How I came to love the veil
Yvonne Ridley
British-born, award-winning journalist Yvonne Ridley is well known
for her outspoken views and defense of Islam. She endeared herself to
the Muslim community in Britain when she reverted to Islam after making
international headlines when she was captured by the Taliban on an
undercover assignment in Afghanistan.
She was a senior reporter of the Sunday Express at the time, having
spent nearly 10 years in Fleet Street working for several prestige
titles including The Sunday Times, The Observer, Daily Mirror and
Independent on Sunday... She is the political editor of Islam Channel TV
in London and coauthor of "In the Hands of the .Taliban: Her
Extraordinary Story" (Robson Books)
Yvonne Ridley
I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures - until
I was captured by the Taliban.
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A Muslim woman in customary veil |
In September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist attacks on the
United States, I snuck into Afghanistan, clad in a head-to-toe blue
burqa, intending to write a newspaper account of life under the
repressive regime. Instead, I was discovered, arrested and detained for
10 days. I spat and swore at my captors; they called me a "bad" woman
but let me go after I promised to read the Koran and study Islam.
(Frankly, I'm not sure who was happier when I was freed - they or I.)
Back home in London, I kept my word about studying Islam - and was
amazed by what I discovered. I'd been expecting Koran chapters on how to
beat your wife and oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages
promoting the liberation of women. Two-and-a-half years after my
capture, I converted to Islam, provoking a mixture of astonishment,
disappointment and encouragement among friends and relatives.
Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as
former foreign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab - a face
veil that reveals only the eyes - as an unwelcome barrier to
integration, with Prime Minister Tony Blair, writer Salman Rushdie and
even Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi leaping to his defense.
A careful reading of the Koran shows that just about everything that
Western feminists fought for in the 1970s were available to Muslim women
1,400 years ago.
Women in Islam are considered equal to men in spirituality, education
and worth, and a woman's gift for childbirth and child-rearing is
regarded as a positive attribute.
When Islam offers women so much, why are Western men so obsessed with
Muslim women's attire? Even British government ministers Gordon Brown
and John Reid have made disparaging remarks about the nikab - and they
hail from across the Scottish border, where men wear skirts.
When I converted to Islam and began wearing a headscarf, the
repercussions were enormous. All I did was cover my head and hair - but
I instantly became a second-class citizen. I knew I'd hear from the odd
Islamophobe, but I didn't expect so much open hostility from strangers.
Cabs passed me by at night, their "for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie,
after dropping off a white passenger right in front of me, glared at me
when I rapped on his window, then drove off. Another said, "Don't leave
a bomb in the back seat" and asked, "Where's bin Laden hiding?"
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A Muslim man in his customary headgear |
Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly,
but the majority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which
leaves the face uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a
personal statement: My dress tells you that I am a Muslim and that I
expect to be treated respectfully, much as a Wall Street banker would
say that a business suit defines him as an executive to be taken
seriously. And, especially among converts to the faith like me, the
attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, leering behavior
is not tolerable.
I was a Western feminist for many years, but I've discovered that
Muslim feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We
hate those ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003
when judges of the Miss Earth competition hailed the emergence of a
bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan, Vida Samadzai, as a giant leap for women's
liberation. They even gave Samadzai a special award for "representing
the victory of women's rights." I didn't know whether to scream or laugh
when Italy's Prodi joined the debate by declaring that it is "common
sense" not to wear the nikab because it makes social relations "more
difficult." Nonsense. If this is the case, then why are cell phones,
landlines, e-mail, and text messaging and fax machines in daily use? And
no one switches off the radio because they can't see the presenter's
face. Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I have a right to an
education and that it is my duty to seek out knowledge, regardless of
whether I am single or married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we
told that women must wash, clean or cook for men.
As for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives - it's simply
not true. Critics of Islam will quote random Koranic verses or hadith,
but usually out of context.
If a man does raise a finger against his wife, he is not allowed to
leave a mark on her body, which is the Koran's way of saying, "Don't
beat your wife, stupid."
It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the place and treatment
of women. According to a recent National Domestic Violence Hotline
survey, 4 million American women experience a serious assault by a
partner during an average 12-month period. More than three women are
killed by their husbands and boyfriends every day - that is nearly 5,500
a day since 9/11.
Violent men don't come from any particular religious or cultural
category; one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced
into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the hotline
survey. This is a global problem that transcends religion, wealth,
class, race and culture.
But it is also true that in the West, men still believe that they are
superior to women, despite protests to the contrary. They still receive
better pay for equal work...whether in the mailroom or the
boardroom...and women are still treated as sexualized commodities whose
power and influence flow directly from their appearance.
And for those who are still trying to claim that Islam oppresses
women, recall this 1992 statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering
his views on empowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family
political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill
their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become
lesbians."
Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not. |