From BBC Channel 4 comes a Christmas message that could do with a little more analysis and less taking the thing at face value.
Veiled British Muslim woman delivers alternative Xmas message
At the same time the 80-year-old monarch’s Christmas message to Britain and the Commonwealth was broadcast, a woman known only as Khadijah spoke on Channel 4 television Monday about why she wore the niqab in public and called for tolerance.
“We are seen as oppressed. Since I’ve started covering I feel much more liberated, which I know a lot of people possibly won’t be able to understand,” she said.
“I don’t wear the niqab to separate myself from society. I want to be part of this society — this is where I choose to live. I hope that society is more accepting of my personal choice. It’s not about separation.”
OK, so we have a purported “Muslim” women claiming she loves to be covered in the black tent she walks around in. She claims it’s “liberating”.
At first blush (not that you could see her blush, mind you) one would see this as an affirmation of religious choice. Why, those Muslim women love their traditional dress, you’d think. We should ease off this hateful, western bias against the veil or the hajib. It must be that all our assumptions of the oppressiveness of Muslim female coverings is wrong.
But wait. One small section of the AFP story makes the entire thing a lie…
Khadijah — who converted to Islam a decade ago and said she is the great-granddaughter of a suffragette who fought for women’s right to vote — said Straw’s comments were not helpful.
This is no “Muslim” woman, but a white woman who willingly converted. And what we have here is a person who is striving to out Muslim the REAL Muslims. A nuevo Muslim attempting at zealotry trying to be accepted by people who will never accept her. A white person “gone native”, as the saying used to go.
One can never take the word of an activist convert for much of anything because all too often they are extremists. They usually have certain mental problems and emotional voids that they fill with a new thing, something that becomes their entire life, something that is often even more than a passion. Usually more an obsession than a conviction or belief.
So, this claim of Muslims loving the veil is not from a woman who has spent her life covered from head to foot. This is not a woman who’s mother was beaten by her Muslim Father. This is not a woman who was raped by her Muslim Uncle and warned to never tell anyone. This is not a woman who has lived with all the women around her beaten, mistreated and oppressed her whole life. This is a woman who only recently became a Muslim and is suddenly enamored with her interesting, new world.
This is not a woman who’s voice comes from the experience of the Muslim world, but an outsider trying to convince herself that she is a “true” Muslim.
This woman’s “message” is misleading and should be ignored. She does NOT represent the average Muslim woman and should not be treated as if she does.
2 users commented in " Muslim Woman Love Their Veil? "
Follow-up comment rss or Leave a TrackbackRather than Khadijah, it is Todd Hustons message that should be ignored as it is steeped with complete ignorance of Islam itself. A convert to Islam is every bit as much a Muslim as a person born into a Muslim family. In many cases, they are far more knowledgable and dedicated to their faith too. I am a muslim woman who was born into a Muslim family, to parents who were born and raised in a Muslim country, and I do not even wear a niqab. However I completely agree with and support Khadijah, and like any other Muslim worth the name would, consider her a sister a faith.
Todds idiotic little rant about “this is not a woman raped and beaten by uncles and fathers” is so laughable and utterly ridiculous a description of what he feels a “true” Muslim woman is, that I am shocked and appalled it was printed on the site. Is that his idea of what it means to be a Muslim woman? Please get a clue Todd, the rubbish you came out with just shows you up as being narrow minded and prejudiced.
Muslim women aren’t by default voiceless, exploited spectres who are raped, beaten and threatened by the men in their lives. Khadijah proved that and so you would happily say she should be ignored as she isn’t a true Muslim? Yes, maybe the world should rely on a non-muslim man to tell them what a true Muslim woman is like.
My mother, grandmother, aunts were all born Muslims and they love their religion. My mother enjoyed wearing the niqab in the country of birth and to her as a young girl she and her friends saw it in their country as a sign of being honorable and grown up, a sign of being a woman. They donned it with pride and liked the anonymity it gave them to go about their business, go shopping in busy bazaars or to visit friends and relatives without unwanted attention and whilst being recognised as honorable decent women.
Thousands of Muslims girls in this country who have been brought up wearing the veil love it, and even those who were not brought up wearing it start wearing it once they establish their own sense of faith and identity as a Muslim. FACE IT, we feel empowered by our religion and we love it. That is why we go out on the streets in force to demonstrate and show the world we are not oppressed, we have a voice, and we we speak out in defence of our religion and our religious practices.
When France banned the hijaab thousands of Muslims in the UK went to Knightsbridge to demonstrate against it and declare that we love our hijaab, we love our niqabs, we love our jilbabs. To us they are a fundamental part of our faith, of who we are, what we believe in, how we live. We love the diversity in our community and respect each others faith, that is why I can wear a jilbab and hijaab but not a niqaab, but still fully support and be ready to speak out for my sisters in faith who do wear a niqab and choose to cover their faces too. It is part of their own spiritual and religious development and dedication and I fully respect that. You however seem to simply not understand or want to understand.
You don’t give Khadiahs words even an ounce of respect but search for a pathetic reason to completely ignore them. You are only prepared to listen to women who will reinforce your narrow minded view of us as beaten bullied helpless women who must run from our fathers/uncles/husbands/religions oppression into the arms of western secularism. What a joke.
You can tell yourself whatever you like. But the sheer number of Muslim women in the UK and in other Western countries who choose to and fight for the right to wear hijab and niqab shows that you are wrong in your false ignorant assumptions about us and our religion.
Take it from a convert like Khadijah and a born Muslim like me: We love our VEILS.
I do agree to the fact that Muslim women do LOVE thier hijab…Let me start explaining my experience.
I am a software Engineer. born and brought up in a liberal family in India. i have no sister. so was not able to really understand deeply how an young girl will be getting raised in a Muslim family. Before getting married I did all the “Haram” things which a normal muslim will do.. may allah forgive me for those sins….I can call my bachelor life as an “Animal” ..nothing less….my wife was also born and brought up in a liberal family. but was not like the animal character like me..
After getting married. my wife started wearing hijab. she will select a mufta which will show only her face . one thing which I can say is she selects one mufta which will match to the color of the dress and not always black color.
I never told her to wear that, but she wears that. one day we were in a hurry to go out .. she was running for a mufta to wear .. from her expression I really understood that even if I tell her not to wear that, she will wear mufta…recently, her sister wore a mufta on the marriage ceremoney which normally muslims girls will not do on the day of marriage and even my wife didn’t do that on the day of our marriage..I atleast understand that the women in my family is not forced to wear the hijab but men were accepted to the fact that women in my family WILL WEAR HIJAB even if they object…
further to this, I never objected for her wearing the hijab and never wanted to go against her interest for wearing the modest dress which Allah likes..
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