It takes little searching to find images of beautiful women wearing hijabs. I even saw an image of a beautiful woman, eyes heavily made up, wearing a niquab, ie the face is covered, only the eyes visible.
I saw an item on TV of how more women with hijabs were taking part in professional sport. I have seen a poor little school girl, arms and legs covered with dark fabric, a hijab, and the normal school uniform on top. She looked quite silly.
Those in power seem to be trying to normalise the hijab. Politicians try and include a woman in hijab standing close, assuming it will convey how wonderfully tolerant they are. News items like to include a girl or woman wearing a hijab, whether or not it is relevant to the story. Even most of the advertisements we see on TV manage to include a woman in a hijab. They are trying to make it normal and accepted.
I have even heard people refer to the hijab or even full veiling, as 'empowering.'
Ilham Omar, American politician, says that it means 'power, liberation, beauty and resistance.'
After the attack on a New Zealand mosque, their Prime Minister, Jacinta Ardern, chose to wear a hijab as a symbol of solidarity, 'to bring people together,' she was saying.
And she encouraged other New Zealand girls and women to do the same.
There is even a World Hijab Day, supposedly to foster understanding and tolerance for those Muslim women who choose to wear the hijab. It was started in 2013, so this year, 2019, was its 6th year. Some schools encouraged their female pupils to take part, and there were Muslim volunteers who showed the girls a selection of hijabs they could model. Probably most of the girls thought it fun.
BUT WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE SAYING HERE?
The hijab is not a fashion accessory. It is not the practical wearing of a headscarf on windy days.
No. The hijab is a statement that women are inferior to men, and must conceal themselves in order not to tempt the poor, pure men into temptation.
In some cultures, they go further. After the Iranian revolution, the women were forced to wear the chador, and in Afganistan, when the Taliban took over, they forced women to envelop themselves in a burqa. Even in places like Indonesia, women are under pressure to cover more of their bodies.
The most extreme form of covering is dreadfully restrictive, until the women looks like a parcel, a non-person.This sort of garment is a real limitation on freedom. She cannot even see clearly, so trying to cross a road is hazardous - if, that is, she has the freedom to leave the house. In many Islamic cultures, women are slaves in all but name.
So wearing a hijab might make you feel good, virtuous maybe, demonstrating to the world what a wonderfully tolerant person you are?
But it is not virtuous to wave chains at those slaves who have no choice.
Women in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and other Arabic countries, can be beaten, or even imprisoned and tortured if they defy the strict dress code.It is happening and it is happening now.
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| Beating women in Afghanistan |
Now, a rational person might think that instead of forcing women to look like parcels in order not to tempt men into sexual indiscretion, it might be better to ensure the men learn self control, and if they do commit sexual crimes because they were 'tempted,' throw the men in prison, not the women. Because while the hijab is not particularly confining, the more extreme forms of veiling are akin to carrying your prison around with you. It is a wicked thing.
And lastly, the hijab is a symbol, not just of the oppression of women, but a symbol of an ideology that declares that non-believers should be put to death.
There are numerous verses in the Koran that say just that.
DO NOT WEAR THE HIJAB. Do not encourage those who would put women in chains.
And for those who call themselves 'feminists,' and yet tolerate this rot, then you had best stop calling yourself a feminist because you are no such thing!
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