SHOULD MUSLIM WOMEN BE ALLOWED?

An interesting debate is taking place in the U.K. It appears that Jack Straw, the leader in the House of Commons has objected to Muslim women in Britain wearing veils over their faces with only the eyes showing. He said veils cause “separation” from society?

PM Blair has sort of seconded Snow’s views. He made comments about the difficulty of integration into British society while wearing a veil.

It appears that Britain, like France, has also taken a stance against women covering their faces while attending and teaching in schools. They have a logical reason – no one can understand them when their faces and mouths are covered – good point.

Another point of ridiculousness is not allowing pictures for ID cards or licenses to be taken without a veil – give me a break!

Muslim women state that the veil is a sign of modesty in their culture and not wearing one makes them feel uncomfortable. Modesty has its place in polite society and we do cross the bounds of modesty all the time – just visit one of our shopping malls but the human face was never something that offended anyone’s sense of modesty, in any culture at any time in our history. I think it has more to do with the rules Muslim men folk have made up and not about how Muslim women actually feel.

I remember traveling to Malaysia which is a partly Muslim country. The women there observed the dress customs but the material they used was silk, multi-colored and clinging. They wore a lot of makeup and what they did show was very good looking.

I believe women are the same all over the world; they want to look good and that is, I believe, a biological trait – trying to attract the male gaze for biological reasons, etc. – they cannot help it! To make them cover up is against nature and satisfies only male jealousy which appears to be an epidemic among Muslim men – hell, they even have 90 years old women cover up and where is the logic there?

I suppose we should respect cultural differences BUT we are not the ones trying to integrate into their culture! So do the Brits and the Frogs have a point?

Many immigrants bring their style of dress with them to their adopted country but many if not all eventually take on the dress of the country they have adopted – they want to fit in.

In my own area, we have many from India. I see the older Indians still wearing their traditional dress as they take their walks around the neighborhood. I do not see that many younger Indians doing the same. I would never dream of not allowing them to wear what they want to but why is covering your face DIFFERENT; because it’s mandatory?

Desert dwellers covered their faces (men and women) to keep the sand out of their mouths. People that still live in the desert continue to cover their faces while in the desert, but they take the wraps off when they come out of the desert. Western cowboys did the same as evidenced by all those movies of cowboys on cattle drives.

I guess what I am saying is that ancient traditions have a place in culture and many of us celebrate those traditions on special occasions where we dress up in historic garb to commemorate those times but I think the total covering of the female body including the face in today’s world is a perversion of culture and tradition that occurred at a time in history where religious leaders were trying to dominate the population especially the females and to bring them into total domination by males. Hell, the same thing happened in Christianity – remember women having to cover their heads before entering a church – the men did not have to.

We have seen in Afghanistan when the Taliban was no longer in power and women threw away their head to toe coverings but the religious police started beating them until they went back to wearing those burkas. To me this is proof that this is a male rule specifically adopted and enforced by males to dominate the women in their society.

If we are to consider ourselves, in the West, as somewhat socially progressive, then we must stand by our principals and if we are convinced that the facial veil is a repressive rule for domination, we should not allow it in our land.

I know this thought process was a little rambling but I am just trying to get my bearings on this issue. I think it is a crucial issue for our society and maybe for the world as a whole because this one issue may expose the dark side of Islamic culture that has nothing to do with Islam or the Quran. This may actually embolden moderate Muslims to stand up and make their voices heard – finally and just in time!

Janusz