Hijab @ MindSay 
“O ye who believe! If ye obey the Unbelievers, They will drive you back On your heels, and ye Will turn back (from Faith) To your own loss.” (Surah 3, Ayah 149)
Why is it that Pakistanis allow themselves to be so intensely masked in Western Propaganda? Is it genuinely believed that following the Westerners is going to lead them into accepting us on the same parallel as other Western nations? Why is the example of Turkey not flagged on our faces – where despite its change of state religion to secularism it fails to be part of the European Union? Why is it that our private sectors have enough money to fund useless “model hunts” such as “Funk Asia”, but cannot scoop up sufficient wealth to finance university programs or “educational talent hunts” where the less privileged can be funded to acquire quality education? Yet, we refuse to engross ourselves in work more productive and strive only to represent ourselves by wasteful means such as music and leisure. We have sadly reduced ourselves to mere entertainers – our talented halves indulging time and energy into raising our fashion dogmas to a higher platform; rather than exerting the vigor into raising our religious creed to a much more accepted level. The more influential individuals of our society abuse multiple media – using it for purposes that are not any where near to beneficial – subconsciously moulding the more impressionable ones into sad clones of wannabe westerners. More over, it is really disappointing to see that no quality institution has been established over the past fifty nine years of Pakistan’s existence – with the exception of a few notable ones. But they too only accommodate a very limited number of courses and have room for only a certain number of students. There are people deprived of their choice of curriculums in college – such as liberal arts – since decent colleges in Pakistan offer only traditional degrees such as Medicine, Engineering, and Business Administration etc. Financial and personal constraints disallow many of our students to go abroad for education and the disheartening series of conventional education we receive here produces duplicates of the same capabilities, refusing to enhance the exceptionally talented amongst us. Feudal lords still dominate much of our political scene – we have no real leaders to represent us. None. We are constantly thrust with recurring succession of military dictators – who I may add, are instruments of the Western World. Our roads are bombarded with under-aged drivers, unlicensed drivers, deformed beggars, man holes, sewage water. Our sidewalks are lined with drug addicts, garbage, and scantily dressed models attempting to sell luxurious products in a country where more than half the population is deprived of even the most basic of commodities. And how does our youth respond to this injustice inflicted on them? For one thing, they do not even realize they are being deprived of cultured subsistence as they take into flow the ridiculous productions aired on “Pakistani, Dubai-based” channels. We attend social welfare societies and charitable associations just to score a few good words on college applications, while most of our energy is converged into organizing silly extravaganzas such as concerts and attempts to enter national television. While I am not completely discrediting people who are working to make a difference, it is just extremely evident that they remain to be only a minor portion of society and most of them are influenced by the new secularism of the western world. If the west can institute convent schools, why can’t we fuse Islamic teachings with the normal curriculum? Why are such substandard books used for Islamiat while subjects such as Science and English Literature are grilled with the best of writers? No one ever gives a thought to issues like these, mainly because the people, in our community, blessed with the capability to think either reside abroad or are too busy scraping up a decent income to provide for their families. Conclusively, why did the United States consider the Soviet Union and its communist self to be a hateful atheistic mist on the eastern half, when in reality Communism is not an ideology deprived of religion; and when today the United States itself is such an atheistic regime trying to liberate other countries of state religions. And while we can be considered America’s “Most favored nation”, we will never be preferred over India, so maybe it is about time we stopped feeling insecure about being “bombed back to the stone-age” and adhered to our own principles than scuttling after those of others
Throughout my whole life I had always thought that traveling to do different countries would make one more accepting of the different practices and perspectives that come from cultures of the countries being visited. With this assumption in my mind, I thought that my being in Jordan would make me more accepting of the different cultural practices of the Arab, and the Arab Muslim, world. While this is certainly the case for most of the beliefs and practices of the region, there is one practice that I have actually become less accepting of since I have arrived in Jordan: the act of women wearing either a hijab or an abayah.
Before coming to Jordan, I knew of the view point that wearing an abayah or a hijab was actually more liberating for women as it prevented them from being viewed more as equals and humans as they were prevented from being viewed as sexual objects, and while I vehemently disagreed with this viewpoint I still accepted it as legitimate. Now though that is longer the case.
After having watched an interview on Al-Jazeera today though, I can not believe that these two articles of clothing can in any way be liberating. What was so poignant and thought provoking about the interview was the person being interviewed, a woman fully covered by an abayah who was discussing why woman should wear; however, it was not the words of the women that made me think about this issue so critically, but rather it was the fact that this was the first time I had ever seen [someone] who had her face covered speak and voice her opinion. The combination of these two things, a covered face and an opinionated woman, showed how inherently incompatible they are. The sight was a paradox. Instead of looking like a woman with an opinion, the interviewee did not even appear as though she was a person. The recognition of this fact caused me to realize how asinine [the] reasoning for the defense of the hijab and abayah were. For how can a woman be empowered by a line of thinking that says the only way to for her to be viewed as person and not a sexual being is to hide herself from the world?
Gender inequality is an inherent, unspoken assumption in this line of thinking, no matter how well intentioned some males may be, as it says that males do not need hide their identities to prevent themselves from being viewed as objects, but women do. It does not matter if women are voicing their opinions on Al-Jazeera or in the government; it does not matter what the reasons are that women wear these types of clothing; as long as they wear either hijabs or abayahs, women can never be viewed as equals in the Muslim world.
Last night I did not have much homework and was able to hang out with my brothers and their friends, a mix of both males and females. During this time, the conversations I engaged in gave me some very interesting remarks from my host brothers and their friends regarding their opinions about their culture. For example, while watching Rotana, the most popular music video channel in the Arab world, I saw a video of a live performance where the singer was dressed quite provocatively, even by the standards of Brittney Spears; however, having lived in Jordan for nearly two months now, I was not surprised by this sight as I have realized that the country is much more Westernized than I would ever have believed. Rather, the surprising, if not confusing, part of the video was the fact that the people cheering in the audience of the video were not only teenagers dressed in a Western fashion but also teenage girls wearing hijabs. Seeing this on the TV, I could not understand why these girls would be cheering for someone who, on the surface, did not appear to represent and respect the values that they cherished and believed in.
My brother tried to sort out my confused state by explaining that a woman wearing a hijab is not necessarily very religious or conservative. Instead they may be doing it out of habit or lack of choice. For example, after having worn it for so many years because of perhaps the rules of her family, a girl might just feel weird not having her head covered. In reality, this piece of clothing is still very pervasive in the culture, and not wearing can seem very weird to girls and women. Surprisingly, my brother also said many females wear it as a way to prevent men from approaching them. Others do it as a way to appear as well behaved and proper girls, just as many American female college students wear pearls and dress in a rather matronly fashion. In addition, not wearing the hijab may make Arab females feel like they are losing part of their identity as they might believe they are turning their back on their culture. During such a time when globalization is creeping into the Middle East at such a fast pace, this feeling becomes even more acute.
OK, what about ‘the veil’?
British poodle, Tory Blain and prominent ‘Labour’ ex foreign minister, Jack Straw, have made headlines lately with their remarks about veiled women. Straw claims the veil is a ‘visible statement of separation and difference’. Well, duh. Straw’s views on the kilt were, curiously, unreported.
Yesterday Al Jazeera reported a West Yorkshire teacher who lost her discrimination case when she was suspended for refusing to remove her veil. The report doesn’t mention what she was teaching. As I point out later, in my view, it makes a difference, although not to whether it is discrimination or not.
It wouldn’t surprise me if there were schools in England, even within the Kirklees council’s jurisdiction, including Headfield Church of England Junior School in Dewsbury itself, that actually require girls and boys, even male and female teachers, to dress visibly differently. Well might anyone wonder why they are promoting such separation and difference.
If the objective is to promote secularism, it is entirely counterproductive to exclude veiled women, or anyone practicing what they believe their religion requires of them, from secular institutions, as they did in France last year. Even if this were not intuitively obvious, Turkey has banned the veil for 80 years and look where it’s got them. Aishah Azmi’s case in Dewsbury, though, is irrelevant to this issue – after all, what would a Church of England school have to do with promoting secularism?
According to the veiled women I have asked about it, their motivation for ‘dressing modestly’ is to avoid arousing male lust. This is the case whether or not they cover their hair, or their faces. They all think they are dressing modestly. It hardly seems to make any sense at all, however, given the avowed purpose, to cover everything else but to leave their sexy eyes exposed. But then, if religious beliefs made any sense, they wouldn’t be religious beliefs, now would they? Ironically, those wearing a full burqa actually accomplish what they claim to set out to do.
There may in fact be a correlation between the amount of skin a society considers it acceptable for women to expose and some measure of women’s rights or equality. But even if such a correlation exists, it is not evidence of a cause and effect relation, much less which is the cause and which the effect. It is a big mistake to think that a miniskirt is either a sign of liberation or a strategy to achieve it.
If a veiled woman wants to work as a dentist, a bricklayer, an engineer, a chef, or what have you, this is entirely unobjectionable. I do have a concern, however, about a language teacher who will not allow students to observe what they do with their vocal apparatus. Don’t laugh. I had a veiled woman in one of my classes studying to be an English teacher.
Addendum: In a big surprise, today's NYT had an op-ed by one Paul Cruickshank, arguing that criticizing veiled women was counterproductive!
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