The superficial issues in Islam

I'm a Muslim woman and I don't believe that I'm obligated to wear a veil. Every woman has the right to choose what they want to wear. However, I personally think that educated women who wear hijab are committing a disservice to other women...especially those women who are lawyers, work in media, the public sphere, etc. They are perpetuating the notion that women can't be taken seriously unless they are covered or "protected" by fabric. I find it interesting that many of the women I know who wear hijab also wear heavy makeup. In fact, I think wearing hijab in western society attracts more attention because it's making a statement and the hijabi is announcing to the world that her hair is so distracting that she must cover it up, but then highlights her other attributes by painting her face. Personally, I believe that the verse in the Quran regarding the way a woman should dress is about general modesty, not about hiding behind a veil. I have a hard time reconciling that God would discriminate against half of the population. Why should women carry the burden of protecting men from their weaknesses?

Now Tony Blair is raising a different issue regarding the veil: Muslim woman who cover their whole face (niqab) are making other Brits uncomfortable. Hmmm.. my initial thought is this: TOO BAD FOR THEM. Whether people make others uncomfortable by their attitude, demeanor, multiple piercings, wearing the same plaid pants everyday, it's not their responsibility to make anyone feel at ease. I may not believe in hijab/niqab for myself, but everyone has the right to dress the way they choose. However, I remember while I was working at the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, face-masks were banned for security reasons... so perhaps there is a legitimate argument against wearing niqab in high-security environments...but not in normal everyday-like circumstances. It will be interesting to see what happens.



NY Times article:
October 17, 2006
Blair Says Muslim Veil Is a "Mark of Separation"
By ALAN COWELL
LONDON, Oct. 17: Prime Minister Tony Blair today joined a passionate and increasingly corrosive debate over the use of the Islamic full-face veil by some British Muslim women, calling it a "mark of separation."

His remarks reflected a sense that British society is heading toward ever deeper fissures between its Muslim minority and non-Muslim majority, evoking questions about the nation’s readiness to embrace its Muslim minority and the minority’s own willingness to adapt.

The discussion mirrors earlier public disputes in France, Turkey and elsewhere about Muslim headgear — though, in Britain, the debate is largely limited to the use of the full-face veil known as the niqab.

“It is a mark of separation and that is why it makes other people from outside the community feel uncomfortable,” Mr. Blair said when asked at a regular news conference whether he believed women wearing a full-faced veil could make a complete contribution to society.

There were signs, too, today, that the dispute had spread further across Europe. In an interview in Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi was quoted as saying women should not be hidden behind veils.

“You can’t cover your face, you must be seen,” Mr. Prodi told Reuters, adding: “This is common sense I think; it is important for our society. It is not how you dress but if you are hidden or not.”

In Muslim societies the full veil is sometimes worn to shield women from the view of men outside their immediate family. The debate about its use among a small number of British Muslim women has crystallized around the case of Aishah Azmi, a teaching assistant suspended by a local council for refusing to remove her full-face veil during class in the presence of male teachers.

Mr. Blair said he could “see the reason” for Mrs. Azmi to be suspended from her job at a Church of England school in Dewsbury, Yorkshire, where there is a substantial Muslim minority. Within hours, her lawyers issued a statement accusing Mr. Blair of interfering in a labor tribunal case about Mrs. Azmi’s suspension and they demanded a retraction.

It was the first time Mr. Blair had so explicitly backed Jack Straw, the leader of the House of Commons, who raised Muslim ire earlier this month by saying he did not believe women should wear the full-face veil, a form of headdress, usually black, with only a narrow slit for the eyes. The argument against the niqab, according to critics like Mr. Straw, is that it prevents communication and sets its wearer visibly apart.

“No one wants to say that people don’t have the right to do it,” Mr. Blair said, referring to the use of the full-face veil. “That is to take it too far. But I think we need to confront this issue about how we integrate people properly into our society.”

“We have to deal with the debate,” Mr. Blair said. “People want to know that the Muslim community in particular, but actually all minority communities, have got the balance right between integration and multiculturalism.”

The debate is depicted by Muslims as a symbol of stigmatization by the non-Muslim majority.

The leader of the Muslim Council of Britain, Muhammad Bari, said in an open letter that some Muslims had been considering changing their names “in order to avoid anti-Muslim remarks. This is what happens when a community is singled out by those at the helm of affairs.”

Non-Muslims say it shows a reluctance among the 1.6 million Islamic minority (3 percentof the population) to compromise for the sake of social harmony. David Davis, the Conservative opposition spokesman on home affairs, said last weekend that British Muslims risked creating "voluntary apartheid" by displays of separateness such as the full-face veil.

The gulf has been widening since the July 7, 2005, London bombings by British Muslims, but the argument has sharpened in recent weeks. In late September, Abu Izzadeen, a convert to Islam regarded by Muslims and others as a radical, harangued John Reid, the home affairs minister, at a public meeting in east London. Significantly, he called the minister an "enemy of Islam and Muslims," demanding to know how Mr. Reid could venture into a Muslim area when he had ordered the arrest of Muslims in recent counterterror operations.

Then, after Mr. Straw questioned the wearing of the niqab veil in early October, a government education minister, Phil Woolas, went further last weekend, calling openly for Mrs. Azmi, the teaching assistant, to be dismissed. A slew of other government ministers, now including the prime minister, have joined the debate.

The discussion spills over into Britain's broader embroilment in the campaign against terrorism and the war in Iraq. Mr. Blair and others say Muslims must do more to police their own ranks, while some Muslims say Britain’s deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan accelerates the radicalization of young Muslim men like the July 7 bombers.

Last week, Britain's top army commander, Sir Richard Dannatt, said British troops should be pulled out of Iraq “some time soon.

But today Mr. Blair said : “If we walk away before the job is done from either of those two countries, we will leave a situation in which the very people we are fighting everywhere, including the extremism in our own country, are heartened and emboldened and we can’t afford that to happen. So we have got to see that job through.