Here is a description of the problems of wearing burka by a woman of Asian origin:
"Of course, many veiled Muslim women argue that, far from being forced to wear burkas by ruthless husbands, they do so out of choice. And I have to take them at their word. But it is also very apparent that many women are forced behind the veil.
A number of them have turned up at my door seeking refuge from their fathers, mothers, brothers and in-laws - men brain-washed by religious leaders who use physical and mental abuse to compel the girls to cover up. It started with the headscarf, then went to the full cloak and now it's the total veil.
A good number of these women are warned of the wrath of Allah unless they succumb to life behind the veil; they are told by their fathers they are whores; they are told they will have no friends in the community - and worse still - end up spinsters.
And so these women do wear burkas against their will. I see them in restaurants and parks, unable to eat properly or feel the sun and breeze on their skin." (From an article by Jasmin Alibhai Brown)
If you like this article you might also like: Are women the cause of conflict with Islam?,
The Koran in the West, The roots of islamic terrorism: the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia
Anti-Islamic Film Clarifies the Difference Between Islam and the West
The Burka is compulsory in some middle eastern countries and women can be arrested for being seen to flout the dress code (See Amnesty International). The Burka is not specified in the Koran and the widespread insistence on its adoption amongst male moslems is concurrent with the rise of Saudi Arabian Salafism (paid for by western oil dollars).
When I first began this article I hoped to get some clear guidance from sociological surveys about the proportions of Islamic women who are forced to wear the burka. There is a tremendous paucity of such surveys, probably because they are confounded at the outset because women who are forced to wear the burka are unlikely to freely admit to being coerced. Alibhai Brown says that she is approached by women who have been forced to wear burka and there is little reason to doubt this. Certainly in the countries of origin of many British muslims, women are institutionally forced to wear the burka (See Forced to wear burka teacher quits and Sikh women in Pakistan forced to wear burqa’s). It is often the women in a community who force other women to wear the burka. As an example in Islamic answers dot com: If a woman does not wear a burqa, is she bad? a correspondent recounts that:
"When I was a teenager, they suddenly started forcing me to wear the burqa. They went to everyone's house and said that I haven't started wearing it so I'm bad. I did not want to be forced into anything, I wished to accept it with my heart."
Another correspondent, in My mother in law wants me to wear abaya at home says:
"Thank you all for helping me with my previous posts and I appreciate your understanding ! I wanted just to ask: is it needed to wear abaya in front of my in laws? I really feel very bad because my mother in law ask me for this, so basically I want to feel free at home and her jealousy is killing me ! "
Indeed the Islamic websites provide a picture of very compliant young women being dragooned into wearing what their families or female peers insist upon.
A review of wearing Islamic dress in the Australian Healthcare sector "Attitudes towards the Hijab: with specific reference to healthcare personnel and students" (by an Islamic author) has this telling couple of reasons for wearing islamic dress out of six reasons advanced:
"2. Parental expectations and religious obligation is the most common reason among women who come from religious migrant families
3. Societal pressures – many women stay in largely Muslim areas/suburbs and it may have a direct impact on their decision to cover or not, especially since there is a misconception that women who veil are more religious than those who do not"
The burka is no joke. It is effectively a mobile tent that covers the whole body and prevents normal interpersonal relations. If some women are being bullied or forced into wearing it and other, more extremist women are demanding the right to wear it then who is right?
Bullying and forcing a significant number of women to wear the burka is obviously wrong. Equally, forbidding women from wearing burka seems to trespass on Western ideas of tolerance. So what are the limits of tolerance?
Approving the wearing of the burka is a bit like approving masochism - if a woman is found with bruises all over her body but says this is fine because she is a masochist is it then acceptable to ignore another woman who has bruises all over her body because her husband beat her up? The second woman will probably tell you that she "fell downstairs" so should the assumption be that a woman who presents with all the signs of assault and battery should be treated as if she has been battered until it can definitely be shown that she permitted this assault voluntarily? There is another parallel in prostitution, a large minority of prostitutes are sex-slaves but a sizeable number are keen to earn money from prostitution of their own free will. Are we condoning sex slavery if we condone prostitution?
If the burka is an unwelcome imprisonment forced upon 30% of muslim women but welcomed by 30% how do we deal with this?
The willing wearing of the burka is more difficult to separate from the forced wearing of the burka than, say, separating willing prostitution from sex-slavery or masochism from battery. Given this problem the French are probably right to have banned it. The burka is not necessary dress for an Islamic woman and by approving it we are also approving bullying and coercion. If women who voluntarily wear the burka were not so self-righteous they would understand that relinquishing the burka is a small price to pay to save some of their sisters from suffering.
How badly are these women suffering? About 50% of moslem men believe that it is right to beat their wives and some Islamic school books in the UK sanction the practice. If a man finds that his wife does not accept holy writ such as:
"[2.223] Your wives are a tilth for you, so go into your tilth when you like, and do good beforehand for yourselves, and be careful (of your duty) to Allah, and know that you will meet Him, and give good news to the believers."
He might feel wholly justified in beating her according to the Koran:
"[4.34] Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great."
Having scourged her, giving her black eyes and a split lip, he can then demand that she cover up and go about her business. Now you would not expect for one moment that those strident ladies who demand the burka are receiving this treatment, some Moslems are civilised (half believe it is wrong to beat women despite verse 4.34), but if a woman is forced against her will to wear burka for reasons of religion we can expect that that is not all that she is forced to do in the name of religion. Although, in the UK, Islamic men beating women is possibly no more frequent than other men beating women the crucial point is that the burka allows the violence to be hidden.
Those who frame the wearing of the burka as a feminist issue of the "right to choose" a mode of dress are in grave danger of colluding in the bullying of those who have no "right to choose" and are compelled to live in stifling darkness and worse. Perhaps the greatest irony in the debate over the burka is that the rise in Islamic fundamentalism is a reaction to the rise of feminism in the West yet it is feminists who are the most vocal non-Islamic supporters of the burka. There was little appetite for Islamic extremism in the 1950s when women in the West were kept to the kitchen and family and forced to wear modest clothing and divorce was relatively rare. It is the reaction to the growth and spread of Western feminist culture over the past 40 years that has changed Islamic countries from places where even head-scarves were becoming rare to places where women are entombed in fabric. Extreme Islam is a reaction to feminism and those who call themselves feminists who ignore this are not feminists at all.
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For the sake of clarity: this article is not about hijab. Hijab shows that it is perfectly possible to wear modest clothing without inhibiting a woman's freedom or introducing the possibility that the woman is being persecuted.
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See
Anti-Islamic Film Clarifies the Difference Between Islam and the West
Are women the cause of conflict with Islam?
The roots of islamic terrorism: the Wahhabis of Saudi Arabia
The Koran in the West including the verses in the Koran that deal with clothing.
Multiculturalism
The future of Afghanistan
The Arab-Israeli conflict
Alibhai Brown, J. (2010) The burka empowering women? You must be mad, minister. Daily Mail 21/7/2010
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1296132/The-burka-empowering-women-You-mad-minister.html#ixzz1JleRseDs
SYED, J. A Historical Perspective of the Islamic Concept of Modesty and
Its Implications for Pakistani Women at Work http://www.historians.ie/women/syed.PDF
See also:
Attitudes of Pakistani men to domestic violence
How my eyes were opened to the barbarity of Islam
P Chesler - Times of London, 2007
Originally posted April 2011
Comments
i totally agree with you. I am doing a project on this topic, and had been trying to come to an ethical conclusion. I believe in individual liberty, but the women wearing veils,they should understand that they are dragging a lot of their sisters into misery, by their actions. I wish they understood, that this whole movement is not against, its against the people who cripple their womens' lives in the name of God. If I have to choose between's the veiled woman's "liberty" and that of the forced woman's, I am certainly choosing the latter.
I am an Indian, we are used to seeing burqa-clad women.But I can totally understand the french citizens' discomfort. I applaude the french government for protecting their women-friendly culture, taking a step against the extremists bullies, and helping feminists in their battle. Bravo les francais! Vas-y :)
Thanks
A curios Person =]
The Koran allows "looks" to be visible but "cast down": public flirting is banned but the burka is not required. In the context of first millenium Arab dress the Koran is quite liberal.
I've also written about this recently on my blog, as I'm living in France and finding it very interesting: http://shannon-laviefrancaise.blogspot.com/2011/11/burqas-and-mohammed-cartoons.html
My questions were quite similar to yours but I've come to the conclusion that an outright ban does not address the issues of female oppression and simply restricts the liberty of those who do choose to wear it. Thanks for your post though, very interesting.
That would be a good law but it would need another law that said that families who force women to wear burka would be punished - but would women tell the police about their mother or husband breaking the law?
I am a woman who wears the niqab by choice , and I feel that it's not right for me to give up my choice for the sake some woman who made their own choice to wear the burka.
And in islam the wife must obey her husband ( exapt in what allah forbids) so if she exsepts islam and says that she is muslim , shouldn't she obey her husband in the first place ?that is another choice she made .
Islam is not realy black and white , the smallest thing such as intention can make the act change from bad to good and vice versa , I believe in the quran , every word , and every letter , the prophets sayings are important too , in the quran the prayers are stated , not the way or how we learned it from the prophet , and the niqab is debated in islam some say its a must and others say its prefered ( but not obligtory)
Here in America, men can remove their shirts during warm weather, let's their skin breathe and nice for cooling off. BUT, if I took my top off (I'm female), I'd be arrested! How fair is that, NOT. (Of course if we both took our bottoms off we'd both be arrested, now that is fair since we are both treated the same in this instance).
Patriarchal religions are simply bully religions. Some men think they can bully and mistreat women because their religion says they can; it supports their bully nature. (This of course is not all men.)
Women who are forced to wear burkas are sad; Women who choose to wear burkas if it's during the winter are probably wise, but if it's during the summer (unless the cloth is diaphanous) are nutty.
Your comments about "bitches" are an interesting insight.
Yes, in countries that have a long culture of the burka one is entitled to question it but it is up to the people of that country to determine their way of life. In the UK and France there is no historic culture of wearing the burka but there is a culture of human rights and equality.
When I wear it I feel good, there's a lot of benefits to it, but for me number one is that I'm seen as a Muslim woman wearing a niqab which is exactly what I want. In college no one talked about what I wore or what brand it was or how often I wore the same clothes, I have only 2 outer garments, no reason to own more really.
The other girls were judged on those things. Also no guys talked to me which was great but they were very kind to me, they opened doors for me gave me spaces if I was late. Obviously I was a friendly person and I smiled a lot but I never actually spoke to them except to say thank you. Lol.
im from glasgow and my parents are from pakistan.my mother has never worn the burqua in the uk but when she goes to pakistan she wears it because of know education she thinks her reasons are religious(they are not). my cousins in the uk and my nieces have never worn it and i never want to see them wearing it. the Quoran does not talk of this as religion and i personally would not encourage the burqua and i am a muslim.i also think these woman who are wearing it are not hurting anyone so whats the problem...let them decide.
the question that a woman or girl is forced into wearing it, there can be no study of this so these claims are unfounded with a percentage but the claims are probably true but to a fraction of the people so figures are nonsence.
if you want to put this question to a nation put it to saudi arabia where it is the law to wear it but islam does not even speak of it.
You say of compulsion: "the claims are probably true but to a fraction of the people", I would say that even if this fraction is 10% the burka is such a significant impediment to freedom of movement, communication and expression for this minority, a mobile cage, that it should be banned.
As for the Koran, it cannot be read like any other book. There are sinless, God-appointed leaders to explain it. And based on that, men and women are absolutely equal and even the suggestion that Islam might support illiterate chauvinists is reprehensible. That does bring up a question I suppose: (at least to people not aware of Muslim beliefs) Why couldnt God just send a literal book saying what he meant? That is another debate question, one that I might hopefully answer by the end of this post.
I read your suggestion that the women who want to wear it should (keeping in mind burka isnt necessary) compromise it for the sake of their suffering sisters - which I agree is an inhumane crime. And I suppose that solution seems like a good one. But firstly, the problem with it is the long term effects of this attitude: what's next? Scarves? Modest clothing? Look at it this way: everyone seems to be acting on the assumption that burkas inhibit personal freedom, but thats YOUR opinion. Im sure the Stone Age guys thought clothes were oppressive. Majority is NOT a criterion for truth.
The second and most important flaw with that reasoning is not actually in the reasoning; it speaks to a much deeper belief in Islam. You see, the concept of submission is a controversial one. But the one case where this is acceptable is in the case of God. Once you've (by whatever process of your own) trusted God, you put your blind faith in him. You act on the belief that you will make sure you know what he is saying, but once you know that you will not argue EVEN IF IT DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO YOU. Like i said, highly controversial, but practically very much possible. So even if compromising our burka for suffering sisters makes sense ro US, that's really not enough.
You seem to argue that the burka is God's will. This is certainly not clear from the Koran. Some authorities, especially salafists, claim it is God's will to banish women from sight, others claim that modesty is sufficient. The burka used to be found solely in Iran, Afghanistan and the Arabian peninsula but the rise in salafism/wahabbism as a result of Saudi influence which has spread it throughout the ummah. Look at any picture of Cairo, Istanbul or Damascus in the 1950s, there is not a burka in sight, look today and burkas are everywhere. The burka marks a political change due to the rise and influence of Saudi Arabian wahabbism.
Comparing burkas with piercings is incorrect because children are indeed banned in the UK from piercings without the parent's permission and for adults it is, as you say, "oppressing themselves" but it is of the essence of freedom to dispose of yourself as you see fit. It is oppression by others that is the problem and such oppression can need the intervention of the state.
Wahabbism may have spread the burqa, but it is not the spread of burqa we should be opposing; only the idea of forcing it. The idea of using a religion to suit one's means is atrocious, but it is certainly not a new one.
As for the stance of the Koran on feminism, it is clear. People who want to abuse it use selective verses from the Koran, ignore their social context and use them to assert domination. They conveniently ignore the verses empowering women or laying down equality of both the sexes. (2:219, 2:228 and 33:35). Like I said, there is a system for extracting laws. The Koran is only a raw material, not the final product.
I did not know that about piercings, thank you for that. I agree that forcing women to wear the burqa (or anything else for that matter) is a real problem. It needs to be addressed, and pronto. Oppression by others can need state intervention. I just think there's a lot more we can do without outright banning the burqa – like educating women, and men; and establishing good helplines for the abused. After all, when a woman wears long sleeved pullovers in winter to hide abuse, we don't ban pullovers - because the pullovers are not the problem.
"movement" I'm sorry, but wrong again. If you're wearing the right hijab (which is a material that can be stretched) there won't be any problem
"vision" Are you for real now? Unless it's (as stated above) big, thick and heavy, and have many flowing parts, there won't be any problem with the vision. In fact, before the hijab, I had trouble because my hair always went to my face, whether I bound it or not.
"Putting it on young girls is child abuse" While I wouldn't recommend people forcing/guilting their young child into wearing it, there is also nothing wrong with her wearing it if she wants. I wore it when I was 10, and my dad wanted me to reconsider "you are young" being one of his arguments, but I was convinced. Sometimes the child wants it.
Why this would be beneficial to both the government - the Muslim community and women's rights. Number one it would generate money for the state - like a tax - if you really believe in it and feel you need it just as lets say one would need to drive-- You have to put your money where your mouth is. It would cut off domestic abuse at the source as it would force Muslim men into being civil to their wives or they will be put on a watch list and all the females in that particular family would be denied their right to ware the burka should any type of abuse be found in the house hold. There would need to be a consistent transparency for the families every 3 years so they would have to address any abuse in the family constantly. It would still allow women the right to their own belief systems should they truly believe in wearing the burka. With the act of having to apply each 3 years they would have to reassess their own beliefs constantly on whether its truly a viable long term tradition that they would like to keep for themselves and their family. Honestly if it is such a sticking point to have the burka in your household you really shouldn't mind having to pay for it.
Dollars to donuts that the minute that people have to start paying for it that there would be a trend in that culture to make it obsolete.
..why.shouldn't.Muslim.women.?..joncollins(birmingham)uk
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