Muslim women speak out against the hijab as an element of political Islam

[Anonymous]

Good christ. Reading threads like this where people bring their intellect and share some illuminating and valid points just leaves my head spinning with "religion is so awful". Why can't we just enlighten ourselves already and give it up? It's so strange to have an intellectual argument about religion, politics, and feminism over what is essentially an ancient superstition and method to control the population.

[Anonymous]

I notice that the hijab defenders always say its choice, and that choice should be respected. Some do acknowledge is not a choice in some countries.

But I have yet to find an Islamist site that says wearing the hijab is a woman's choice. Rather, they pretty much all say that it is a requirement for Mulsim women women set down in the Quran, using the same verses that the authors of the article have deconstructed.

The message of these sites is clear: if you are a Muslim woman, you must wear a hijab.

These are the sites that Muslims of good faith go to for guidance, and this is what they are reading about what they must do. Many do not realize that most of these sites are sponsored by people who wish to spread an extreme form of Islam. So I do not blame women who rely on these sites for coming to the conclusion they must wear a headscarf. Others are fully aware of the hidden agenda like Tashfeen Malik and are totally committed to the extremism and the underlying political reasons for which it is pushed.

So we have hijab wearers who are sincere in their faith, but often misinformed by those pushing an agenda they are unaware of; women wearing the scarf as a show of identity with a particular group but who may not otherwise be particularly religious; women covering themselves because their families or husbands or the laws of the country in which they live require them to do so, and those who wear the hijab and possibly the niqab as an outward sign of their commitment to a political Islam, often of a supremacist form.

Not all of the reasons involve a woman's choice, and some of these reasons are incompatible with American values.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Finally, an accessible article that spells out so well how the faux hijab tradition is being used to promote a repressive form of Islam.

Time to end this so-called traditional Islamic expression of faith and take a stand against the extremists promoting it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/21/as-muslim-women-we-actually-ask-you-not-to-wear-the-hijab-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/?tid=pm_local_pop_b

Are you kidding me? ? Asra Nomani is a known quack in the Muslim world. Islamic scholars and even religious scholars would chuckle at her articles and amusingly but politely say, "Bless her heart." Why does Wapo keep publishing her? The vast majority of Muslims laugh at her.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally, an accessible article that spells out so well how the faux hijab tradition is being used to promote a repressive form of Islam.

Time to end this so-called traditional Islamic expression of faith and take a stand against the extremists promoting it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/21/as-muslim-women-we-actually-ask-you-not-to-wear-the-hijab-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/?tid=pm_local_pop_b

Are you kidding me? ? Asra Nomani is a known quack in the Muslim world. Islamic scholars and even religious scholars would chuckle at her articles and amusingly but politely say, "Bless her heart." Why does Wapo keep publishing her? The vast majority of Muslims laugh at her.

A Muslim woman speaking her mind is not acceptable, is it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Guess what guys, a religious observance can be a very real way for someone to feel closer to God AND it can ultimately have a negative impact on women and the society at large. I have no doubt that women who wear the hijab feel that they are glorifying God when they do so. HOWEVER, it is still fair to look at the practice critically and determine that it ultimately undermines women. Just go to a country where most of the women wear hijab and see how it works for yourself. I have.

People in the Muslim world have been scared to criticize any religious practice no matter how backwards it seemed to them personally for a long, long time. That's how we have so many Muslims who joined extremist mosques. That's why so many countries went from almost no women wearing hijab, to some women wearing hijab, to most women wearing hijab, to women taking on more extreme forms of covering up like the niqab, which was unknown decades ago. It was an evolution that involved the silencing of more moderate Muslims. Read any modern history of the region. And the people putting forward THEIR version of Islam had a lot of money, courtesy of US, to push their ideas. It's about DAMN TIME that someone question these practices and disagree with them.

You can disagree with this all you want, but it's not your business what other women decide to do with their bodies. Not your business when they expose it, not your business when they cover it.

It absolutely is my business. It is my business when I go to the country where my parents where born, where my family still lives, and am harassed and yelled at in the street because men have internalized the idea that women are the ones responsible for their arousal, and that a woman who is not covered is "asking" for it. It is my business that in a place where my mother used to walk about in a miniskirt without being bothered, no women, veiled or not, can walk without being bothered. It is my business when my daughter see families where the woman is dressed head to toe in a tent and the man is in shorts, looking comfy. What should I tell her about this? What message is that sending to other women, to young kids? Deny it all you want, but our clothes send a powerful message to the people around us. The way we dress is a powerful form of self-expression, and the article is arguing that in this instance, it is sending a political message, not just a personal religious one. I agree with the article because it reflects what I have seen and read. You can disagree all you want.

No it isn't.

The solution to men yelling is not to uncover all women by force.

Tell your daughter what you like. The world will not conform to your desire. If Muslim women find the right words for the daughters watching cleavages and bum shorts, then I'm sure you can find something to say to yours.

Your freedom to agree or disagree with the way other women dress ends at your own body. You don't like to cover, then don't cover. But it's not in your hand to uncover others.

BAM!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally, an accessible article that spells out so well how the faux hijab tradition is being used to promote a repressive form of Islam.

Time to end this so-called traditional Islamic expression of faith and take a stand against the extremists promoting it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/21/as-muslim-women-we-actually-ask-you-not-to-wear-the-hijab-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/?tid=pm_local_pop_b

Are you kidding me? ? Asra Nomani is a known quack in the Muslim world. Islamic scholars and even religious scholars would chuckle at her articles and amusingly but politely say, "Bless her heart." Why does Wapo keep publishing her? The vast majority of Muslims laugh at her.

A Muslim woman speaking her mind is not acceptable, is it?

Sure it is. The Muslim world just knows she hasn't got one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Great article!!! I don't understand how many (including our president) say that we have "shared values" when women are treated so horribly in many/most Muslim countries. I really don't get it.

Please watch this and educate yourself.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2cthl0_reza-aslan-defends-islam-and-slams-biased-reporting-on-cnn_people

[Anonymous]

Asra has a degree in communications and journalism. She can opine all she wants on religious topics, but Muslims know she doesn't speak as an authority. There are plenty of religious scholars out there, Muslims and nonMuslims, who Muslims can rely on. Asra is no scholar on anything Islamic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asra has a degree in communications and journalism. She can opine all she wants on religious topics, but Muslims know she doesn't speak as an authority. There are plenty of religious scholars out there, Muslims and nonMuslims, who Muslims can rely on. Asra is no scholar on anything Islamic.

The authors were not writing for a Muslim audience but for a non-Muslim audience, whom certain parts of the Islamic community are trying to convince that the hijab is required by their religion.

Why aren't these so-called scholars focusing instead on something positive and truly Islamic like the duty to help the poor through zakat? Unlike the hijab, the zakat is actually a pillar of Islam.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why are you guys so concerned with Muslims women wearing headscarf? Do you fear them? I believe it's their rights to wear whatever they want.

Why are they considered backward when they choose to cover themselves. Covering your body with less and less clothing are backwards to me because it seems that people wants to be like in cavemen yesteryear.

Just because these Muslim women against hijab, doesn't mean that they representing other muslims's opinion in why they wear hijab.

We should be judged by our character and ability, and not by the way we clothes.

because most are bullied into wearing them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asra has a degree in communications and journalism. She can opine all she wants on religious topics, but Muslims know she doesn't speak as an authority. There are plenty of religious scholars out there, Muslims and nonMuslims, who Muslims can rely on. Asra is no scholar on anything Islamic.

Writing through one lens is biased and it's simply persuasive. True argument covers both sides and finds the flaws and strengths presented by both sides. Having said that, however, I fail to see how covering is religious, as it simply means that men have no control over their primitive drives. How can you defend the practice in this case?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Finally, an accessible article that spells out so well how the faux hijab tradition is being used to promote a repressive form of Islam.

Time to end this so-called traditional Islamic expression of faith and take a stand against the extremists promoting it.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2015/12/21/as-muslim-women-we-actually-ask-you-not-to-wear-the-hijab-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/?tid=pm_local_pop_b

Are you kidding me? ? Asra Nomani is a known quack in the Muslim world. Islamic scholars and even religious scholars would chuckle at her articles and amusingly but politely say, "Bless her heart." Why does Wapo keep publishing her? The vast majority of Muslims laugh at her.

A Muslim woman speaking her mind is not acceptable, is it?

Sure it is. The Muslim world just knows she hasn't got one.

The Muslim world? So it's OK for you to generalize about the Muslim world but not the reverse?

[Anonymous]

As a Muslim woman who doesn't wear hijab, I found her article refreshing. I think it's good to hear different persoectives and for outsiders to see that Muslims are not some monolothic group that think the same. There is a diversity of views in th Islamic world. I have no issue with women who CHOOSE the hijab. But to me, a hijab is not representative of the Islamic world. In fact, no one in my very large extended family or among my Muslim friends and aquaintances covers. This may no be representative of others but this is my experience.

[Anonymous]

No it isn't.

The solution to men yelling is not to uncover all women by force.

Tell your daughter what you like. The world will not conform to your desire. If Muslim women find the right words for the daughters watching cleavages and bum shorts, then I'm sure you can find something to say to yours.

Your freedom to agree or disagree with the way other women dress ends at your own body. You don't like to cover, then don't cover. But it's not in your hand to uncover others.

BAM!!!

How is that a "BAM?" It's just another PC way to support the extreme view. And it's not a very smart move, IMO, as the PP brings ups "cleavage and bum shorts" as the exact opposite of Muslim covering.

lol


this -




versus

this -

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Asra has a degree in communications and journalism. She can opine all she wants on religious topics, but Muslims know she doesn't speak as an authority. There are plenty of religious scholars out there, Muslims and nonMuslims, who Muslims can rely on. Asra is no scholar on anything Islamic.

The notion that Islam is so arcane it can only be understood and practiced correctly with the guidance of scholars is laughable. The Quran itself says its meaning is clear. And the message was sent to a people who were largely nomadic and illiterate and had no scholars amongst their midst.

What is clear is that there is a simple creed ("There is no god but God, and Muhammed is the prophet of God") and four other clear pillars of religious practice.

Most of the rest is angels dancing on the head of a pin, no matter what "scholar" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (who has a PhD in Islamic theology--love to see that dissertation) or his ilk says. It is regrettable that so many of these "scholars" spend their time counting angels and disseminating their views that the real scholars have to spend time refuting their spurious views of Islamic belief and practice instead of studying larger theological questions like the role of free will in Islam.