Peace Through the Hijab

By Saadia Faruqi

Source: Tikkun Daily

 

Stereotypes are hurtful, no doubt about it. They assume things about an entire group of people by those who have less than an iota of knowledge about the group. It shrinks each individual in the group to the lowest common denominator, or even to something unrelated entirely to the group. And it’s doubly sad when stereotypes are perpetuated not just externally but internally as well. Today, perhaps no other group faces more stereotypes than the Muslim woman. The adjectives – I call them labels – used to define her range from the inaccurate to the offensive and even sometimes laughable. Submissive. Oppressed. Quiet. Homemaker. Religious. Devout. Covered.

Muslim Women's Dress: The New Sensationalism

By Saadia Faruqi
Source: Religion Dispatches

Muslim + women + dress. Just type the three words into Google Images and you’ll get a mosaic of scary images – women covered in black from head to toe, and screaming headlines of violence and hate. Despite the fact that a significant number of Muslim women around the world don’t cover themselves in that particular way, or don’t cover at all, we have become attuned by our media to consider those restrictive images as representative of more than a billion people. So when we put Muslim + women + dress together, we refuse to see anything other than what we want to see.  

Proof of Religion

By Saadia Faruqi

Source: Tikkun Daily

 

Danish philosopher and theologian Søren Kierkegaard famously said, “Once you label me you negate me.” But despite this, it seems that as human beings, we love labels. We spend much of our lives labeling not just others but ourselves as well. Skin color, race, education level, professional qualifications… you name it, we’ve got it and using it with gusto. Some labels – like doctor, author, white person – we apply on ourselves with pride, while others – black, dropout, druggie – are pasted on our psyches by others without our consent.

Muslim Women Set Precedent for Religious Freedom

By Saadia Faruqi
Source: Tikkun Daily

Religious accommodation in the workplace seems to be gaining strength in recent times. Last month, corporate America received a huge setback as retail giant Abercrombie and Fitch was found by a federal judge to have discriminated against a Muslim clerk who wore a hijab to work and was subsequently fired.

Muslim Women Don't Need To Be Rescued

By Saadia Faruqi
Source: Tikkun Daily

It seems that controversy over the hijab – the Islamic tradition of covering a woman’s hair and body – will not die down anytime soon. Governments such as France and Germany seem to be dead set against it, while theocracies such as Saudi Arabia go the other extreme by forcing women to cover. But ask the average Muslim woman, and she will probably wonder what the fuss is all about. Since when is dress a political statement, even a weapon? FEMEN – a feminist Ukrainian protest group – seems to think it is, and is up in arms over the hijab, declaring April 4 as International Topless Jihad Day. What FEMEN activists perhaps did not expect was that Muslim women who wear the hijab are a tad possessive about their right to wear it, and don’t take lightly to a declaration of jihad (Arabic for struggle) against it. 
 

Would you Wear Hijab for a Day?

By Rev. Nell Green
Source: ABP News Blog

February 1^st was World Hijab Day. For those of you who might not know, hijab is the head covering worn by some Muslim women. The idea was to invite women who do not hijab, both Muslim and women of other faiths, to wear the covering for one day to increase awareness and understanding. Many, perhaps most, were completely unaware of the day. 

Hijabi for a Day

By Saadia Faruqi
Source: Altmuslimah
 

February 1, 2013 marked the first World Hijab Day, a day organized by New Yorker Nazma Khan to allow women to experience the hijab firsthand. Citing discrimination from Muslims and non-Muslims alike, she conceived of the idea so that those who have never worn hijab themselves could walk in the shoes of women who have.

Landmark Court Decision About Hijab May Pave the Way to Tolerance

By Saadia Faruqi

Source: Tikkun Daily

 

Until today, American Muslim women have been fighting an uphill battle for their right to cover their heads in the traditional hijab. Whether at school, work, even government offices, we have stood unflinching as the debate about Islamophobia, creeping Shariah and all the other ugly words associated with being Muslim in America have swirled about us. Hearing negative comments, facing discrimination in hiring, being marginalized in social groups or treated with sympathy for assumed oppression, we have faced it all while defending our right to express our faith through our dress. Until today.

Is Mutual Respect Too Much To Ask?

By Saadia Faruqi

Over the Eid weekend, a Muslim woman made headlines by calling out the Houston Police Department for their lack of cultural awareness. She alleged that she was frisked by HPD in a way she deemed offensive. Thankfully she hasn’t sued yet (although that might change depending on who’s advising her), but once again the cultural clash between “us and them” seems more prominent than ever. Islamophobia is alive and well in the world today, but one should also carefully consider if every case is in fact one of Islam-bashing. To me, this doesn’t look like it.