1. Non Muslim men - Shut up about it.
2. Non Muslim women - see 1
3. Muslim men - see 1. I don’t know about anyone else but I’m really tired of men speaking for women. ESPECIALLY if your sole reason for supporting niqab is that tempting flesh must be covered because otherwise you can’t possibly keep it in your pants.
4. Muslim women who don’t cover - see 1 ESPECIALLY if you wax lyrical about how it’s all just cultural and it’s just a piece of cloth. Yes FOR YOU it is. Not necessarily for others.
5. Muslim women in hijab - see 1 ESPECIALLY if you feel the need to point out why you don’t wear it. Honestly. Are people not getting it yet? You don’t wear it so why YOU don’t doesn’t mean anything to someone who DOES.
6. Non-Muslim women who wear hijab/niqab for a day and think they know how it feels – SHUT UP.
7. Muslim women in niqab – Talk
—————–
Or to summarise:
1. Muslim women in niqab: Talk
2. Everyone else: Friggin’ LISTEN
I love this!
I understand 1, 2 and 6, but ever since the beginning of Islam no. 3 has been the main driving force. Let us not forget that it was through a man that women were told to cover (btw, I believe that Quran commands niqab not just headcover), and it was men who made sure free women covered and that enslaved women *uncovered* (I am referring to the famous incident in which Caliph Umar Ibn Khattab beat a slave who “tried to emulate free women” by veiling – modern scholar Hamza Yusuf has referred to this incident more than once).
As far as 4 and 5 are concerned, I think it is mostly the case when non-niqabi women are put down or psychologically forced to wear niqab that they begin to talk about it. As part of a now globalized and yet diverse ummah it is difficult not to talk about issues that are supposed to be ‘universal’ Islamic standards.
Seriously life has become so difficult. I miss the teenaged Muslim that I was; I never worried about all this and now that is all I think about.
Thanks! You are so right especially re: 3. I do think this post is oversimplified and the discussion is all a lot more nuanced than a bullet point post could cover. I think what spurred me to do this one is solely from the “western media” point of view that we are bombarded with. I am just so tired of the niqab debate. So tired of it. I am tired of hearing the same voices over and over and I can only count a couple of times that niqabis’ views were ever portrayed.
On the radio recently, I was relieved to hear one morning show had gotten 2 Muslim women to discuss niqab but after listening they were the “moderate, palatable” kind of Muslim who believed that it was just a cultural piece of cloth that meant nothing. Not saying anything against these women but is it so hard in Australia to get a woman who wears niqab to speak about why she does it instead of hearing about why others don’t? GAH. So over it, Achelois. So over it.
I know what you mean. If tomorrow all niqaabis took off their niqaabs how would it change anything for the West?! They’ll find something new – like all Muslim women shoudl leave their husbands because they are oppressive