I wear the hijab.
"The hijab is purely cultural..."
So said the woman from Dubai on the Oprah show today. I turned to my father and asked him if he believed that was true. It was a menial question to me; simply, one of those things you ask when (you assume) you know how the person will answer. How wrong was I: he said yes.
What he didn't realize then as he answered was that he was completely dismissed a life-altering commitment I had made as a 14-year old one summer. It is for the sake of God and my convictions as a Muslim that influenced me to that decision. It is my irrevocable confidence in the hijab as an emancipator of lechery and enhancer of feminine worth. No "culture" is powerful enough to drive an American-born teenager to forever conceal her pretty hair and tanned skin. Only faith and deference (to God).
I respect your free will to not wear the hijab, without judgement. Islam is a religion of free choice (contrary to practiced disciplines); our actions can only be judged by no other than God. Of course it is a woman's own choice to decide to wear the most delicate accessory, the hijab.
The woman continued.
"I'm becoming a feminist, Oprah."
To my understanding, feminism finds itself applicable to a situation in which a female is subjugated in a manner such as denying her right of choice or restricting her right of action. In no way does the choice of not wearing the hijab constitute as a victory for feminism. I shudder to imply her meaning that wearing the hijab constitutes a fall from feminism. I was offended, slightly. Although I do find her words true in some Islamic societies where women are chained to a regulated dress code (of which I scorn to call 'Islamic')...
My father explained as he saw my face twist: not one woman in his childhood growing up in Ethiopia had worn the 'hijab' as I've come to know it. Hijab is relative, he explained. Women loosely wore it in public, if at all. Culture played a role in the apparel. However, when he visited in 2007, more and more women wore the hijab. A change in the understanding of religion, perhaps?
I wish I could exhume everything's meaning; rather, I wish everyone in this world were more open-minded, more understanding, and less blinded by ignorance and personal convictions.
So said the woman from Dubai on the Oprah show today. I turned to my father and asked him if he believed that was true. It was a menial question to me; simply, one of those things you ask when (you assume) you know how the person will answer. How wrong was I: he said yes.
What he didn't realize then as he answered was that he was completely dismissed a life-altering commitment I had made as a 14-year old one summer. It is for the sake of God and my convictions as a Muslim that influenced me to that decision. It is my irrevocable confidence in the hijab as an emancipator of lechery and enhancer of feminine worth. No "culture" is powerful enough to drive an American-born teenager to forever conceal her pretty hair and tanned skin. Only faith and deference (to God).
I respect your free will to not wear the hijab, without judgement. Islam is a religion of free choice (contrary to practiced disciplines); our actions can only be judged by no other than God. Of course it is a woman's own choice to decide to wear the most delicate accessory, the hijab.
The woman continued.
"I'm becoming a feminist, Oprah."
To my understanding, feminism finds itself applicable to a situation in which a female is subjugated in a manner such as denying her right of choice or restricting her right of action. In no way does the choice of not wearing the hijab constitute as a victory for feminism. I shudder to imply her meaning that wearing the hijab constitutes a fall from feminism. I was offended, slightly. Although I do find her words true in some Islamic societies where women are chained to a regulated dress code (of which I scorn to call 'Islamic')...
My father explained as he saw my face twist: not one woman in his childhood growing up in Ethiopia had worn the 'hijab' as I've come to know it. Hijab is relative, he explained. Women loosely wore it in public, if at all. Culture played a role in the apparel. However, when he visited in 2007, more and more women wore the hijab. A change in the understanding of religion, perhaps?
I wish I could exhume everything's meaning; rather, I wish everyone in this world were more open-minded, more understanding, and less blinded by ignorance and personal convictions.