Posted on 08/09/2005 5:01:27 PM PDT by 4.1O dana super trac pak
LEXINGTON, Ky. - (KRT) - Farah Madhat first wore a hijab as a sign of respect for the Muslim family she was staying with in the United Arab Emirates.
When she returned to Kentucky from her study abroad in 1998, the Iraqi-American Muslim couldn't think of a reason to take the Islamic head covering off.
"The only doubt I had was, `What will my friends say?'" she said. "But then a verse from the Quran came into play, reminding me we live in a temporal world."
At 18, she decided to make hijab a part of her life.
There are about 600 Muslim women in central Kentucky, according to Ihsan Bagby, an Islamic studies professor at the University of Kentucky. In the United States, there are 6 million to 8 million Muslims.
Like Madhat, now 25, many Muslim American women choose to veil, even at a time when times are particularly tense for their religion. The recent bombings in London, which a Muslim group claimed responsibility for, have made Muslim women even more conspicuous in Western society.
While some discard their hijabs for fear of retaliation, Bagby said that many actually become more committed to the symbols, like hijab, that set them apart as Muslims.
To them, the hijab is a symbol of their faith as ordained by God in the Quran. It reserves their beauty for those closest to them and protects them from a society that emphasizes physical perfection.
"In the long run, the desire to faithfully represent Islam outweighs any fear of backlash because of terror attacks," Bagby said. "Some women feel even more motivated to wear it and remain true to a faith being denigrated in many sectors of our society."
As the imam of Masjid Bilal, the mosque in Lexington, Bagby often explains Islam to church and civic groups. Most Americans know there's a tie between hijab and Islam, he says, but don't understand why Muslim women wear it.
After Sept. 11, 2001, there was an increase in discrimination against women wearing hijab around the country, according to a recent report by the Council of American Islamic Relations in Washington.
CAIR documented more than 130 harassment and civil rights cases involving hijab in 2004, compared with 13 reported in 2001.
In one of those cases, according to CAIR, a veiled woman and her baby were almost run over by a truck in New York City. After the woman told the driver that he could have killed them, he replied: "It wouldn't have been a big loss."
CAIR also tells of a woman in Pennsylvania being hit repeatedly with a shopping cart by a customer yelling that American troops were fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan so that people didn't have to dress like her. Store employees refused to help her.
The climate for covered women in Lexington is much more comfortable, many say. Most experience curiosity more than harassment.
Madhat, a recent graduate of the University of Kentucky's pharmacy and diplomacy schools, remembers that her friends became distant and stopped inviting her to parties in high school when she began wearing the hijab.
"They thought I had joined some kind of cult," she said.
But Madhat said she didn't care. "It's a big tangible object on my head that clearly states who I am. I take the consequences that come with it."
Although she has dealt with a few incidents of harassment, she said most people in recent years have been very polite - even after terrorist attacks.
"For every rude person, there are 500 that have been nice," she said. "People are more curious than disrespectful."
Muslim women conceal their hair and curves as much to veil their beauty as to reflect their self-respect and dignity, said Waheedah Bagby, acting chairwoman of the Muslim Women's Council of Kentucky and Ihsan Bagby's wife. She was a Jehovah's Witness before she converted to Islam in the 1970s.
"I often wonder how men go to work with women who are so beautified," she said. "I imagine it would be a strong distraction. When Muslims go out, we want to be nice and pleasantly clean, then get gorgeous at home for ourselves and our friends and family."
She also describes hijab as a strong reminder to behave in a respectful way that reflects the faith Muslim women so tangibly represent.
"It actually keeps you in a certain frame of mind when you go out," she said. "I'm the type of person who speaks up for myself. If someone says something to me, I'm ready to snap them up, but because I have hijab on I'm like `OK, Waheedah, you're representing Muslims. Be diplomatic.'"
Unlike Waheedah Bagby, some women simply don't feel comfortable wearing hijab and don't think it defines their Muslim faith.
Urooj Yazdani, a Muslim student who doesn't veil, doesn't think she should unless it comes from within her.
"When you're totally comfortable wearing it is when you should put it on," she said. "Not when you reach a certain age, or because your mom does or someone tells you to."
Sunshine Carey, 20, began covering her hair in May when she converted to Islam. She said wearing hijab was an easy choice. Her parents were supportive of her decision, but they worried that people might be rude to her.
So when customers at the Starbucks shop where she works asked, "Hey, are you Muslim now?" she felt shaky about how they would react to her answer.
"But they just said `OK,' and I thought `That's it? Awesome,'" Carey said.
She said she feels the hijab is a natural way to dress.
"It means I get to be a lot more comfortable in my own skin," she said. "On the inside, I know what I have is mine. What I have, I'm covering."
A few U.S. Muslim women wear the full hijab that veils both their hair and face. However, this is more likely to be worn in Islamic countries. The decision to cover the face is left to the woman in most places, although a few Islamic governments, such as in Saudi Arabia, mandate it.
"Americans often misconceive hijab as a foreign, uncomfortable oppressive fabric that Muslim women are forced to wear," Waheedah Bagby said.
"But there is also a certain level of respect for women who cover," because people tend to think the woman is religious.
Doua Ramadan, a 20-year-old American of Palestinian descent, is struggling to symbolize the faith she fully embraces on the inside by covering outwardly.
"I have a great desire to wear hijab, but for some reason I..." her voice trails off. "I tell myself I should just do it, there's nothing holding me back."
Ramadan, who has lived in Lexington most of her life, covers her hair five times a day when she faces Mecca for prayer. When her forehead rests on the prayer rug, she says, she feels a tug to complete her faith.
"I feel like something is missing," she said. "I constantly think about it."
Muslim parents in traditional families often raise their daughters with the expectation, and sometimes the pressure, that they will wear hijab once they become adolescents.
Ramadan said her parents make it clear that hijab is an obligation, but they stress that only she can decide when to wear it.
For now, she's easing into it by wearing long-sleeved shirts. She knows covering her hair won't be easy, but she said she is confident that once she does, it will be a permanent decision.
"I'm sure it will be difficult, because not everybody understands the beauty of Islam and hijab," she said. "But just remembering I'm doing this for God and because I want to will be enough."
As Michael Savage has said, Hitler and the Nazis are back, but instead of a swastika they come in headscarves and hijabs, instead of brown shorts they come in dirty nightshirts, instead of Mein Kampf, they come bearing the Koran.
A weak minded cult follower, obviously. In a couple of years she will be dancing with the Hare Krishnas.
-ccm
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