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The Veil
Under category :
Refuting Misconceptions about Women in Islam
3265
2010/09/26
2024/11/05
how many times have you seen an educated veiled woman, working and acting normally on television ? very, very rarely. on the other hand, how many times have you seen a veiled woman being hit by her husband, in tears or fighting and rioting along with fundamentalists?
just think: what does a black 'hijaab' veil evoke in your mind? certainly not the image it is meant to evoke -- religious commitment and peaceful, deep-rooted faith. how many times have you seen a veiled young girl and said: "haraam! poor thing! she has not seen the world yet..." is all this just a coincidence?
veiled women today are either associated with alienation or fundamentalism. they are either looked upon with pity or fear. have people ever asked the question: where is the woman's will to surrender to god in this? where is her choice of protecting her dearest possession, her body?
when islam ordered women to wear the veil, it did it to privilege her, not constrain her:
allaah says (what means): {o prophet! tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw upon them their over-garments. that is more appropriate so that they may be recognized and not molested.} [quran 33: 59]
the above verses show that islam aims to protect women from being considered sexual objects. it instructs women to uncover their faces in front of their husband, close relatives whom she cannot marry (mahaarim) and other women. in front of strangers, she must conceal everything but her face and hands.
why does one need to show a semi-clad woman in a car's advertisement? why do we not see a veiled woman? in the first case, because the advertisers are trying to sell the image of the woman with the car. unconsciously, you buy the car wishing it will provide you with such a "babe." in the second case, the woman has refused to be treated as an object for trade and has worn the veil, a sign of dignity rather than humiliation.
