R-e-s-p-e-c-t for Muslim women.
I am reading a great book right now and in it has a Muslim woman’s testimony of why she wears the hijab. It speaks for itself and I greatly admire those women.
Here is what she said…
“A few years ago, I also decided to start wearing the hijab. The hijab is a head cover for women that covers the hair but does not cover the face. When some of my friends at the university saw me wearing the hijab for the first time, they wondered whether I was beginning to lean toward fundamentalism. Far from it. I wanted to start wearing the hijab to make a statement. I wanted to communicate that I am a spiritual woman and that I do not want my femininity to be a stumbling block to my male students and colleagues at the university. Nobody in my family asked me to wear the hijab. I do not feel oppressed as I wear it. On the contrary, I feel empowered. I communicate the message that I am not cheap or sexually available. I take pride in our Muslim heritage and culture. I do not want to get associated with western secularism. I do not to be treated as a sexual object. At the same time, I do not want to wear the niqab, which is used by Muslim fundamentalist women and shows only their eyes. I do not want to be associated with them either. I want to convey that I am intelligent and can cope well with the challenges that our world offers. I am living in the world, but I do not want to become worldly.”
Please do not put all Muslims or Arabs into a category of “fundamentalist”. In many Muslim countries, women are not forced to cover their hair and they are not oppressed. Many Muslim women choose to be so modest and they do it with great intention and reason. When you see them, don’t give them weird looks or throw them into your stereotypical category. If you went to a lot of their home countries they would welcome you with open arms and give you everything they had. Let’s try to be a bit more hospitable because Muslims who come to the US would do anything to have an American befriend them. What do we really stand for as Americans? Not everyone is out to get us.
