Muslim women begin wearing the hijab at different ages -- some start as young as 8; others start later. Some never wear it at all. We wear it because we are told that it would be a sin not to cover ourselves -- and because we need to be without sin in order to get close to God. Women, we're told, are a source of enticement to men, and we need to be covered so that men won't desire us.
I made the decision to cover my head willingly and without any pressure from my family. My mother and sisters wore it, which made my choice easier. I was 19, and I was becoming more religious in those days and had begun to pray more frequently. I was convinced that it was the right thing to do.
The night before I first wore it to school, I stayed up most of the night. None of my friends knew what I was going to do. I expected it would surprise a lot of people. I was a girl who loved styling my hair and wearing nice things; my friends (many of whom were already wearing the hijab) would know how much I had to give up to wear it.
On the street, I felt a rush of mixed feelings: happiness and shyness, as well as fear that I would regret my decision in the future. But I never thought that taking it off would be an option. Once women wear the hijab, they are not likely to take it off.
These days, the hijab is a controversial subject. Some Muslims argue that it is a must for women, though others think it is not. My friend Dahlia Lamy, for instance, an Iraqi woman I knew in Baghdad who is now studying at Boston University, argues that no verse in the Koran clearly makes the hijab an obligation for women. Lamy is a practicing Muslim, but she believes that most women who wear the hijab have been forced to do so by their fathers and brothers. "I've never worn the hijab, nor do I intend to," she told me. In Turkey -- and even in France -- culture wars have raged over the wearing of the hijab in schools and other places.
The hijab takes different forms. In Iraq, it can be a chest-length veil that is placed around the head and sometimes can connect to a niqab, a cloth that covers the mouth and nose. The wearing of the niqab is not common in Iraq. In Iran and other Persian Gulf countries, women wear an abaya. An abaya is a long black gown that covers the entire body.
My hijab helped me during the rough days after the war began in 2003. It was like a shield, an invisible suit that I always had on when I went out, the suit that kept away the evil eye. It enabled me to keep that all-important low profile.
But even as the hijab kept me safe, it became a burden for many others. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, there was a dramatic increase in the number of women wearing the hijab. Since then, as religious groups have gained more power, it has become dangerous to be spotted without one -- so much so that even Christian women now wear the hijab when they go out. To me, that signified that something was wrong with my country.
The reason I came to the United States was to spend a semester at UC Davis before starting a master's degree program in journalism. I arrived on the flight from Denver in September 2006. It was late at night, and I went immediately to sleep. The next day was my first to go out without the hijab. That morning, I stood in front of the mirror and instead of straightening my hijab, I straightened my hair. It worried me, but I also felt happy.
At first, I looked behind me a lot as I walked down the street, wondering who was looking at me and what they were thinking. But over time, I got used to it. My conscience stopped bothering me, and I became accustomed to being without the hijab in the middle of the day. I remember early on when a woman sipping coffee on her porch said "Good morning" and smiled at me, as if I looked completely normal. That was a peaceful feeling.
For a while, I lived in Davis with another Iraqi woman, who had been wearing the hijab since 2002. When I told her that I had taken off my hijab when I came to the U.S., she was surprised and gave me the look. The look telling me that I had done something wrong. We discussed the issue many times; I felt guilty again and had second thoughts.
After some months, though, she moved to Massachusetts. One day, she called me, and we talked again about her hijab. This time she talked about the discomfort and sometimes even hostility that people seemed to feel when they met her and saw how she was dressed. "They try to hide it, but it's obvious," she said. She said that although real estate agents were positive over the phone, no one would rent her an apartment once they saw her in person. She explained that a woman from the student housing office had had the audacity to explain to her the way toilets are flushed, "As if my hijab was an anti-intelligence sign," she said. "I spent two days crying."
She called me again at the end of December and told me that she too had taken off the hijab. After the conversation ended, I felt a bit relieved; I had apparently made a wise decision and spared myself pain from the start.
At the same time, I was disappointed. We shouldn't have to hide the fact that we're Muslims in order to be treated like everyone else. In some ways, it's as bad to feel pressure to take off the hijab in the United States as it is to be pressured to keep it on in Baghdad. It's sad that people here do not always accept you for who you are.
For myself, I'm comfortable with my decision. But even today, I sometimes take my hijab out of the closet and place it over my head. It feels strange, not unlike the feeling I had when I was preparing to stop wearing it.
At the same time, when I put it on, I feel at home, as if I wasn't far away. It makes me miss the days when I used to match the color of my hijab with my clothes. The hijab was a part of my identity, a part of who I was, and those memories can't be erased.
Zainab Mineeia worked as a translator and reporter for The Times in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. She is now a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism.
From the Los Angeles Times
Me without my hijab
Removing my head covering changed how I saw myself and the world.
By Zainab Mineeia
June 8, 2008
When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear.
I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be judged.
Still, I was filled with anxiety. As I flew toward the United States, I wondered how I would feel when the moment came to appear with my head uncovered.
I knew, of course, that most women in the United States didn't cover their heads. Despite that, I worried that my appearance would draw attention. I was going to stand bare in front of everyone. My neck, my hair, the top of my chest would all be exposed. This might (or might not) go unnoticed by others, but I would be keenly aware of it. I didn't know if I was ready to handle this feeling.
When I arrived at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, at the end of the first leg of my journey, my head was still covered. I let my hair out briefly, but then I covered it again, unsure of myself. I packed the hijab away for good when I arrived at Denver International Airport.
I had talked with my parents about the fact that I might take off the hijab upon my arrival in the States; fortunately they were supportive of the idea. In fact, just a few days before leaving Iraq, I was sitting in the living room with my father.
"My daughter, when you arrive at the Jordanian airport, take your hijab off and fold it in your bag. There is no need to wear it anymore," he said while smoking his cigarette.
I did not comment, nor did I look him in the eye. I was embarrassed and did not want to talk about the subject with him or my mother. I was not used to talking to them about such sensitive, personal subjects. But his words meant a lot to me. Having his blessing was important.
Coming from Iraq, a conservative society in which Islam is the main religion, the hijab was something I had always known. Muslim women begin wearing the hijab at different ages -- some start as young as 8; others start later. Some never wear it at all. We wear it because we are told that it would be a sin not to cover ourselves -- and because we need to be without sin in order to get close to God. Women, we're told, are a source of enticement to men, and we need to be covered so that men won't desire us.
I made the decision to cover my head willingly and without any pressure from my family. My mother and sisters wore it, which made my choice easier. I was 19, and I was becoming more religious in those days and had begun to pray more frequently. I was convinced that it was the right thing to do.
The night before I first wore it to school, I stayed up most of the night. None of my friends knew what I was going to do. I expected it would surprise a lot of people. I was a girl who loved styling my hair and wearing nice things; my friends (many of whom were already wearing the hijab) would know how much I had to give up to wear it.
On the street, I felt a rush of mixed feelings: happiness and shyness, as well as fear that I would regret my decision in the future. But I never thought that taking it off would be an option. Once women wear the hijab, they are not likely to take it off.
These days, the hijab is a controversial subject. Some Muslims argue that it is a must for women, though others think it is not. My friend Dahlia Lamy, for instance, an Iraqi woman I knew in Baghdad who is now studying at Boston University, argues that no verse in the Koran clearly makes the hijab an obligation for women. Lamy is a practicing Muslim, but she believes that most women who wear the hijab have been forced to do so by their fathers and brothers. "I've never worn the hijab, nor do I intend to," she told me. In Turkey -- and even in France -- culture wars have raged over the wearing of the hijab in schools and other places.
The hijab takes different forms. In Iraq, it can be a chest-length veil that is placed around the head and sometimes can connect to a niqab, a cloth that covers the mouth and nose. The wearing of the niqab is not common in Iraq. In Iran and other Persian Gulf countries, women wear an abaya. An abaya is a long black gown that covers the entire body.
My hijab helped me during the rough days after the war began in 2003. It was like a shield, an invisible suit that I always had on when I went out, the suit that kept away the evil eye. It enabled me to keep that all-important low profile.
But even as the hijab kept me safe, it became a burden for many others. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, there was a dramatic increase in the number of women wearing the hijab. Since then, as religious groups have gained more power, it has become dangerous to be spotted without one -- so much so that even Christian women now wear the hijab when they go out. To me, that signified that something was wrong with my country.
The reason I came to the United States was to spend a semester at UC Davis before starting a master's degree program in journalism. I arrived on the flight from Denver in September 2006. It was late at night, and I went immediately to sleep. The next day was my first to go out without the hijab. That morning, I stood in front of the mirror and instead of straightening my hijab, I straightened my hair. It worried me, but I also felt happy.
At first, I looked behind me a lot as I walked down the street, wondering who was looking at me and what they were thinking. But over time, I got used to it. My conscience stopped bothering me, and I became accustomed to being without the hijab in the middle of the day. I remember early on when a woman sipping coffee on her porch said "Good morning" and smiled at me, as if I looked completely normal. That was a peaceful feeling.
For a while, I lived in Davis with another Iraqi woman, who had been wearing the hijab since 2002. When I told her that I had taken off my hijab when I came to the U.S., she was surprised and gave me the look. The look telling me that I had done something wrong. We discussed the issue many times; I felt guilty again and had second thoughts.
After some months, though, she moved to Massachusetts. One day, she called me, and we talked again about her hijab. This time she talked about the discomfort and sometimes even hostility that people seemed to feel when they met her and saw how she was dressed. "They try to hide it, but it's obvious," she said. She said that although real estate agents were positive over the phone, no one would rent her an apartment once they saw her in person. She explained that a woman from the student housing office had had the audacity to explain to her the way toilets are flushed, "As if my hijab was an anti-intelligence sign," she said. "I spent two days crying."
She called me again at the end of December and told me that she too had taken off the hijab. After the conversation ended, I felt a bit relieved; I had apparently made a wise decision and spared myself pain from the start.
At the same time, I was disappointed. We shouldn't have to hide the fact that we're Muslims in order to be treated like everyone else. In some ways, it's as bad to feel pressure to take off the hijab in the United States as it is to be pressured to keep it on in Baghdad. It's sad that people here do not always accept you for who you are.
For myself, I'm comfortable with my decision. But even today, I sometimes take my hijab out of the closet and place it over my head. It feels strange, not unlike the feeling I had when I was preparing to stop wearing it.
At the same time, when I put it on, I feel at home, as if I wasn't far away. It makes me miss the days when I used to match the color of my hijab with my clothes. The hijab was a part of my identity, a part of who I was, and those memories can't be erased.
Zainab Mineeia worked as a translator and reporter for The Times in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. She is now a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism.
Interview with a Muslim Woman Olympic Athlete
August 15, 2008
By Amal Amireh
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see a woman Olympic athlete?
Here are some of the things that come to my mind:
She's strong. She's disciplined. She's persistent. She's driven. She's beautiful. She's talented. She has good genes. She trains hard. She doesn't blog.
But when it comes to Muslim women who veil, the media seems to be interested only in one thing: the piece of fabric on the woman's head. They want to know if its weight slow down runners; if it blocks the view of archers; if it interferes with the concentration of weight lifters. And let's not forget the color. It must matter!
And they are surprised when they find out that what they're obsessing with is irrelevant. Still, they write the article about the veil, not the woman competing.
I'm always waiting for the Muslim woman athlete who will refuse to talk about her veil and will insist that she be interviewed about her athletic accomplishments. Here's my fantasy interview:
Bob: We are really impressed by your presence here. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?
ToughMuslimCookie: Sure. I'd be happy to answer.
Bob: How long have you been veiling?
TMC: I've been training for 10 years, but the last five years I've been doing it full-time.
Bob: How many hours a day do you wear the veil?
TMC: I train for about six hours every day. I slowed down earlier in the year because of an injury.
Bob: Who helps you put on your veil?
TMC: I have a great coach and she has been instrumental in getting me to Beijing.
Bob: Who decides the color of your veil?
TMC: My parents have been very supportive. In fact, my mother sold her jewelry to get me here.
Bob: Can you talk us through the different ways your government forces you to wear the veil?
TMC: Official support has not been as it should be, but I'm proud to be representing my country.
Bob: Don't you find that the weight of your veil slows you down?
TMC: I have improved a great deal this year and I have high hopes for a good performance.
Bob: Isn't the fabric itchy?
TMC: I'm really itching to compete. I've been waiting a long time for this dream of competing in the Olympics.
Bob: We've noticed that you tie your veil differently from the women on the Iranian team. Is this because you are Sunni?
TMC: I tied with the Iranian competitor once in the Asian games. But since my time has improved.
Bob: This maybe a sensitive question: Don't you worry that your veil might slip down? What will happen then? Can you talk about honor killing? (at this point an advisory: "remove children from room" appears at bottom of the TV screen.)
TMC: I will not slip. I worked on my concentration a lot last year and I'm determined.
Bob: There are concerns by some on the Olympic committee that your veil is soaked in steroids, which then seep into your hair and scalp and give you veil advantage. How do you defend yourself?
TMC: I just follow a healthy diet of home cooking (thanks Mom!) and I don't smoke or drink.
Bob: Some competitors have expressed concern that your veil may interfere with their performance. Can you address their legitimate worries?
TMC: Huh?
Bob: Well, that it may unravel and trip the person on your right, or that it may fly in the Beijing breeze and block the view of the person on your left, or that it will distract as it did when you appeared among the spectators at the USA vs. Belgium beach volleyball game. Kerri and Misty almost lost. What do you explain your distracting presence?
TMC: I don't think the attention distracts me. As I said, I'm focused and determined to do my best. I worked very hard to get here and won't let anything stop me.
Bob: Final question: what thoughts are going through your veil now?
TMC: You don't want to know, Bob
To leave Amal a comment about her article, visit http://www.arabisto.com/p_blogEntry.cfm ... tryID=1191
Amal Amireh was born and raised in El Bireh in Palestine. She received her BA in English Literature from Birzeit University and a PhD in English and American literature from Boston University. Ms. Amireh taught at An Najah National University in Nablus before returning to the US to teach postcolonial literature, cultural studies, and women's studies at George Mason University. She is author of "The Factory Girl and the Seamstress: Imagining Gender and Class in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction" and co-editor of "Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers" and "Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist". Her essay, "Between Complicity and Subversion: Body Politics in the Palestinian National Narrative", won the 2004 Florence Howe Award (given for best article from a feminist perspective). Ms. Amireh's essays and reviews have appeared in several publications; some being translated into Arabic and Hebrew. She is also the author of "Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice", a blog about Arab women, Palestine, and cultural politics.
August 15, 2008
By Amal Amireh
What is the first thing that comes to your mind when you see a woman Olympic athlete?
Here are some of the things that come to my mind:
She's strong. She's disciplined. She's persistent. She's driven. She's beautiful. She's talented. She has good genes. She trains hard. She doesn't blog.
But when it comes to Muslim women who veil, the media seems to be interested only in one thing: the piece of fabric on the woman's head. They want to know if its weight slow down runners; if it blocks the view of archers; if it interferes with the concentration of weight lifters. And let's not forget the color. It must matter!
And they are surprised when they find out that what they're obsessing with is irrelevant. Still, they write the article about the veil, not the woman competing.
I'm always waiting for the Muslim woman athlete who will refuse to talk about her veil and will insist that she be interviewed about her athletic accomplishments. Here's my fantasy interview:
Bob: We are really impressed by your presence here. Do you mind if we ask you a few questions?
ToughMuslimCookie: Sure. I'd be happy to answer.
Bob: How long have you been veiling?
TMC: I've been training for 10 years, but the last five years I've been doing it full-time.
Bob: How many hours a day do you wear the veil?
TMC: I train for about six hours every day. I slowed down earlier in the year because of an injury.
Bob: Who helps you put on your veil?
TMC: I have a great coach and she has been instrumental in getting me to Beijing.
Bob: Who decides the color of your veil?
TMC: My parents have been very supportive. In fact, my mother sold her jewelry to get me here.
Bob: Can you talk us through the different ways your government forces you to wear the veil?
TMC: Official support has not been as it should be, but I'm proud to be representing my country.
Bob: Don't you find that the weight of your veil slows you down?
TMC: I have improved a great deal this year and I have high hopes for a good performance.
Bob: Isn't the fabric itchy?
TMC: I'm really itching to compete. I've been waiting a long time for this dream of competing in the Olympics.
Bob: We've noticed that you tie your veil differently from the women on the Iranian team. Is this because you are Sunni?
TMC: I tied with the Iranian competitor once in the Asian games. But since my time has improved.
Bob: This maybe a sensitive question: Don't you worry that your veil might slip down? What will happen then? Can you talk about honor killing? (at this point an advisory: "remove children from room" appears at bottom of the TV screen.)
TMC: I will not slip. I worked on my concentration a lot last year and I'm determined.
Bob: There are concerns by some on the Olympic committee that your veil is soaked in steroids, which then seep into your hair and scalp and give you veil advantage. How do you defend yourself?
TMC: I just follow a healthy diet of home cooking (thanks Mom!) and I don't smoke or drink.
Bob: Some competitors have expressed concern that your veil may interfere with their performance. Can you address their legitimate worries?
TMC: Huh?
Bob: Well, that it may unravel and trip the person on your right, or that it may fly in the Beijing breeze and block the view of the person on your left, or that it will distract as it did when you appeared among the spectators at the USA vs. Belgium beach volleyball game. Kerri and Misty almost lost. What do you explain your distracting presence?
TMC: I don't think the attention distracts me. As I said, I'm focused and determined to do my best. I worked very hard to get here and won't let anything stop me.
Bob: Final question: what thoughts are going through your veil now?
TMC: You don't want to know, Bob
To leave Amal a comment about her article, visit http://www.arabisto.com/p_blogEntry.cfm ... tryID=1191
Amal Amireh was born and raised in El Bireh in Palestine. She received her BA in English Literature from Birzeit University and a PhD in English and American literature from Boston University. Ms. Amireh taught at An Najah National University in Nablus before returning to the US to teach postcolonial literature, cultural studies, and women's studies at George Mason University. She is author of "The Factory Girl and the Seamstress: Imagining Gender and Class in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction" and co-editor of "Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers" and "Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist". Her essay, "Between Complicity and Subversion: Body Politics in the Palestinian National Narrative", won the 2004 Florence Howe Award (given for best article from a feminist perspective). Ms. Amireh's essays and reviews have appeared in several publications; some being translated into Arabic and Hebrew. She is also the author of "Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice", a blog about Arab women, Palestine, and cultural politics.
hijab
NO MATTER WHAT EVER B THE REASON
THE SHIA RELIGION BELIEVES THAT HIJAB IS IMPORTANT AT ALL OR ANY SITUATION
THOUGH IT WOULD LEAD TO UNSUCCESS...ONE SHOULD ACCEPT THE SAME...SPECIALLY THE WORKING WOMEN
IT IS A WRONG BELIEVE THAT ONE SHOULD FALL BEFORE THE SITUATIONS
ISLAM IS NOT WHT WE OR THE SOCIETY LIKES
IT IS WHT GOD LIKES
N WOMEN ARE LIKE DIAMONDS THEY R TO B PROTECTED AT ALL COST
OR ELSE THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF THEFT
THE BEST EXAMPLE IS THE TIMES OF KARBALA...AFTER 10 DAY
THERE WAS THE FIRST WAR BETWEEN YAZID (GOD THROW HIM INTO HELL)AND BIBI ZAINAB.WAS THAT OF HIJAB ONLY..THOUGH COLD BUT IMPORTANT
IF UR HUSBAND ORDERS U TO REMOVE HIJAB THEN WE R SUPPOSE TO DRESS IN SUCH A MANNER THAT WE DONT LEAD PPL TOWARDS ATTRACTION
OR ELSE IF THIS IS ALSO NOT AGREEABLE TO UR HUSBAND
THEN THE ONLY THING ORDERED IS TO LEAVE UR HUSBAND BUT NOT HIJAB
THE COUNTRY WHICH DOES NOT ALLOW HIJAB ...IT IS PROHIBITED TO VISIT SUCH PLACE AS ACCORDING TO ISLAM
SO PLZ ENLIGHTEN ME WITH UR VIEWS UPON MY COMMENT
AS I AM NOT SO MUCH AWARE ON THIS TOPIC THIS IS WHT I KNOW N BELIEVE
ANY COMMENT WILL B HEARTLY APPRICIATED
RULE IS A RULE...EQUALY BESTOWED UPON...THEY CANT B CHANGED..WHTEVER IT MAY B
THE SHIA RELIGION BELIEVES THAT HIJAB IS IMPORTANT AT ALL OR ANY SITUATION
THOUGH IT WOULD LEAD TO UNSUCCESS...ONE SHOULD ACCEPT THE SAME...SPECIALLY THE WORKING WOMEN
IT IS A WRONG BELIEVE THAT ONE SHOULD FALL BEFORE THE SITUATIONS
ISLAM IS NOT WHT WE OR THE SOCIETY LIKES
IT IS WHT GOD LIKES
N WOMEN ARE LIKE DIAMONDS THEY R TO B PROTECTED AT ALL COST
OR ELSE THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF THEFT
THE BEST EXAMPLE IS THE TIMES OF KARBALA...AFTER 10 DAY
THERE WAS THE FIRST WAR BETWEEN YAZID (GOD THROW HIM INTO HELL)AND BIBI ZAINAB.WAS THAT OF HIJAB ONLY..THOUGH COLD BUT IMPORTANT
IF UR HUSBAND ORDERS U TO REMOVE HIJAB THEN WE R SUPPOSE TO DRESS IN SUCH A MANNER THAT WE DONT LEAD PPL TOWARDS ATTRACTION
OR ELSE IF THIS IS ALSO NOT AGREEABLE TO UR HUSBAND
THEN THE ONLY THING ORDERED IS TO LEAVE UR HUSBAND BUT NOT HIJAB
THE COUNTRY WHICH DOES NOT ALLOW HIJAB ...IT IS PROHIBITED TO VISIT SUCH PLACE AS ACCORDING TO ISLAM
SO PLZ ENLIGHTEN ME WITH UR VIEWS UPON MY COMMENT
AS I AM NOT SO MUCH AWARE ON THIS TOPIC THIS IS WHT I KNOW N BELIEVE
ANY COMMENT WILL B HEARTLY APPRICIATED
RULE IS A RULE...EQUALY BESTOWED UPON...THEY CANT B CHANGED..WHTEVER IT MAY B
Re: hijab
Since there is a wide diversity of beliefs and practices within Islam, you will have to define first which Shias believe in the importance of Hijab and which Islam has the same belief as yours.aeliya wrote:NO MATTER WHAT EVER B THE REASON
THE SHIA RELIGION BELIEVES THAT HIJAB IS IMPORTANT AT ALL OR ANY SITUATION
We promote and respect each person's belief from whatever creed he is but we do not encourage people who preach against the recognition of diversity in Islam.
Admin
To the best of my knowledge Mowla Aly said you are not punished for your sinkmaherali wrote:http://www.latimes.com/news/printeditio ... 5525.story
From the Los Angeles Times
Me without my hijab
Removing my head covering changed how I saw myself and the world.
By Zainab Mineeia
June 8, 2008
When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear.
I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be judged.
Still, I was filled with anxiety. As I flew toward the United States, I wondered how I would feel when the moment came to appear with my head uncovered.
I knew, of course, that most women in the United States didn't cover their heads. Despite that, I worried that my appearance would draw attention. I was going to stand bare in front of everyone. My neck, my hair, the top of my chest would all be exposed. This might (or might not) go unnoticed by others, but I would be keenly aware of it. I didn't know if I was ready to handle this feeling.
When I arrived at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany, at the end of the first leg of my journey, my head was still covered. I let my hair out briefly, but then I covered it again, unsure of myself. I packed the hijab away for good when I arrived at Denver International Airport.
I had talked with my parents about the fact that I might take off the hijab upon my arrival in the States; fortunately they were supportive of the idea. In fact, just a few days before leaving Iraq, I was sitting in the living room with my father.
"My daughter, when you arrive at the Jordanian airport, take your hijab off and fold it in your bag. There is no need to wear it anymore," he said while smoking his cigarette.
I did not comment, nor did I look him in the eye. I was embarrassed and did not want to talk about the subject with him or my mother. I was not used to talking to them about such sensitive, personal subjects. But his words meant a lot to me. Having his blessing was important.
Coming from Iraq, a conservative society in which Islam is the main religion, the hijab was something I had always known. Muslim women begin wearing the hijab at different ages -- some start as young as 8; others start later. Some never wear it at all. We wear it because we are told that it would be a sin not to cover ourselves -- and because we need to be without sin in order to get close to God. Women, we're told, are a source of enticement to men, and we need to be covered so that men won't desire us.
I made the decision to cover my head willingly and without any pressure from my family. My mother and sisters wore it, which made my choice easier. I was 19, and I was becoming more religious in those days and had begun to pray more frequently. I was convinced that it was the right thing to do.
The night before I first wore it to school, I stayed up most of the night. None of my friends knew what I was going to do. I expected it would surprise a lot of people. I was a girl who loved styling my hair and wearing nice things; my friends (many of whom were already wearing the hijab) would know how much I had to give up to wear it.
On the street, I felt a rush of mixed feelings: happiness and shyness, as well as fear that I would regret my decision in the future. But I never thought that taking it off would be an option. Once women wear the hijab, they are not likely to take it off.
These days, the hijab is a controversial subject. Some Muslims argue that it is a must for women, though others think it is not. My friend Dahlia Lamy, for instance, an Iraqi woman I knew in Baghdad who is now studying at Boston University, argues that no verse in the Koran clearly makes the hijab an obligation for women. Lamy is a practicing Muslim, but she believes that most women who wear the hijab have been forced to do so by their fathers and brothers. "I've never worn the hijab, nor do I intend to," she told me. In Turkey -- and even in France -- culture wars have raged over the wearing of the hijab in schools and other places.
The hijab takes different forms. In Iraq, it can be a chest-length veil that is placed around the head and sometimes can connect to a niqab, a cloth that covers the mouth and nose. The wearing of the niqab is not common in Iraq. In Iran and other Persian Gulf countries, women wear an abaya. An abaya is a long black gown that covers the entire body.
My hijab helped me during the rough days after the war began in 2003. It was like a shield, an invisible suit that I always had on when I went out, the suit that kept away the evil eye. It enabled me to keep that all-important low profile.
But even as the hijab kept me safe, it became a burden for many others. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, there was a dramatic increase in the number of women wearing the hijab. Since then, as religious groups have gained more power, it has become dangerous to be spotted without one -- so much so that even Christian women now wear the hijab when they go out. To me, that signified that something was wrong with my country.
The reason I came to the United States was to spend a semester at UC Davis before starting a master's degree program in journalism. I arrived on the flight from Denver in September 2006. It was late at night, and I went immediately to sleep. The next day was my first to go out without the hijab. That morning, I stood in front of the mirror and instead of straightening my hijab, I straightened my hair. It worried me, but I also felt happy.
At first, I looked behind me a lot as I walked down the street, wondering who was looking at me and what they were thinking. But over time, I got used to it. My conscience stopped bothering me, and I became accustomed to being without the hijab in the middle of the day. I remember early on when a woman sipping coffee on her porch said "Good morning" and smiled at me, as if I looked completely normal. That was a peaceful feeling.
For a while, I lived in Davis with another Iraqi woman, who had been wearing the hijab since 2002. When I told her that I had taken off my hijab when I came to the U.S., she was surprised and gave me the look. The look telling me that I had done something wrong. We discussed the issue many times; I felt guilty again and had second thoughts.
After some months, though, she moved to Massachusetts. One day, she called me, and we talked again about her hijab. This time she talked about the discomfort and sometimes even hostility that people seemed to feel when they met her and saw how she was dressed. "They try to hide it, but it's obvious," she said. She said that although real estate agents were positive over the phone, no one would rent her an apartment once they saw her in person. She explained that a woman from the student housing office had had the audacity to explain to her the way toilets are flushed, "As if my hijab was an anti-intelligence sign," she said. "I spent two days crying."
She called me again at the end of December and told me that she too had taken off the hijab. After the conversation ended, I felt a bit relieved; I had apparently made a wise decision and spared myself pain from the start.
At the same time, I was disappointed. We shouldn't have to hide the fact that we're Muslims in order to be treated like everyone else. In some ways, it's as bad to feel pressure to take off the hijab in the United States as it is to be pressured to keep it on in Baghdad. It's sad that people here do not always accept you for who you are.
For myself, I'm comfortable with my decision. But even today, I sometimes take my hijab out of the closet and place it over my head. It feels strange, not unlike the feeling I had when I was preparing to stop wearing it.
At the same time, when I put it on, I feel at home, as if I wasn't far away. It makes me miss the days when I used to match the color of my hijab with my clothes. The hijab was a part of my identity, a part of who I was, and those memories can't be erased.
Zainab Mineeia worked as a translator and reporter for The Times in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. She is now a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism.
You are punished by your sin.
Re: hejab
[quote="Jawad"]Allah says: 'O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) over their bodies (when outdoors). That is most convenient that they should be known and not molested.' (Quran 33:59).
Out of curiosity
Whose translation was this mentioned in?
What is the english transliteration of (Quran 33:59)
Out of curiosity
Whose translation was this mentioned in?
What is the english transliteration of (Quran 33:59)
Pickthall
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.
Yusuf Ali
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Sher Ali
O Prophet! tell thy wives and thy daughters, and the women of the believers, that they should pull down upon them of their outer cloaks from their heads over their faces. That is more likely that they may thus be recognized and not molested. And ALLAH is Most Forgiving, Merciful.
Khalifa
O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the wives of the believers that they shall lengthen their garments. Thus, they will be recognized (as righteous women) and avoid being insulted. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
Arberry
O Prophet, say to thy wives and daughters and the believing women, that they draw their veils close to them; so it is likelier they will be known, and not hurt. God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.
Palmer
O thou prophet! tell thy wives and thy daughters, and the women of the believers, to let down over them their outer wrappers; that is nearer for them to be known and that they should not be annoyed; but God is forgiving, merciful.
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and thy daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks close round them (when they go abroad). That will be better, so that they may be recognised and not annoyed. Allah is ever Forgiving, Merciful.
Yusuf Ali
O Prophet! Tell thy wives and daughters, and the believing women, that they should cast their outer garments over their persons (when abroad): that is most convenient, that they should be known (as such) and not molested. And God is Oft-Forgiving, Most Merciful.
Sher Ali
O Prophet! tell thy wives and thy daughters, and the women of the believers, that they should pull down upon them of their outer cloaks from their heads over their faces. That is more likely that they may thus be recognized and not molested. And ALLAH is Most Forgiving, Merciful.
Khalifa
O prophet, tell your wives, your daughters, and the wives of the believers that they shall lengthen their garments. Thus, they will be recognized (as righteous women) and avoid being insulted. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful.
Arberry
O Prophet, say to thy wives and daughters and the believing women, that they draw their veils close to them; so it is likelier they will be known, and not hurt. God is All-forgiving, All-compassionate.
Palmer
O thou prophet! tell thy wives and thy daughters, and the women of the believers, to let down over them their outer wrappers; that is nearer for them to be known and that they should not be annoyed; but God is forgiving, merciful.
Re: hejab
shamsu wrote:Kmaherali has given us so many translations all speaking the same.Jawad wrote:Allah says: 'O Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (veils) over their bodies (when outdoors). That is most convenient that they should be known and not molested.' (Quran 33:59).
Out of curiosity
Whose translation was this mentioned in?
What is the english transliteration of (Quran 33:59)
The Arabic word used in above verse of Quran for cloaks/outer garments is "jalabeebihinna" which is a cloak one wears over the head cover (similar to abayah).
Re: hejab
I think we have also to keep in mind that there are some verses that are context specific and there are those that are universal. Modesty seems to be the underlying intent behind the verses and this can be expressed in different ways depending upon the cultural context.Jawad wrote: Kmaherali has given us so many translations all speaking the same.
The Arabic word used in above verse of Quran for cloaks/outer garments is "jalabeebihinna" which is a cloak one wears over the head cover (similar to abayah).
For Ismailis, the Farman of the Imam is the ultimate source of guidance. The Imam interprets the Quran for us.
Re: hijab
aeliya wrote:NO MATTER WHAT EVER B THE REASON
THE SHIA RELIGION BELIEVES THAT HIJAB IS IMPORTANT AT ALL OR ANY SITUATION
THOUGH IT WOULD LEAD TO UNSUCCESS...ONE SHOULD ACCEPT THE SAME...SPECIALLY THE WORKING WOMEN
IT IS A WRONG BELIEVE THAT ONE SHOULD FALL BEFORE THE SITUATIONS
ISLAM IS NOT WHT WE OR THE SOCIETY LIKES
IT IS WHT GOD LIKES
N WOMEN ARE LIKE DIAMONDS THEY R TO B PROTECTED AT ALL COST
OR ELSE THERE IS A POSSIBILITY OF THEFT
THE BEST EXAMPLE IS THE TIMES OF KARBALA...AFTER 10 DAY
THERE WAS THE FIRST WAR BETWEEN YAZID (GOD THROW HIM INTO HELL)AND BIBI ZAINAB.WAS THAT OF HIJAB ONLY..THOUGH COLD BUT IMPORTANT
IF UR HUSBAND ORDERS U TO REMOVE HIJAB THEN WE R SUPPOSE TO DRESS IN SUCH A MANNER THAT WE DONT LEAD PPL TOWARDS ATTRACTION
OR ELSE IF THIS IS ALSO NOT AGREEABLE TO UR HUSBAND
THEN THE ONLY THING ORDERED IS TO LEAVE UR HUSBAND BUT NOT HIJAB
THE COUNTRY WHICH DOES NOT ALLOW HIJAB ...IT IS PROHIBITED TO VISIT SUCH PLACE AS ACCORDING TO ISLAM
SO PLZ ENLIGHTEN ME WITH UR VIEWS UPON MY COMMENT
AS I AM NOT SO MUCH AWARE ON THIS TOPIC THIS IS WHT I KNOW N BELIEVE
ANY COMMENT WILL B HEARTLY APPRICIATED
RULE IS A RULE...EQUALY BESTOWED UPON...THEY CANT B CHANGED..WHTEVER IT MAY B
There is no compulsion in Islam - if any rules/requirements are forced upon someone - that is tyranny not religion.
In Ismailism - as Kmaherali has pointed out..we willingly give a 100% of ourselves to the Imam-e-Zamaan and He guides us and interprets the Qu'ran for us.
You mentioned you wanted to learn on this site - don't judge us, don't come with preconceived notions of "true" islam.
We value diversity and plurality and for the most part are very tolerant..however as History will tell you - don't try to shove things down our gullets - it is one thing to share a thought...
In this vein - what do you think of the Saudis and the way they treat their women? is that Islamic? if yes - then why are Iranians and Iraqis different? and if not - what's not islamic about it - i am sure they'll have a few verses of the quran to show you as well?
Shams
Shams
-
From_Alamut
- Posts: 666
- Joined: Tue Jan 22, 2008 8:22 am
Hajib and the West country
Ya Ali Madad and as salam alaykum
Its apart of East culture of one wants to wear Hijab. East side has their own culture and West side has their own. It is very difficult for a Eastern to wear Hijab in West and a Western in Eastern. Of course, all Easterners when they used to live in East countries were always wearing Hajibs due to their culture. The Western culture always changed due to their moods and styles. When I was in high school, there was two Itnashri women in my English class in Canada. They both used to be so close friends and also with one Sunni girl. The Sunni girl and one of the Itnashri girl were covering up and was wearing Hajibs, but the other Itnashri girl was not. She was wearing normal clothes like everybody does in town of Canada and in school. The both girls who covered up started hating her and discontinued their friendship with her for not wearing Hajib. Then one day, they were having arguments in class, The Itnashri girl without Hajib said to the two covered, "This clothes I wear is like every bodies who wear in town, school and work, there is nothing wrong but it is just the Western culture. I wear this clothes in the name of Allah from pure heart, not to do harm. It is better to cover your Heart and have faith in Allah then you cover your face. She stopped and took a breath, she spoke the last words and never talk to them again. "You know, I know a lot of girls who cover but they do a lot of dirty things, so do not mention me to wear Hajibs any more."
Its apart of East culture of one wants to wear Hijab. East side has their own culture and West side has their own. It is very difficult for a Eastern to wear Hijab in West and a Western in Eastern. Of course, all Easterners when they used to live in East countries were always wearing Hajibs due to their culture. The Western culture always changed due to their moods and styles. When I was in high school, there was two Itnashri women in my English class in Canada. They both used to be so close friends and also with one Sunni girl. The Sunni girl and one of the Itnashri girl were covering up and was wearing Hajibs, but the other Itnashri girl was not. She was wearing normal clothes like everybody does in town of Canada and in school. The both girls who covered up started hating her and discontinued their friendship with her for not wearing Hajib. Then one day, they were having arguments in class, The Itnashri girl without Hajib said to the two covered, "This clothes I wear is like every bodies who wear in town, school and work, there is nothing wrong but it is just the Western culture. I wear this clothes in the name of Allah from pure heart, not to do harm. It is better to cover your Heart and have faith in Allah then you cover your face. She stopped and took a breath, she spoke the last words and never talk to them again. "You know, I know a lot of girls who cover but they do a lot of dirty things, so do not mention me to wear Hajibs any more."
Re: hejab
That is true, but the Quran is also open to a variety of interpretations and no one interpretation can be considered as the only correct one....Jawad wrote: True for you... and For Muslims Quran the Word of Allah is the ultimate source of guidance.
"This programme is also an opportunity for achieving insights into how the discourse of the Qur’an-e-Sharif, rich in parable and allegory, metaphor and symbol, has been an inexhaustible well-spring of inspiration, lending itself to a wide spectrum of interpretations. This freedom of interpretation is a generosity which the Qur'an confers upon all believers, uniting them in the conviction that All-Merciful Allah will forgive them if they err in their sincere attempts to understand His word. Happily, as a result, the Holy Book continues to guide and illuminate the thought and conduct of Muslims belonging to different communities of interpretation and spiritual affiliation, from century to century, in diverse cultural environments. The Noble Qur’an extends its principle of pluralism also to adherents of other faiths. It affirms that each has a direction and path to which they turn so that all should strive for good works, in the belief that, wheresoever they may be, Allah will bring them together."
(Excerpt from MHI's speech at 'Word of God, Art of Man: The Qur’an and its Creative Expressions’, An International Colloquium organised by
The Institute of Ismaili Studies, The Ismaili Centre, London, October 19, 2003)
http://www.beliefnet.com/story/235/story_23511.html
Your Hijab Questions Answered
What do you want to know about the way Muslim women dress, the headscarf, and the hijab? Beliefnet answers your questions here.
By Dilshad D. Ali
Islam Editor
The hijab, or headscarf, is one of the most noticeable and misunderstood badges of Muslim women. But there’s much more to the Islamic dress code for women than the hijab. It’s a total package that deals with clothing, behavior, and demeanor. For some hijab means pairing a headscarf with Western-style clothes. For others it means wearing loose robes as well. Still others add a niqab, or face veil, to their ensembles.
What do Islam and the Qur’an exactly say about modest clothing for women? What does Islamic dress exactly entail? Why do some Muslim women cover up while others don’t? Are there any dress requirements for Muslim men? Check out our Muslim clothing FAQs for the answers to your burning questions.
What is hijab?
The word "hijab" comes from the Arabic "hajaba," which means to conceal or hide from view. In general terms, it refers to Islamic modest dressing for women. But it has come to signify the headscarf, which is the covering many Muslim women use to hide their hair, neck, and often bosom.
What does Islamic dress for women exactly entail?
Islam has no fixed uniform of dress for Muslim women. But there are two requirements, which come from the Qur’an and hadith (verified sayings of the Prophet Muhammad): First, a woman’s body should be covered such that only her face, hands, and feet are revealed. Secondly, the clothing must be loose enough so that the shape of a woman’s body is not visible.
Other parameters (as stated in hadiths) are that women shouldn’t dress so as to look like men, women shouldn’t dress in a way similar to those who don’t believe in God, and the clothing should be modest, neither ragged nor overly fancy.
It is important to remember that Islam teaches Muslims that the concept of modest dress doesn’t just mean covering the body, but it also has to do with behaviors, manners, speech, and public appearance. Modesty is a total package, with dress being one part of it.
Why is covering the head important?
Strictly speaking, covering the hair is just one part of a Muslim woman’s dress. Covering all other parts of the body (except for the face, hands, and feet) is also important. But as women around the world adapt Islamic dressing to the fashions of their country, more and more it is the hijab, or headscarf, that is constant and marks a woman as a Muslim.
Is covering up mandated by the Qur’an?
Hijab and modest dressing is mandated in the Qur’an, though some Muslims argue that it is not a strict requirement but merely a strong suggestion (that is open to individual interpretation. A few passages in the Qur’an refer to an Islamic dress code:
"Say to the believing man that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments ..." (Qur'an 24:30-31)
This verse highlights three points: That a woman shouldn’t show her beauty except when faced with uncontrolled factors, like the wind blowing her clothes; that the headscarf should cover the hair, neck, and the bosom; and that women need not cover up in front of certain men (husbands, fathers, sons, etc.).
Further hadiths give other details. One of the most quoted is the following:
“Ayesha reported that Asmaa, the daughter of Abu Bakr came to the Messenger of Allah (SWT) while wearing thin clothing. He approached her and said, ‘O Asmaa! When a girl reaches the menstrual age, it is not proper that anything should remain exposed except this and this.’ He pointed to the face and hands.” (Abu Dawood)
Why do women choose to cover themselves or wear the hijab?
This is an intensely personal decision. Of course not all Muslim women follow these rules of modest dressing. Some adapt these rules to modern times (like wearing a headscarf over Western-style clothing that still covers the body). Some women argue that modesty is a state of mind and has nothing to do with clothing. Still others say that what is written in the Qur’an and in hadiths cannot be denied--that Muslim women must cover up.
Those who choose to follow Islamic dress codes do so for myriad reasons: They feel compelled to honor what the Qur’an asks of them. Or they feel covering up will identify them to the world as a Muslim woman. Or they feel that covering up will give them safety and the liberty to move about freely. Still others say that covering up and downplaying their physical beauty allows them to be appreciated for their mind, not their body. And for some women, it’s not a choice. Some Muslim countries (like Saudi Arabia) require Muslim women to cover up. And many families around the world insist that their women follow the code of Islamic dress.
Why do some Muslim women cover completely and others just cover their hair?
Muslim women make choices when it comes to Islamic dress. Some girls, perhaps in copying their mothers, cover from a very young age (though a girl is required to cover up when they hit puberty). Other women begin covering later in life. Some don’t ever cover their hair. Many Muslim women in North America adapt Western fashions to Islamic dress by wearing a headscarf over long-sleeve tops and pants or jeans. Other women, keeping in mind the requirement that Islamic dress should be loose, choose to wear robes over their clothes that hide the shape of their body. At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal choice.
Why do some Muslim women not cover at all?
Again, the decision to cover or not is a personal one. Some who don’t cover their hair or expose other parts of their body (or wear tight clothing) argue that modesty is an inner quality that has nothing to do with clothes. Other women argue that the requirements of Islamic dress as stated in the Qur’an and hadith must be adapted for modern times. They say that now, especially in Western countries where so many women don’t cover, practicing Islamic dress draws attention to a woman instead of deflecting attention away.
What is the penalty for not adhering to Muslim dress?
There is no Qur’anic penalty for not adhering to Muslim dress. But some hadiths describe the Prophet Muhammad as saying that if a woman doesn’t follow the rules of Islamic dress, her place in paradise, along with her husband’s, father’s' and sons’ places in paradise, will be jeopardized. And when it comes to the Qur’an, strict Muslims believe that if it’s written in the holy book, it must be followed.
Does it get hot, covering everything up?
Speaking as someone who wears the hijab (though I don’t wear robes over my clothes), it does get hot sometimes, especially on a very hot, humid day. I usually feel the heat the most on my neck under my scarf. But a person can get used to anything. And I’m so used to wearing long sleeves, long pants, or skirts and a headscarf that I don’t feel the heat as much as when I first starting wearing hijab three years ago. In fact my headscarf and full-coverage clothing often protect me from the sun and make me feel cooler than when I’m at home, wearing whatever I want, and exposed to the heat of summer. And I must say, wearing the headscarf has saved me from many a bad hair day (though that’s not why I wear it!)
Are there Islamic modesty requirements for men?
In Islam, men and women are required to control their desires. They must avoid being alone with members of the opposite sex outside of marriage (or close family). Men are allowed to expose more of their body but are encouraged by Muslim scripture to cover up and avoid tight clothing. During prayer, they must be covered from the naval to their knees.
Once they put it on, do women ever take off the hijab?
Yes, some women do take off the hijab for a variety of reasons. Just because a woman decide to adhere to the Islamic dress code for modesty doesn’t mean a she maintains that clothing for the rest her life. This decision to de-jab ( slang for taking off the hijab) often coincides with a a major life change, like moving to a new city. Read this essay from one woman who took off her hijab to learn more.
Dilshad D. Ali is an editor at Beliefnet.com.
Your Hijab Questions Answered
What do you want to know about the way Muslim women dress, the headscarf, and the hijab? Beliefnet answers your questions here.
By Dilshad D. Ali
Islam Editor
The hijab, or headscarf, is one of the most noticeable and misunderstood badges of Muslim women. But there’s much more to the Islamic dress code for women than the hijab. It’s a total package that deals with clothing, behavior, and demeanor. For some hijab means pairing a headscarf with Western-style clothes. For others it means wearing loose robes as well. Still others add a niqab, or face veil, to their ensembles.
What do Islam and the Qur’an exactly say about modest clothing for women? What does Islamic dress exactly entail? Why do some Muslim women cover up while others don’t? Are there any dress requirements for Muslim men? Check out our Muslim clothing FAQs for the answers to your burning questions.
What is hijab?
The word "hijab" comes from the Arabic "hajaba," which means to conceal or hide from view. In general terms, it refers to Islamic modest dressing for women. But it has come to signify the headscarf, which is the covering many Muslim women use to hide their hair, neck, and often bosom.
What does Islamic dress for women exactly entail?
Islam has no fixed uniform of dress for Muslim women. But there are two requirements, which come from the Qur’an and hadith (verified sayings of the Prophet Muhammad): First, a woman’s body should be covered such that only her face, hands, and feet are revealed. Secondly, the clothing must be loose enough so that the shape of a woman’s body is not visible.
Other parameters (as stated in hadiths) are that women shouldn’t dress so as to look like men, women shouldn’t dress in a way similar to those who don’t believe in God, and the clothing should be modest, neither ragged nor overly fancy.
It is important to remember that Islam teaches Muslims that the concept of modest dress doesn’t just mean covering the body, but it also has to do with behaviors, manners, speech, and public appearance. Modesty is a total package, with dress being one part of it.
Why is covering the head important?
Strictly speaking, covering the hair is just one part of a Muslim woman’s dress. Covering all other parts of the body (except for the face, hands, and feet) is also important. But as women around the world adapt Islamic dressing to the fashions of their country, more and more it is the hijab, or headscarf, that is constant and marks a woman as a Muslim.
Is covering up mandated by the Qur’an?
Hijab and modest dressing is mandated in the Qur’an, though some Muslims argue that it is not a strict requirement but merely a strong suggestion (that is open to individual interpretation. A few passages in the Qur’an refer to an Islamic dress code:
"Say to the believing man that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them; and Allah is well acquainted with all that they do. And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; and that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands, their fathers, their husbands' fathers, their sons, their husbands' sons, their brothers or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or the slaves whom their right hands possess, or male servants free of physical needs, or small children who have no sense of the shame of sex; and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments ..." (Qur'an 24:30-31)
This verse highlights three points: That a woman shouldn’t show her beauty except when faced with uncontrolled factors, like the wind blowing her clothes; that the headscarf should cover the hair, neck, and the bosom; and that women need not cover up in front of certain men (husbands, fathers, sons, etc.).
Further hadiths give other details. One of the most quoted is the following:
“Ayesha reported that Asmaa, the daughter of Abu Bakr came to the Messenger of Allah (SWT) while wearing thin clothing. He approached her and said, ‘O Asmaa! When a girl reaches the menstrual age, it is not proper that anything should remain exposed except this and this.’ He pointed to the face and hands.” (Abu Dawood)
Why do women choose to cover themselves or wear the hijab?
This is an intensely personal decision. Of course not all Muslim women follow these rules of modest dressing. Some adapt these rules to modern times (like wearing a headscarf over Western-style clothing that still covers the body). Some women argue that modesty is a state of mind and has nothing to do with clothing. Still others say that what is written in the Qur’an and in hadiths cannot be denied--that Muslim women must cover up.
Those who choose to follow Islamic dress codes do so for myriad reasons: They feel compelled to honor what the Qur’an asks of them. Or they feel covering up will identify them to the world as a Muslim woman. Or they feel that covering up will give them safety and the liberty to move about freely. Still others say that covering up and downplaying their physical beauty allows them to be appreciated for their mind, not their body. And for some women, it’s not a choice. Some Muslim countries (like Saudi Arabia) require Muslim women to cover up. And many families around the world insist that their women follow the code of Islamic dress.
Why do some Muslim women cover completely and others just cover their hair?
Muslim women make choices when it comes to Islamic dress. Some girls, perhaps in copying their mothers, cover from a very young age (though a girl is required to cover up when they hit puberty). Other women begin covering later in life. Some don’t ever cover their hair. Many Muslim women in North America adapt Western fashions to Islamic dress by wearing a headscarf over long-sleeve tops and pants or jeans. Other women, keeping in mind the requirement that Islamic dress should be loose, choose to wear robes over their clothes that hide the shape of their body. At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal choice.
Why do some Muslim women not cover at all?
Again, the decision to cover or not is a personal one. Some who don’t cover their hair or expose other parts of their body (or wear tight clothing) argue that modesty is an inner quality that has nothing to do with clothes. Other women argue that the requirements of Islamic dress as stated in the Qur’an and hadith must be adapted for modern times. They say that now, especially in Western countries where so many women don’t cover, practicing Islamic dress draws attention to a woman instead of deflecting attention away.
What is the penalty for not adhering to Muslim dress?
There is no Qur’anic penalty for not adhering to Muslim dress. But some hadiths describe the Prophet Muhammad as saying that if a woman doesn’t follow the rules of Islamic dress, her place in paradise, along with her husband’s, father’s' and sons’ places in paradise, will be jeopardized. And when it comes to the Qur’an, strict Muslims believe that if it’s written in the holy book, it must be followed.
Does it get hot, covering everything up?
Speaking as someone who wears the hijab (though I don’t wear robes over my clothes), it does get hot sometimes, especially on a very hot, humid day. I usually feel the heat the most on my neck under my scarf. But a person can get used to anything. And I’m so used to wearing long sleeves, long pants, or skirts and a headscarf that I don’t feel the heat as much as when I first starting wearing hijab three years ago. In fact my headscarf and full-coverage clothing often protect me from the sun and make me feel cooler than when I’m at home, wearing whatever I want, and exposed to the heat of summer. And I must say, wearing the headscarf has saved me from many a bad hair day (though that’s not why I wear it!)
Are there Islamic modesty requirements for men?
In Islam, men and women are required to control their desires. They must avoid being alone with members of the opposite sex outside of marriage (or close family). Men are allowed to expose more of their body but are encouraged by Muslim scripture to cover up and avoid tight clothing. During prayer, they must be covered from the naval to their knees.
Once they put it on, do women ever take off the hijab?
Yes, some women do take off the hijab for a variety of reasons. Just because a woman decide to adhere to the Islamic dress code for modesty doesn’t mean a she maintains that clothing for the rest her life. This decision to de-jab ( slang for taking off the hijab) often coincides with a a major life change, like moving to a new city. Read this essay from one woman who took off her hijab to learn more.
Dilshad D. Ali is an editor at Beliefnet.com.
Egypt minister says no to face veil
20 Nov 2008, 1839 hrs IST, AFP
CAIRO: The Egyptian ministry for religious endowments has weighed into the debate on whether a Muslim woman should wear a face veil with a book arguing that it is not Islamic, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The independent daily Al-Masry al-Yom published extracts of the book, entitled "The veil is a custom, not worship" by Religious Endowments Minister Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq, which the ministry will distribute to mosques.
"I will absolutely not allow the spread of the niqab (the face veil) culture in Egypt," the newspaper quoted the minister as saying.
The face veil has always been a topic of debate between Sunni schools of jurisprudence — and even within individual schools — with the majority saying the practice is unnecessary.
However, all schools agree that a woman must cover everything but her face and hands.
Zaqzuq's book cites rulings by the mufti of Egypt, the head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University and others in which they said the face veil has no basis in the Koran or hadith — the traditions and sayings of Prophet Mohammed.
In modern day Egypt, the veil is often associated with followers of the Salafi school of thought, the dominant interpretation of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry had earlier announced it would publish books countering Salafism and distribute them to mosques.
20 Nov 2008, 1839 hrs IST, AFP
CAIRO: The Egyptian ministry for religious endowments has weighed into the debate on whether a Muslim woman should wear a face veil with a book arguing that it is not Islamic, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
The independent daily Al-Masry al-Yom published extracts of the book, entitled "The veil is a custom, not worship" by Religious Endowments Minister Mahmud Hamdi Zaqzuq, which the ministry will distribute to mosques.
"I will absolutely not allow the spread of the niqab (the face veil) culture in Egypt," the newspaper quoted the minister as saying.
The face veil has always been a topic of debate between Sunni schools of jurisprudence — and even within individual schools — with the majority saying the practice is unnecessary.
However, all schools agree that a woman must cover everything but her face and hands.
Zaqzuq's book cites rulings by the mufti of Egypt, the head of the Islamic Al-Azhar University and others in which they said the face veil has no basis in the Koran or hadith — the traditions and sayings of Prophet Mohammed.
In modern day Egypt, the veil is often associated with followers of the Salafi school of thought, the dominant interpretation of Islam in Saudi Arabia.
The ministry had earlier announced it would publish books countering Salafism and distribute them to mosques.