That Veil Thing

Recently, Al-Gassra Roqaya Bahrain participated in the Beijing Olympics wearing a scarf and a jersey full length. I was surprised that her running gear did not occasion more comment. But if you’re wearing a modest track suit allows him to compete in a sport that would not otherwise feel comfortable competing, I think it’s wonderful. I’ve seen posts from several Muslim women cheering her on account of solidarity, and I sympathize. But I still vaguely troubled, because in all the discussions on Muslim headscarves, I often see a gaping hole black.

And that is the question of whether head covering is required first. Although Muslims rightly celebrate al-Gassra demonstration that respect for religious dress is not an obstacle to Olympic dreams, they assume that al-Gassra of headgear is an Islamic requirement. What happiness, they say, the Islamic dress did not prevent Al-Gassra to be a world class runner!

But what is Islamic dress? And a head covering is required? Muslims and non-Muslims in recent years to assume that an edict is clear. Add to that Iran and the requirement imposed by the State of Saudi Arabia’s headdress, and the question becomes a matter of personal faith to a political office.

When I grew up in Southern California, the mosque “I attended was just a group of families gathering in the garage of a person to teach their children some rudimentary aspects of religion. Gradually, as more families joined, we rented a community center. Finally, we bought our own building, with parking. The women who came to our mosque were almost all immigrants of various nationalities. But very few have covered their hair. Those who did not would have told you that Islam does not need and that hat was a personal choice.

I do not cover my hair, except – as all Muslim women do – when I pray. However, even the custom is not as absolute as we learn to think, some researchers cite evidence showing that early Islam, women, even prayed with head uncovered.

Recently, when I enrolled my children in classes at the local mosque, I was told that my daughter and I both had to cover our hair (in fact, that only our faces and hands and feet may show) just so that she could attend classes. When I objected that hat was not the unanimity required by Islam, and certainly not required for girls 8 years, I was told unequivocally that yes, he was, he is perfectly Well maintained, neither I nor my daughter could come to Sunday School without covering my hair. We did not last very long in this mosque.

What happened in between?

From the late 1970s, Saudi-style Islam – Salafi or Wahhabi called – started deliberately Muslim influence in the world through the funding of Wahhabi mosques with imams and allowances granted to those who promoted their brand of Islam. Wahhabism, founded in the 18th century, has always been regarded as extreme in its theology, and was rejected by leading Muslim scholars over the years. He has never qualified as a school of Islamic thought that mutually recognize each other as valid.

The Saudis, while fewer than 2 percent of Muslims worldwide, have disproportionately influenced Muslim practice (and the perception non-Muslims in Islam) for several reasons: they have more wealth than any other Muslim country, they control the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, and they have Western allies. The type of Saudi Islam – if it looks like the true form of Islam – is very involved in conservative, patriarchal Arab culture. Religious authorities in Saudi Arabia to interpret Islam in such a way that women are not allowed to drive, vote, show their hair, or being alone with male strangers to them. But this philosophy is out of step with 90 percent of the Muslim world.

Muhammad, the Prophet of Islam, never forced women to cover their hair. Muhammad always included women in political and societal debates. He has appointed at least one woman as imam of his house mixed. Even at the beginning of Islam, a woman could be a qadi, or judge. Women could be muftis, or qualified religious scholars. For the seventh century, it was feminist, progressive thinking.

Last year, a radio series featuring a convert to Islam, who wore the niqab or face veil. (I had never seen one of these up to twenty-eight years and had moved to London, where many Arab women on vacation.) She insisted that the niqab was “recommended” and I must admit I I felt – despite my advocacy of various points of view – very angry. Face-veils, even at the beginning of Islam, were “recommended” by a very small minority of men.

The Koran simply requires modesty for both men and women, and this, in language almost identical for men than for women. The Qur’an also urges women to “draw their garments more closely at themselves.” But even the earliest Islamic scholars disagreed on what constituted modest compatible with these verses. All agreed that the legs above the knees must be covered, and chest. Most, but not all, said only faces, hands and feet must show. Very, very few felt that the face should be covered. Therefore, As the chest and legs above the knees are covered, there is room for personal, valid interpretation of Islamic modesty.

However, it is interpreted, almost all scholars are agreed that the purpose of modesty has been to prevent damage to women who do not have much power at that time and whose head coverings or veils were to send a protected status.

In addition, in the 7th century to spread Islam in the Arabian Peninsula and Persian and Byzantine empires, where many women cover their hair or wearing the veil as a sign of high social status (women working in Fields could not afford to be so crowded). As the Arabs decided to many cultures, they have often absorbed the customs and traditions of these cultures. Muslim scholars have been developing the Islamic doctrine along the spread of Islam, and could not help but be influenced by cultural norms.

But that’s okay! The first discussions on Islam on appropriate clothing taken into account the established practices and cultural norms. Significantly, this aspect seems to be absent from our discussions today on the hijab.

A woman should be able to dress as she wants. Of course, there are limits to the United States, too, not only religious, but cultural ones those, for example, we do not allow people to appear naked in public and we demand that – for public safety – license should show faces. But the headscarf ban is as much a violation of individual liberty as requiring. In Turkey and France, where women were not allowed to wear headscarves in public institutions, dozens of women have been tragically deprived of the opportunity to attend school or find employment.

It’s wonderful that Al-Roqaya Ghassra Olympian dressed as she was, because the hijab is a choice and it is not “religious dress” or oppression. It is a decision about modesty, the same as wearing long sleeves instead of short or a high neck instead of a free fall. Her choice is not the same as mine – but it should not be under Islam.

? 2008 sumbul Ali Karamali

Author Bio
Sumbul Karamali Ali grew up in California frequently answering difficult questions about Islam and its practices posed by friends, colleagues and neighbors. (“What do you mean you can not go to the prom because of your religion?”) She holds a BA from Stanford University and a JD from the University of California at Davis and earned a graduate degree in Islamic law at the University of London School of Oriental and African Studies. She was a teaching assistant in Islamic Law at SOAS and a research associate at the Centre of Islamic and Middle Eastern Law in London. His book, The Muslim Next Door, is available from White Cloud Press.

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