So the Hijaab and the Niqaab- the topic that always seems to be on the spotlight when it comes to Muslim woman and is seen as a worldwide symbol of subjugation, oppression and backwardness. A piece of cloth that screams "I'm oppressing the one who is wearing me!". The cloth that that says "I'm uneducated, limited, forced into wearing it by my male-dominated religion".
So yes, this is the Hijab and Niqab in the eyes of many non-Muslims. But are they the ones who are wearing it? Do they know for a minute how it feels to be wearing it? Do they understand how it feels when you want to wear it but people who you know nothing about and who know nothing about you suddenly feel like they have all the rights to demand you to wear what they want?
Let me show you what it's like to be a Hijabi/Niqabi. No, no, no, no... Don't freak out. I know you might be disgusted with the very idea of even putting on Hijab/Niqab *virtually* but just step into our shoes for a moment. You might just begin to understand us.
In the shoes of a Hijabi/Niqabi
You choose to
wear the Hijab/Niqab because it is a personal choice and yet, people think you
are forced into wearing it.
Each time you step outside, you have to
endure taunts and insults and you are constantly being jeered at for
doing something you want to do.
You wear the Hijab/Niqab and they claim that
it subjugates you and you know that it's only a form of freedom for you.
They say you are oppressed and yet, they oppress you by questioning
your rights to wear what you want.
And on top of that, they claim that
you are accepting slavery when you know that by wearing the Hijab/Niqab, you
have never felt more free.
You feel free by wearing your tank top and shorts. We feel free by wearing the Hijab/Niqab. I mean just think about it- how would you feel if a person suddenly comes out of the blue and decides that he/she has all the rights in the world to tell you what is freedom and what is oppression. We all have a brain of our own and we are capable of thinking on our own, thank you very much. So yeah, what you think is oppression is my freedom and what you think is freedom is my oppression. This is how humans are. We are different, we have different ideas and we have different opinions. Be mature enough to embrace that.
But please, keep your opinions to yourself. What makes you think you have the right to force people to thinking in your way? Turn the tables around and a bit and give people their own freedom. Don't claim to be liberating them by forcing them to remove what they want to wear and then clap yourself on the back and say "Hey, I liberated that oh so poor oppressed soul by just forcing her to remove what she loves to wear which by the way is oppressive and I'm only doing her a favour by liberating her of that creepy piece of oppressive material".
Does is make sense? Of course not. I'm as baffled as you.
Think from a Hijabi's/Niqabi's perspective for just a
moment. She has a heart and she has a voice. Let that be heard as well.
If wearing the Hijab/Niqab is her form of freedom, then please, have the simple decency of giving her the freedom
she wants.
“Allah does not look at your figures, nor at your attire but He looks at your hearts [and deeds].” [Muslim]
It's ironic how some people talk of Islam as though women have been given no rights at all and that being brought up to live with modesty, associate only with the men that matter in our lives (our mahrams), wearing the Hijab/Niqab and getting married and caring for children is like living a caged up life. What's more ironic is that the same people who portray this false image of Muslim women are the ones who are, more often than not, leading a purposeless life.
Allah has created us for a purpose- which is to worship Him- and we simply can't forget about our purpose of existence and live life to the fullest, because as they say 'You life only once'. I'm not saying that you shouldn't live life to the fullest. Of course we should because this life is a gift from Allah to us, but we must never forget our main purpose which is to worship Him. If we wake up each day with no purpose to drive us, it's natural that we'll be like the walking dead and getting through a day will turn out to be a chore. Living with no restrictions and believing that this is freedom is absolutely foolish. Why? Because everything has its limits and so does freedom. When you exceed that limit, you can never make sense of your life.
What I'm trying to talk about here is that people, women in particular, don't realize their worth. We happen to blindly believe in whatever that we see on the media and movies and we tend to believe that that is life. Well you know what? It's not. It's all one huge lie and if we fall into that trap, then Shaitan has won won us over, Na'oozhubillah.
There is a reason why I say that what you see on the media are lies. How many times have we heard of celebrities suffering from depression and anxiety, which has even lead to suicide. Think of it- these celebrities apparently have everything they need: beauty, money, status, fame and of course, their freedom. Then why do they fall into depression? Everything that they have cannot keep them happy because they are straying away from the purpose of their creation. We have been created to obey and worship Allah and this is what our hearts yearn for. It's the Fitrah in which every single person is created with. So when we deprive ourselves of this, we get depressed and in extreme cases, even suicidal.
Pictures of celebrities and models are all over the web and on newspapers and even on the media, they are spoken of as mere entertainment and sexual objects. What's more, there is an entire community behind them that is dedicated solely to carefully scrutinizing and condemning the bodies of celebrities and models when they fail to get back in shape one month after giving birth or if they wear something which clearly doesn't meet the fashion standards of the current time or if their makeup isn't right or their skin has started sagging... I mean, you get the picture. A woman has no right over how she can behave and dress. Everything should be within the framework of fashion and when society dictates the way a woman must dress or be, then seriously, that is what is true oppression.
This kind of scrutiny is allowed and even welcomed by the media but how is that when it comes to a Muslim woman who chooses to cover herself with modesty and guard her chastity, it immediately opens up a plethora of opinions where they claim that Islam oppresses women.
In Islam, we women know our worth.
We refuse to bow down to the fashion of this world. Our submission is not to fashion nor is it to the media. It is only to Allah and this is the kind of freedom that brings immeasurable peace to our hearts.
We refuse to live by the kind of freedom portrayed by the media where the more skin you show, the more freedom people tend to think we are. No matter what anyone says, freedom can only truly be felt through modesty and people are going to respect you only if you respect yourself and your body.
We refuse to have pre-marital or extra-marital affairs where a woman if used up shamelessly by a man she hardly knows and then tossed over like some object that is not valued. We Muslim women uphold our chastity and modesty where we are respected for who we are.
We refuse to feel precious by caking ourselves with layers of makeup and then falling hopelessly depressed when we look at ourselves in the mirror without any makeup. The beauty standards of Islam teaches us to be happy in our own skin and we don't have to put up a fake makeup-ed face to feel confident and good.
Our freedom lies in obeying Allah, being modest and comfortable with who we are and we refuse to be subservient to fashion or men. We know our worth.
