Among the contested issues in the Islamic world, none have been more prominent than those involving the lives—and the bodies—of women. Within this controversy, matters of dress have loomed large. The Iranian revolution sought to impose hijab on its women, while the French government sought to prevent its Muslim women from covering up. In early 2014, billboard advertisements showing women’s bodies in Istanbul, Turkey, were sprayed with black paint, and next to one of them was scrawled, “Do not commit indecency.” In response, a prominent and outspoken writer and scholar, Elif Shafak, declared that “uncovered Turkish women are feeling uncomfortable and unwanted in their own country.”18 The sources that follow present two diverging views on the question of women’s dress, the first from a young Afghan woman named Emaan, who is a writer and poet, and the second from a British Muslim woman of Pakistani background, Saira Khan, who is a TV personality in Britain.

EMAAN

Hijab: The Beauty of Muslim Women

2010

Hijab means “being covered.” Islam requires Muslim women to cover themselves in public and in the presence of a person who is not mahram (people or family who are allowed to see women without cover)….

Proper hijab (concealment for the Muslim woman) dictates that the entire body must be covered, although the face and hands should be exposed. As Prophet Muhammad … said, “If the woman reaches the age of puberty, no part of her body should be seen but this, and he pointed to his face and hand.”

Hijab has three roles that should be considered by Muslim women: it should be not form fitted, it should not be transparent, and it should not be attractive.

Hijab has many benefits for Muslim women as well as for the society that they live in. A Muslim woman is allowed to show her beauty only to her husband, to her family and to her women friends. It’s considered a way of preventing attraction. Because when a woman shows her beauty in public it attracts the attention of men and it can lead men to act inappropriately.

The hijab also promotes more respect from a husband to a Muslim woman, as he sees his wife being faithful only to him and he is then convinced to be faithful only to his wife.

The Qur’an also emphasizes that the hijab is a way of keeping society … from abusing women. It’s mentioned in the Qur’an: “Tell believing women to avert their glances and guard their private parts and not to display their charms except what (normally) appears of them. They should draw their coverings over their bosoms and not show their charms except to their husbands” (24:30–31).

In the western world, Muslim women are seen as oppressed and passive. Most think that Muslim women’s rights are violated according to Islamic law. Wearing a hijab doesn’t make a woman passive because scarves cover the heads, not the minds, of Muslim women….

Islam respects women and does not allow them to be used as objects in public or through the media. Most people are concerned about women being used as sex objects, as in the western world today. But hijab saves Muslim women from this contemporary concern. Hijab equalizes all women and avoids concerns of artifice among women.

In contrast, it lets women focus on their spiritual, intellectual, and professional development and work comfortably in public spaces without being worried about their looks or concerned about the men around them.

Hijab has given the Muslim women freedom from constant attention to their physical parts, because their appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny. Their beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed.

Islam did not introduce wearing the burqa, veiling, and covering the face; it existed in previous cultures in India and the Arab world…. Islam does not oblige women to wear a burqa or veil. The wearing of the burqa or veil is a cultural custom, not an Islamic mandate…. Most of the restrictions are not from Islam, but rather from cultural customs sometimes wrongly justified under an Islamic banner.

I, as a Muslim woman, feel very comfortable wearing the hijab. For me the hijab means religious devotion, discipline, reflection, respect, freedom, and modernity. I am pro-democracy because for me democracy means having choices in how to live our lives. I also support and promote mutual respect between Muslim and non-Muslim women. I want the world to treat Muslim women with the same respect they treat other women, from other religions and cultures who wear headscarves such as Hindu women, Jewish women, Greek women, and Catholic nuns. The assumption that wearing a hijab is oppressive should change from an oppressive idea to a liberating one.

Source: Emaan, “Hijab: The Beauty of Muslim Women,” Afghan Women’s Writing Project, June 29, 2010, http://awwproject.org/2010/06/hijab-the-beauty-of-muslim-women/.

SAIRA KHAN

Why I, as a British Muslim Woman, Want the Burkha Banned from Our Streets

2009

Shopping in Harrods last week, I came across a group of women wearing black burkhas, browsing the latest designs in the fashion department. The irony of the situation was almost laughable. Here was a group of affluent women window shopping for designs that they would never once be able to wear in public. Yet it’s a sight that’s becoming more and more commonplace. In hardline Muslim communities right across Britain, the burkha and hijab—the Muslim headscarf—are becoming the norm….

And yet, as a British Muslim woman, I abhor the practice and am calling on the Government to follow the lead of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and ban the burkha in our country.

The veil is simply a tool of oppression which is being used to alienate and control women under the guise of religious freedom.

My parents moved here from Kashmir in the 1960s. They brought with them their faith and their traditions, but they also understood that they were starting a new life in a country where Islam was not the main religion. My mother has always worn traditional Kashmiri clothes…. When she found work in England, she adapted her dress without making a fuss. She is still very much a traditional Muslim woman, but she swims in a normal swimming costume and jogs in a tracksuit….

I have read the Koran. Nowhere in the Koran does it state that a woman’s face and body must be covered in a layer of heavy black cloth. Instead, Muslim women should dress modestly, covering their arms and legs. Many of my adult British Muslim friends cover their heads with a headscarf—and I have no problem with that. The burkha is an entirely different matter. It is an imported Saudi Arabian tradition, and the growing number of women veiling their faces in Britain is a sign of creeping radicalisation, which is not just regressive, it is oppressive and downright dangerous…. It sends out a clear message: “I do not want to be part of your society.”

Every time the burkha is debated, Muslim fundamentalists bring out all these women who say: “It’s my choice to wear this.” Perhaps so—but what pressures have been brought to bear on them? The reality, surely, is that a lot of women are not free to choose.

And behind the closed doors of some Muslim houses, countless young women are told to wear the hijab and the veil. These are the girls who are hidden away, they are not allowed to go to university or choose who they marry. In many cases, they are kept down by the threat of violence.

The burkha is the ultimate visual symbol of female oppression. It is the weapon of radical Muslim men who want to see Sharia law on Britain’s streets, and would love women to be hidden, unseen and unheard. It is totally out of place in a civilised country.

[French] President Sarkozy is absolutely right to say: “If you want to live here, live like us.”

It is time for ministers and ordinary British Muslims to say, “Enough is enough.” For the sake of women and children, the Government must ban the wearing of the hijab in school and the burkha in public places.

Two years ago, I wore a burkha for the first time for a television programme. It was the most horrid experience. It restricted the way I walked, what I saw, and how I interacted with the world. It took away my personality. I felt alienated and like a freak. It was hot and uncomfortable, and I was unable to see behind me, exchange a smile with people, or shake hands.

If I had been forced to wear a veil, I would certainly not be free to write this article. Nor would I have run a marathon, become an aerobics teacher or set up a business.

Source: Saira Khan, “Why I, as a British Muslim Woman, Want the Burkha Banned from Our Streets,” Daily Mail, June 24, 2009, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1195052/Why-I-British-Muslim-woman-want-burkha-banned-streets.html.