By Shazmeen Khalid
17/03/2017
Before today, I was considering writing an
article about the controversy of the Hijab. I was considering writing about how
so many people choose to wear the Hijab despite the perturbing fear of being
judged by different communities and for a multitude of reasons. But I was going
to do that without admitting one thing which has been central to me writing it;
I don’t know if I want to continue wearing the Hijab.
SO here I am, another young Muslim woman
writing about the Hijab. Must I explain that my Hijab is not the centre? My
Hijab is not the definition of my journey however, it is the non-Muslim
perspective that says it is. Wearing Hijab does not limit me, it limits the
perceptions others have of me. In the non-Muslim world it marks me a Muslim, it
is an identifier. Hijab= she’s a Muslim. In the Muslim world, Hijab suddenly
jolts me into this world of religious practice, piety, the identity of a godly
woman. It also enables others to decree my ‘Muslimness’ by looking at how I
dress, behave, who I speak to and how I present myself.
Nonetheless, it seems more fitting to begin
with my reason for writing this.
To Hijab, Or Not To Hijab? That Is The
Question.
It is patronising in both communities when
this identification as a Muslim seems to mean that people can ask me things
like
“Are You Forced
To Wear That?” (Non-Muslim)
or
“Have You Read
Qur’an?” (Muslim)
This is because Hijab manifests as an
entitlement. Other people become entitled to ask certain things, to chastise me
for certain behaviours. A common example is how many Muslim men are offended by
my fashion, my decision to wear jeans and baggy shirts with my Hijab. It is not
Muslim enough; it is “disrespectful” to the ideology that Hijab was designed for
them. (It never was)
On the contrary, it is also a problem for
the non-Muslim, male, and white community.
“But why can’t we see your hair?”
“But why do you wear western clothes and
still have that thing on?”
So, I guess the question many of you ask is
why? Why do so many young Muslim women choose to wear it despite all the
controversy?
Aside from the few who wear the Hijab by
force, most of us wear the Hijab because believe it or not, we want to. We.
Actually. Have. A. Choice.
Thus begs the question, why does a
proportion of the male, Muslim narrative insist that there is only one way that
the Hijab exists and that there is no other possible way it should be worn or
else you are a Haraami.
Let’s look at it this way, the Hijab is
worn by so many women across the world - who have so many different fashions
and cultural attires. Here I’m expecting a bearded bloke to interject and give
me the classic “mixing Islam and culture is like dirty water” line. Let me stop
you right there. Women having varieties of attire, varieties of clothing that
have emerged as a result of them seeking an Islamic way of dressing is not
mixing culture into Islam, it’s an example of how widespread Islam is. But
until we are all wearing Niqabs and in full black, some Muslim men and women
will refuse to recognise it as Hijab at all. I cannot help but think that it is
the ignorance and lack of understanding or simply seeing the beauty in variety
that leads to such conflicting perceptions of the Hijab.
The situation is, Hijab does not come with
ownership. I cannot control the opinions that surround it. It is not just the
male narrative, but also the narrative within the female Muslim community, a
community that looks down on other Muslimas for being less Muslim, less
conservative, for being too loud in the way we present ourselves. And then
there’s the non-Muslim, female narrative that brands veiled women as oppressed
individuals. Where veiled Muslims are less acceptable members of society for
fear that they are extremists or training for Isis. Because don’t we all have
an Al-Qaeda handbook chilling in our backpacks? Among the hullabaloo of Muslims
being united under an umbrella and coming together to erase misunderstanding,
there is also a posse of self-proclaimed, Islam-preserving, quick-to-pull-out-the-Hadith-and-use-it-in-a-nonsensical-way
Muslims. Unless you have been living under a rock, you might be staring at that
statement wide-eyed and wondering what could possibly stir up such bitter hate
in the Muslim community. Successful Hijabi women, that’s what.
As I mentioned before, there is also the
issue that some people see assimilation (wearing western clothes) as a
deviation from Islam or seem to have a problem with Muslim women breaking down
social barriers and being successful individuals. Look at how people have
glossed over Noor Tagouri’s success just to bash her for using playboy as a
medium to talk about the real issues that exist for Muslim women today. Nobody
cared when Muhammed Ali and Malcolm X had feature articles in Playboy magazine!
But as soon as it concerns a successful Muslim woman who wears Hijab, all
metaphorical Jahannam breaks loose. I’m sure the issue isn’t her success, or
her choice to take up the opportunity from playboy, the problem is her Hijab.
It echoes what I said before, how wearing the Hijab suddenly entitles others to
judge us, to mock us, to decree our Muslimness on the Muslim chart. Here we
have Muslim men comparing Tagouri’s article to “Dawah in a brothel”, again,
complete derailment and smothering of a Muslim woman’s success by using
distorted analogies. In a letter to her public, Tagouri stated:
“I knew that Playboy had overhauled the
look of the magazine and took out the nudity; that was great but it wasn’t
enough. This wasn’t a decision that I could take lightly. I spent time talking
to my family and mentors, praying about it, and asking the writers a ton of
questions. While doing my research, I learned that the magazine was committed
to putting social justice and cultural progress at the forefront of their
mission. It may sound wrong and it may make you uncomfortable to associate
Playboy with social justice and cultural progress, but that’s what I do.”
Both her article and her letter were
refreshing, especially for a young Muslim such as myself who is struggling with
her identity and is torn between the spectrum of arguments surrounding the
Hijab. Believe it or not, it was just the push I needed to convince myself not
to ‘dejab’. It was the push that I needed to confirm that no matter how many
non-Muslims don’t understand it and no matter how many Muslims bash Muslim
women and undermine their individuality and success, I can still wear my Hijab
and be me.
Shazmeen Khalid is a Multicultural Blogger, Poetess and Intersectional
Feminist
Source:
huffingtonpost.co.uk/shazmeen-khalid/Hijab_b_15394602.html
URL: http://www.newageislam.com/islam,-women-and-feminism/shazmeen-khalid/to-hijab-or-de-jab?/d/110443