An Attack on the Muslim Woman’s Dress By Yasmin Patel

In the midst of pressing issues such as economic downturn, climate change, child welfare and world poverty, many political leaders and media outlets have yet chosen to focus on a piece of cloth that is worn by a fraction of Muslims. The niqab - or the face veil - has once again been at the centre of attention. The veil has been attacked in the past when on 22nd June 09 French President Nicholas Sarkozy, in his speech to the French Parliament, labelled the niqab “...a sign of the enslavement, the subjugation, the submission of women”.

The veil has been accused of being a mark of difference in society, despite its centuries old existence. Migrants from the Asian sub-continent brought a host of different customs, including dress codes and ingredients that had never been witnessed before. They had the opportunity to interact with different people in order to explain their different way of life. Today even the non-Asian women are fond of the ‘Shalwaar Kameez’ dress and the Indian curries are also very popular. Similarly, at one time the Muslim woman’s dress was respected, understood and a problem with communication was non-existent.

This concept of ‘difference’ therefore needs to be understood in context. Today we live in a post 9/11 era, where Muslims are under constant scrutiny and spied on via the Preventing Violent Extremism strategy; where the Muslim community is treated to be susceptible to ‘radicalisation’ and their faith perceived to be a threat to the apparent progressive Western nation. When such ideas are circulating in the society via popular media outlets, politicians and government strategies, a piece of cloth belonging to the Muslim woman is bound to be seen as a mark of difference, and even anti-social.

We interviewed Umm Mohammad on the Muslimah Today* radio show, on Unity fm on the 19th October 09. A mother of four, a teacher, a student and a parent governor, she has been wearing the face veil for nearly 12 years. She told us that the niqab has never hindered her to partake in day to day activities. She explained that non-Muslim parents happily approach her as a governor to discuss any problems they have. Examples like this show that the claim that a Muslim woman needs to make an effort to interact more, or is by any means isolated by the dress she chooses to adorn herself with, is baseless. Muslim women wearing the Islamic dress fully participate in society as doctors; teachers; scientists; governors; care workers and students.

The rhetoric of the submission of women via the Islamic dress is common. When I made the decision to adopt the hijaab (headscarf) and jilbaab (long dress) during my school days, my father had repeatedly asked me to remove both. Today he respects and encourages the Islamic dress. And it is true that today Muslim women are confidently adopting Islamic values, whether it is through the hijaab, jilbaab or niqab, even though they are encouraged to ‘liberate’ themselves.

Many countries such as Holland and Denmark are considering a ban on the niqab, and Egypt’s Sheikh Mohamed Sayyed Tantawi is the latest to join the bandwagon. Earlier this month Sheikh Tantawi, head of Al-Azhar University in Egypt, ordered a school girl in Cairo to remove her niqb and stated that he would seek a ban on the face veil in all schools affiliated to Al-Azhar. By saying the veil is a form of tradition as opposed to stemming from Islamic text, his remarks have legitimised the wish of various Western governments to ban the veil in their own countries.

It is naïve however to think that the controversy surrounding the niqab revolves around whether or not the face veil is obligatory to wear. The attack needs to be understood in context of the recent spotlight on Islam and many of its values. This attack comes at a time when there has been an attempt to examine every Islamic belief and obligation, labelling it as extreme, unacceptable, oppressive and a threat to Western societies. For example, the hijab, jilbab, the Islamic marriage contract, the Islamic view on women, divorce and polygamy, its ruling and punishments systems, its view on homosexuality, its political beliefs, have all been scrutinised. By such attacks Muslims are being coerced to leave their faith in exchange for secular ones. Andre Gerin, the French legislator who originally proposed the bill banning the face veil in France and who now chairs the French niqab parliamentary commission commented, “..The burqa is the tip of the iceberg.....Islamism really threatens us”.

The response of the Muslim community living in the West has been divided. Many Muslim women have defended the Islamic dress as their right to wear it. I recently joined a facebook group titled “I wear the hijaab and I am as normal as you are”. The description reads “It is our right and it is part of our faith”. The argument of “rights” however has no basis in Islam. The premise of a Muslim woman’s adoption of the Islamic way is her understanding of the need to adopt Islam as her reference point in all matters, as opposed to it being her right to do so. The latter implies that a Muslim woman has the right not to comply with Islam; however a believer in Allah takes Him as the legislator in all her affairs.

Those that believe the veil is born from tradition have supported the call for a ban. The Muslim Canadian Congress, for example, has earnestly supported government bans on the dress in their countries on the basis of the belief that it does not stem from Islamic texts. When attacking the Islamic dress, the anti-Islamic sentiments generated make no distinction between those who believes the face veil to be an Islamic obligation, recommendation or matter of choice in the religion. The current controversy surrounding the niqab is an issue that affects us all. It is a part of a series of attacks on the Islamic way of life, as opposed to the veil itself.

In fact, this very division of those who believe the niqab is an obligation, and those who do not seeks to weaken the Muslims. The attempt to weaken the unity of the Muslims through generating potential causes for division is nothing new to us. We are all familiar with terms such as 'moderate/extremist' and 'Sunni/Shia'.

The Muslims must stay united on the issue of the niqab. The classical scholars of Islam have differed in their views regarding the face veil. However, they all recognised it as a valid Islamic opinion and therefore never allowed the issue to become a cause of division amongst them.

Whilst the Islamic way of life is being debated in today’s climate, it is important that the Muslims lead the debate, rather than be led. Islam came to free women from the subjugation of man, and the Muslim women are fully capable of deciding whether it is Islam or secular values that cause women to be exploited as mere commodities for the pleasure of men.


*Muslimah Today is a radio show aired on Unity fm 93.5 every Mondays 4-6pm


Yasmin Patel is an undergraduate studying Political Science and Sociology at the University of Birmingham.

Hijab and a rant (over a cup of Kashmiri chai )

I’m drinking an incredibly sweet cup of kashmiri tea and going through my emails. I’ve deleted a few hundred old ones and have just come across a really nice one about hijab that made me want to write this post.

Here it is.

"...When I was about 7 or 8 I asked my mother this question of why we cover, and to my surprise she responded with, "Let's go shopping". So we headed out to the mall and passed by a few stores, we went into Claire's and saw all the beaded jewellery and the fake crystals all lying around in piles in the store. Some people touched them, some people picked them up then put them back down, some people tried them on, and most of them were not even noticed. Then we went to a diamond store. There, we saw only a few select pieces of jewellery. Rare stones, hidden under glass containers. Sealed with the highest security systems. Kept protected from the hands of those who couldn't pay the price of handling them. My mother looked at me and said, "Which would you rather be?"

This ties in nicely with a video about hijab that my friend showed me a few days ago. It got me thinking about women in Islam again. Over the past year I’ve heard too many talks and read too many articles where Muslim women are a target for criticism, where they are blamed and condemned and scolded. When it comes to women suddenly everything becomes a matter of debate. Should Muslim women be on TV? Should they be allowed to give presentations in mosques? Can they wear t-shirts with logos? Are pink and hijabs appropriate? Should they be going to university?

That’s why this video was a little breath of fresh air.



I don’t claim to know the answers to all of these above questions but the fact that women are always a topic of debate annoys me to say the least. Don’t we get enough of it from the media?! Has anyone seen Nicky Campbell’s show The Big Questions? Hijab and niqab have been the central subject one too many times.  Now why do Muslim men insist on pressing this subject? I feel as though Muslim women are constantly being reprimanded by Muslim men and stereotyped by the non Muslim population, so there’s no way of avoiding  criticism.

It’s as though some muslims believe that to judge the state of Islam in the West today we need to judge the state of the Muslim women.

Really, it feels like that sometimes.

Don’t get me wrong; I know this is not the attitude of all men and that yes, women do need to be corrected for the things that we do wrong, but then so do men! And I also have a lot of appreciation for the many scholars like Hamza Yusuf who stick up for us. But also, I’d like women to take the initiative to speak out for themselves more. Especially regarding women’s rights in Islam. There’s just something comically ironic about a Muslim man trying to persuade a crowd of non-Muslims that Muslim women are liberated. How are they going to believe that when there’s not a single Muslim woman in sight? If a woman tried to tell an audience of men what it felt like to be a man surely there’d be a room full of raised eyebrows? Because how can a woman know what it’s like to be a man?

So in the same way a man cannot really know what it’s like to be a woman wearing hijab in this society. Of course they know the rationale behind hijab but how can a man know how it truly makes us feel?

So women should be the one talking about issues like this, we shouldn't rely on our brothers all the time. In one of the debates about hijab in ‘The Big Questions’ a Muslim woman in the audience did just this, she spoke up about the benefits of hijab really forcefully and the audience looked simply stunned.

More of this please!

I’ve shortened this post considerably, there’s so much more I wanted to write but just haven’t got the time. And now my tea’s gone cold. Oh well, it’s worth it, this is an essential topic I’m always musing over and I thought it was about time I shared my thoughts about it. Please comment and let me know what you think!