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Many people ask me what I think about the niqab and what I think about France's new policies that make it very difficult for Muslim women that want to cover.
Fortunately there is a wonderful article by Sister Naima Robert, founder of SISTERS magazine, that pretty much sums up my opinion about the topic. I beseech you, read the full article.
Below are a few snippets that conveyed great truth, great logic, and carried quite a POW!:
"Wearing my niqab is a choice freely made, for spiritual reasons"
"Yes, I cover my face, but I am still of this society"
"I refuse to allow those who cannot know my reality to paint me as a cardboard cut-out, an oppressed, submissive, silenced relic of the Dark Ages. I am not a stereotype and, God willing, I never will be."
"Never mind that I am, in every other respect, an upstanding citizen who works hard as a mother, author and magazine publisher, spends responsibly, recycles and tries to eat seasonally and buy local produce!"
"But the debate rages on, ironically, largely to the exclusion of the women who actually do cover their faces."
"Don't the French have anything better to do than tell Muslim women how to dress?"
" All women, covered or not, deserve the opportunity to dress as they see fit, to be educated, to work where they deem appropriate and run their lives in accordance with their principles, as long as these choices do not impinge on others' freedoms"
" I have been able to study, to work, to establish a writing career and run a magazine business, all while wearing a niqaab. "
"Go out to brave the scorn and ridicule of those who think they understand the burka better than those who actually wear it."
Ameen, Sister Naima, Ameen!
Comments
The niqab
-- hinders communication between the wearer and the rest of society
-- sets Moslems apart from the rest of society
-- prevents identification in public
-- indicates a strong affiliation with the supremacist ideology of Islam which includes subordination of women and hostility toward non-Moslems and a whole host of other barbarities required by Shariah.
The fact that Sister Naima has a writing career and runs a magazine business is irrelevant. Women wearing their burka tents in Saudi Arabia have careers, too.
Oh, pishtosh! Here we go again, a man, Abdulameer, telling a woman that she is being oppressed and subordinated. Doesn't he realize what a sexist donkey he is being?? It's sexist to believe that woman don't realize (or are too stupid to know) that they are being treated unjustly.
Sorry, 'brother', but you seriously don't know what you are talking about.
If the niqab hinders communication, so do sunglasses, and flu masks, and chewing gum. Get the heck OVER IT. So it makes it a little more difficult, obviously it's worth the trouble for the women who do it, OR THEY WOULDN'T DO IT! The good must outweigh the bad.
You not liking the niqab on women is about you. It is a personal problem and Sister Naima, nor I, give a hot dam!
Choice is a good thing.
Salaam,
I would love to read the article, but the link is not working!
Try it now, inshaAllah.
And I'll go ahead and send you the link in an email, Joliba.
I don't wear niqab and don't think I ever will. But even before I donned the hijab I thought it completely ludicrous how the people who called for the removal of niqab and hijab were people who DIDN'T WEAR IT! Hey guys maybe I WANT to hinder your ability to talk to me becasue frankly I am a queen and you have not learned yet how to address me properly so until you can approach me with the regal respect that is due all women I'll wear what I want, when I want and cover as much as I want and you need to keep your laws and feigned concern off my effing body thank you very much, good day!
By the way "Abdulameer" nice try using a name that sounds Arabic but next time you wanna pretend to be Muslim, spell "Muslim" correctly and don't show how ignorant you are about Islamic law by using examples such as your last point against the niqab. The face veil is not required but my sister should still be able to wear it if she so chooses, just like you wear ignorance with a badge of pride :)
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