Maronite Christian nuns:
Bridal veil:
Sts. Elizabeth and Mary:
Posted on 06/09/2002 6:36:32 PM PDT by vannrox
Liberation by the Veil
Modesty and chastity , very important ideologies with Islam, are achieved by prescribing standards on behavior and the dress of a Muslim. A woman who adheres to the tenements of Islam is required to follow the dress code called Hijab, other synonymes are Veil, Purdah, or just Covering. It is an act of faith and establishes a Muslim's life with honor, respect and dignity. The Hijab is viewed as a liberation for women, in that the covering brings about "an aura of respect" (Takim, 22) and women are recognized as individuals who are admired for their mind and personality, "not for their beauty or lack of it" ( Mustafa ) and not as sex objects.
Contrary to popular belief, the covering of the Muslim woman is not oppression but a liberation from the shackles of male scrutiny and the standards of attractiveness. In Islam, a woman is free to be who she is inside, and immuned from being portrayed as sex symbol and lusted after. Islam exalts the status of a woman by commanding that she "enjoys equal rights to those of man in everything, she stands on an equal footing with man " (Nadvi, 11) and both share mutual rights and obligations in all aspects of life.
Men and women though equal are not identical, and eachcompliments the other in the different roles and functions that they are responsible to. " From an Islamic perspective, to view a woman as a sex symbol is to denigrate her. Islam believes that a woman is to be judged by her [virtuous] character and actions rather than by her looks or physical features" (Takim, 22). In the article, "My Body Is My Own Business", Ms. Naheed Mustafa , a young Canadian born and raised, university-educated Muslim woman writes, "The Quran [ which is the Holy Book for Muslims] teaches us that men and women are equal, that individuals should not be judged according to gender, beauty, wealth or privilege. The only thing that makes one person better than another is his or her character." She goes on to say, "In the Western world, the hijab has come to symbolize either forced silence or radical, unconscionable militancy. Actually, its neither. It is simply a woman's assertion that judgement of her physical person is to play no role whatsoever in social interaction."
Muslims believe that God gave beauty to all women, but that her beauty is not be seen by the world, as if the women are meat on the shelf to be picked and looked over. When she covers herself she puts herself on a higher level and men will look at her with respect and she is noticed for her intellect , faith ,and personality, not for her beauty. In many societies, especially in the West, women are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness and are compelled to follow the male standards of beauty and abstract notions of what is attractive, half realizing that such pursuit is futile and often humiliating (Mustafa). Chastity , modesty, and piety are promoted by the institution of veiling. The hijab in no way prevents a woman from playing her role as an important individual in a society nor does it make her inferior." (Takim,22)
A Muslim woman may wear whatever she pleases in the presence of her husband and family or among women friends. But when she goes out or when men other than her husband or close family are present she is expected to wear a dress which will cover [her hair and] all parts of her body , and not reveal her figure. What a contrast with Western fashions which every year concentrate quite intentionally on exposing yet another erogenous zone to the public gaze! The intention of Western dress is to reveal the figure, while the intention of Muslim dress is to conceal [and cover] it, at least in public (Lemu,25).
The Muslim woman does not feel the pressures to be beautiful or attractive, which is so apparent in the Western and Eastern cultures. She does not have to live up to expectations of what is desirable and what is not. Superficial beauty is not the Muslim woman's concern, her main goal is inner spiritual beauty. She does not have to use her body and charms to get recognition or acceptance in society. It is very different from the cruel methods that other societies subject women, in that their worth is always judged by their physical appearance. The are numerous examples of discrimination at the workplace where women are either accepted or rejected, because of their attractiveness and sex appeal.
Another benefit of adorning the veil is that it is a protection for women. Muslims believe that when women display their beauty to everybody, they degrade themselves by becoming objects of sexual desire and become vulnerable to men, who look at them as " gratification for the sexual urge"(Nadvi,8). The Hijab makes them out as women belonging to the class of modest chaste women, so that transgressors and sensual men may recognize them as such and dare not tease them out of mischief" (Nadvi, 20). Hijab solves the problem of sexual harrassment and unwanted sexual advances, which is so demeaning for women, when men get mixed signals and believe that women want their advances by the way they reveal their bodies.
The western idiology of, 'if you have it, you should flash it!' is quite opposite to the Islamic principle,where the purpose is not to bring attention to ones self, but to be modest. Women in so many societies are just treated as s ex symbols and nothing more than just a body who "display themselves to get attent ion" (Mustafa). A good example is in advertising, where a woman's body is used to sell products. Women are constantly degraded, and subjected to reveal more and more of themselves. .
The Covering sanctifies her and forces society to hold her in high esteem. Far from humiliating the woman, Hijab actually grants the woman an aura of respect, and bestows upon her a separate and unique identity (Takim, 2). According to the Qu'ran, the same high standards of moral conduct are for men as it is for women. Modesty is essential in a man's life, as well, whether it be in action, morals or speech. Islam also commands proper behavior and dress of men, in that they are not allowed to make a wanton show of their bodies to attract attention onto themselves, and they too must dress modestly. They have a speci al commandment to lower their eyes, and not to brazenly stare at women.
In Sura Nur of the Holy Qu'ran it says, " Say to the believing men that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that will make for greater purity for them, and God is well acquainted with what they do". Many of the misconceptions of the Muslim woman in the west, particularly her veil stems from Arab and Muslim countries that have deviated from the true doctrines of Islam, and have " mixed up Islamic principles with pre-Islamic pagan traditions" (Bahnassawi, 67)
In this present period of decline from Islam, many Muslim women are alienated , isolated from social life, and are oppressed by Muslim men and rulers who use the name of religion for their injustices. (Bahnassawi, 65) In this instance, the Hijab is used as a means of keeping many Muslim women away from society, with the misconception that it signifies isolation and weakness. But as many Muslim women come back into the fold of the untainted and true Islam, they are able to recognize the injustice of men who have for so long stripped them of their rights to be an integral part of society and "deserving the same dignity, honor, progress and prosperity as the men" (Nadvi,26). Women regaining their true identity and role in society, are now wearing Hijab and embracing its concept of liberation for women, and are taking their rightful places that Islam had endowed upon them fourteen hundred years ago.
Please copy and distribute to whoever can benefit from the above paper. Thank you, peace and blessings of Allah to all my brothers and sisters in Islam,
Sehmina Jaffer Chopra
Samichopra@aol.com
Yes. Of modesty.
What do you think the Hijab is intended to symbolize?
This Muslim tradition of putting a tarp over the entire bodies of half the population is grounded in the fact that this culture despises women. The men detest the physical influences women have over them when they look at them so they solve that problem by throwing a tarp over them. Real men don't do that.
Fascinating! I didn't know that.
This Muslim tradition of putting a tarp over the entire bodies of half the population is grounded in the fact that this culture despises women.
This, on the other hand, is hogwash. You sound no different from a tenured Marxist professor talking about Christianity. The Marxists have, in fact, described our Christian heritage in precisely the same terms you used.
Most cultures recognize differences between men and women. "Ours" (and I use that term loosely, since the culture of the Militant Atheists who have hijacked the West is not something I want to claim) is rather aberrant insofar as we tend to freak out at the slightest hint of such differences. Instead, we have magazines and a popular culture that is attempting to transform women into men...or worse into homosexual men.
Maronite Christian nuns:
Bridal veil:
Sts. Elizabeth and Mary:
Please tell me when Catholic women have been beaten, raped, and murdered upon removing their veils?
Please tell me where Catholic women have been forced to wear veils that obscure their vision when they drive, if they are allowed to drive at all?
Please tell me where Catholic women live in a veiled culture that prohibits them from leaving the house unaccompanied by a male or even going to school all together?
Please tell me where Catholic tradition prohibits a widowed woman from working to support her family yet allows that woman the dignity of begging for food on the street in her full hijab, or better yet, modestly prostituting herself to these same hypocrite Muslims so she can feed her children?
Be aware that these same hypocrites partake of the female flesh all the while condemning it. Perhaps if you consider these ideas you might grasp the point I was trying to make.
Such an odd question for an allegedly traditional Catholic to make.
No, but then again the thread was about the use of the veil in Arabic cultures, and I offered the fact that the veil is not particular to Arabic cultures alone, and that furthermore Christian women were not always allowed to vote, to speak in public or in the houses of worship, to dress immodestly, to use their maiden names, and to own property. Should we condemn Christianity since for a thousand years a woman was considered little more than her father's or husband's chattel by the culture?
Not an odd question. God made the human body. Why are you ashamed of it?
However, i do with you would reconsider your thoroughly Marxist/Feminist pschyoanalysis of Muslim culture. My reason is quite simple: our true enemies are the Militant Atheists who have rejected the entire Abrahamic heritage and covenantal tradition AND who in many case openly seek to destroy that tradition. These people use precisely the same methods you are using against the Muslims against us Christians. When they get Christians to parrot their worldview (everything being one form of repression or another, the material liberation of the body being the summum bonnum of Man's (and Woman's) existence), then they have won.
Besides, if we're going to fight a holy war of liberation, why not direct it against the Chinese Leninists who forcibly abort millions of human souls every year? Or, for that matter, why not fight it against our own elites who instruct our young women that they should do the same? How much greater are these crime than the wearing of the Hijab?
If it weren't for the Fall, life could been a literal paradise on earh--a sexual and material cornucopia to make even the supposedly obsessed Muslims drool...
No need for the Mosaic Law. No need for the Redemption of Jesus Christ. No need for the Petrine office or the salvific mission of the Church. Quite possibly no need for government (and hence, no need for politics)...Rather like a John Lennon song, actually.
Unfortunately it didn't happen that way. We are Fallen, gsgirl. We cannot live as Adam and Eve. We must contend our entire lives with evil and suffering until that generation comes whom Jesus will visit again on Earth.
Excuse me? You don't even know me, so really you ought to reconsider such judgmental nonsense and uncharitable and personal attacks.
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