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

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Good for them! As someone who has watched a lot of Arab cinema from the 50's, the actresses used to dress like Marilyn Monroe, now they are covered head to toe even if they don't wear a headscarf. Imagine seeing photos of my mother in Egypt 40 years ago wearing a mod mini dress in a country where now 80% of the women wear hijab of some form. The culture has changed, and not for the better, and it all happened around the same time as Saudi Arabia gained money and influence... hmm...

[Anonymous]

Wow! Just googled "1950s arab cinema actresses" and I can only say, how far backwards the women in that part of the world have fallen. In just a little over 50 years they have gone centuries backwards.

That was eye opening and very sad.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[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.

If only it were a choice for most women. But most are forced by the men in their lives to wear it.

[Anonymous]

At least in America, its a choice. Can't speak for other countries, some are mixed with cultural expectation.

Wearing headscarf shouldn't be forced, but only with willingness of the wearer because its not a show of piousness, just understanding of the teaching of Quran and Hadis (collection of stories about Prophet Muhammad's puh way of life).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If only it were a choice for most women. But most are forced by the men in their lives to wear it.

You want it to be so - because the only way YOU would wear a scarf is by force - but you don't actually know that.

[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

What do you mean "it's time to end it"? How exactly would you go about it? Are you gonna go to Tysons and rip the headscarf off any woman you meet?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If only it were a choice for most women. But most are forced by the men in their lives to wear it.

You can argue that is done for free will and choice, but there is nothing you can say to convince me that a woman "chooses" to cover herself and daughters from head to toe to wrist in heavy black fabric with only her face showing on the beaches of Hawaii, while her husband and sons frolic in board shorts, or "chooses" to cover herself completely, including her face, during a humid, upper 90 degree sweltering August day.

[Anonymous]

Most Muslim women I know are outraged by the article. It equates hijab with political Islam. While that is one component of hijab for some, it doesn't tell the whole story, and is misleading at best, IMO.

Many Muslim women choose not to wear it. And shocker, many Muslim women choose to wear a headscarf, despite pressure NOT to. I talked in another thread how my step daughter is being called ISIS bride at her high school in Fairfax County. My husband and her mother both begged her not to wear a headscarf. She's too young in the culture that her parents come from. But she chooses to anyway.

And I've never heard any Muslim woman, before this op/ed, say the hijab is primarily forced upon women by "political Islam." There are so many Muslim women out there, particularly in the U.S., wearing a headscarf that have NOTHING to do with political Islam. They do it for so many other reasons.

Here's an opposing view, that to me, shows more of the nuances associated with the choice (because it is a choice in America) to either wear or not wear a headscarf:

"But it shouldn’t occur in Muslim women calling out others for wearing the headscarf, or saying that we need to “clarify to those in universities, the media and discussion forums that in exploring the “hijab,” they are not exploring Islam, but rather the ideology of political Islam as practiced by the mullahs, or clerics, of Iran and Saudi Arabia, the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Islamic State.”
My hijab is not born of a so-called “political Islam.”
It’s born of my heart and mind."

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/muslimahnextdoor/2015/12/please-do-if-you-want-wear-the-headscarf-in-the-name-of-interfaith-solidarity/

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

If only it were a choice for most women. But most are forced by the men in their lives to wear it.

You can argue that is done for free will and choice, but there is nothing you can say to convince me that a woman "chooses" to cover herself and daughters from head to toe to wrist in heavy black fabric with only her face showing on the beaches of Hawaii, while her husband and sons frolic in board shorts, or "chooses" to cover herself completely, including her face, during a humid, upper 90 degree sweltering August day.

Why is it important to convince you?

[Anonymous]

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.