Posted on 06/08/2008 10:59:18 AM PDT by rocksblues
When I came to this country, I took off my hijab. It wasn't an easy decision. I worried at night that God would punish me for it. That's what I had been taught would happen, and it filled me with fear.
I was 27, coming from my home country of Iraq to study in California. I hoped that by taking off the hijab I had been wearing for eight years, I would be able to maintain a low profile. In Baghdad, you keep a low profile to stay alive. But in the United States, I merely wanted not to be judged.
snip
But even as the hijab kept me safe, it became a burden for many others. After the fall of Saddam Hussein, there was a dramatic increase in the number of women wearing the hijab. Since then, as religious groups have gained more power, it has become dangerous to be spotted without one -- so much so that even Christian women now wear the hijab when they go out. To me, that signified that something was wrong with my country.
snip
At the same time, I was disappointed. We shouldn't have to hide the fact that we're Muslims in order to be treated like everyone else. In some ways, it's as bad to feel pressure to take off the hijab in the United States as it is to be pressured to keep it on in Baghdad. It's sad that people here do not always accept you for who you are.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
I think that this women is right that a lot of people judge others for being Muslim... but I think that people would judge them less if they saw more Muslims take public stands against other Muslims who believe in radical ideologies outside the “peaceful” teachings of their religion.
Ah, a friend who traveled to Holland also encountered one of those ‘hole’ toilets there, as have friends who’ve been to Greece, Russia and France! They were a little stunned at first.
The sisters have been out of the habit for years.
You guys have good taste.
Is that a fashion show for jihadis?
Agree. When I see a woman wearing a hijab, I see an enemy.
I should have provided a caption and link.
___________________________________________________
Iranian models display Iran's traditional and Islamic clothes during the "Women From My Homeland" fashion festival in Tehran, 08 July 2007. The 10-day international festival including Islamic fashion shows and exhibitions started last week in Tehran.
I don’t, at present, see an enemy. But I do see someone who is making no effort to differentiate herself from those who want to kill me.
Understandably, I believe, this makes me unwilling to assume that she is on my side until proven otherwise.
You are right. In America, if you wear a hijab, you might get a few funny looks, but people will leave you alone. In some Muslim countires, if you don't wear one, you might get killed. How can she compare the risk of getting stared at with the risk of death?
You said it.
Some have, some haven't. Interestingly, the congregations of nuns who don't wear habits are graying and dying out
Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, MN
... and attracting lots of new novices!
(Nashville Dominicans of St. Cecilia)
The hijab is a unifying symbol for Sharia and Islam. The Turks know enough to have outlawed it (for the umpteenth time) from being worn on University campuses. Their national court thus decreed just last week. Sometimes a cigar isn’t just a cigar.
Islam’s Hatred of the Clitoris
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com
IF YOU HATE WOMEN, and you hate their sexuality, and you are terrified that you cannot control it, the most effective thing you can do is to mutilate female sexual pleasure. This can be done by a sexual lobotomy, which will destroy an essential and sacred part of a woman’s natural makeup. In achieving this feat on all women, you will become able to ruthlessly dominate them.
That’s what female circumcision is all about.
It’s about obliterating the clitoris, or the entire outer vagina. It is the barbarity that exists where misogyny festers most: in the Muslim and African world.
The Muslims are the principal religious group that practice female circumcision. In Egypt, for instance, 97 percent of women are circumcised. Their clitorises are amputated. In countries like Sudan, meanwhile, the women-haters are not so kind: all the women’s external genital organs are completely removed. In a savagery called infibulation, the clitoris, the two major outer lips (labia majora) and the two minor inner lips (labia minora) are amputated.
Nawal El Saadawi has documented these horrifying realities in The Hidden Face of Eve: Women in the Arab World. She demonstrates how the violence of female circumcision is performed on girls anywhere from the ages of one month to puberty. Usually, it is done around the age of seven or eight. Anesthetics are never used. The child is pinned down by several women, while one of them attacks.
After infibulation, the small outer opening of the vagina is the only portion left intact. A tiny piece of wood or reed is inserted to allow urine and menstrual blood to seep out. Extra narrowing of the opening is carried out with stitches, which remain until marriage. The victim’s legs are often bound together from hip to ankle and she is immobile for about a month or two.
This violence has to occur because, in much of the Islamic world, the female’s genital area is considered dirty and unacceptable. For example, in Egypt the uncircumcised girl is called nigsa (unclean). Thus, it has to be made “clean.”
Many of the victims lose their lives during this torture – which is often inflicted with broken glass. Many other victims are afflicted with acute and chronic infections for the rest of their lives.
With serious and disabling lifelong consequences, the mutilation robs women of their equilibrium. It deprives them from enjoying the fullness of their sexuality and the completeness of their lives. In terms of sexual pleasure, for instance, we know that approximately 75 percent of women cannot achieve orgasm without clitoral stimulation. In other words, the possibility of orgasm has been obliterated for tens of millions of women in the Muslim world. So what does it mean if the psychic, mental and physical health of women cannot be complete if they do not experience sexual pleasure?
The terror of the circumcision itself tracks its traumatized victims down like a nightmare. Most, if not all, of these poor women end up suffering from serious sexual and/or mental distortions. The mutilation of their sexual being becomes the epicenter where sex and violence meet constantly in their lives – with them as victims.
Wedding night is often quite eventful. In some parts of the Arab and African world, the husband assaults the wife after the wedding. In Somalia, for instance, the groom beats the bride with a leather whip. After this romantic apex, he cuts the sealed vagina with a sharp scalpel or razor in order to have intercourse. He then has prolonged repeated intercourse with her for a week – to prevent the scarring from closing the vaginal opening again. During this time the wife must lie still and not move. Meanwhile, the husband takes the bloody sharp object, which represents the virginity of his wife, and makes rounds around the community – showing it off for approval. Scholars such as Raphael Patai and Vincent Crapanzano have documented these phenomena.
After this honeymoon period, the woman is now, for the first time in her life, actually recognized as a person – because she has become the extension of her husband. Her status might even improve if she has a child (a boy). She will be humiliated and shamed, however, if she has a non-child (a girl).
And if a little innocent girl enters this world, it will only be a short time before her genitals share the same fate as that of her mother’s. When the torturers and soul-destroyers begin to slice, who will hear her cries?
LINK: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=FAF491EC-5264-4163-A404-7727E25D8E73
ARTICLE SNIPPET:
"At the same time, when I put it on, I feel at home, as if I wasn't far away. It makes me miss the days when I used to match the color of my hijab with my clothes. The hijab was a part of my identity, a part of who I was, and those memories can't be erased. Zainab Mineeia worked as a translator and reporter for The Times in Iraq in 2005 and 2006. She is now a graduate student at the Missouri School of Journalism."
SICK!
I like seeing the nuns/sisters in habits. We don’t see that much around here anymore.
Well said.
Personally, when I see women wearing this,and it’s happening more around here, I do give a *funny look* because I understand the history and reason, which to me is odd.
Her comparing these funny or odd looks to risk of death for not wearing one, makes no sense to me.
If she wants to dress like she is on a Halloween trip, she should not be surprised how people look at her. Halloween is in October, and maybe she will really enjoy that day, but she need not expect a bank to let her in with a disguise.
When I see a woman wearing a hijab, chador, or fLDS dresses I see prison garb.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
