Hejab

Current issues, news and ethics
zznoor
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Post by zznoor »

Admin wrote:Imam quoted that the Prophet said we have to remain Ibnul Waqht.
Imam never said prophet said you have to be Ibnul Waqt. That is your interpretation. Imam actually said;
He is Ibn-Al-Waqt ( son of the times) like The Prophet was Ibn-Al-Waqt , so present the Imam's word is final"


We consider that our Imam does not lie and we follow his interpretation. This is an Ismaili Forum. We do not follow the interpretation of your Mullas and your books. We have our own interpretation.
I have not accused Imam of lieing. He actually said what I have quoted. Somebody took his words and put in Prophet's mouth. There are many phony Ahadith and we do not need one more.

Prophet never said anything about Ibnul Waqt.

If Imam SMS RA labelled prophet "Ibnul Waqt" that is fine.

BTW quote was not Mulla's interpretation nor from any book of Hadith.
It was from a book and chapter named "living tradition of Ismaili Ginans", check it out.

Salaam
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Post by Admin »

zznoor wrote: Imam never said prophet said you have to be Ibnul Waqt.



It is said by Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah and printed by the Ismailia Association in Dar es Salam in 1954 in a book named "Talika and Speeches".

Our Imam does not quote "phoney" Hadith in his Talikas and messages because he knows which ones are real and which ones are not...

Admin
zznoor
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Post by zznoor »

I have searched for "Ibn-Al-Waqt + Muhammad" and did not find any Shia or Sunni Hadith
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Post by Admin »

As I told you, we are not interested in your sources because Imam's Farman superceed all of your sources.

Your sunni.shia (not sufi) sources are saying ibn ul wakt means saying 5 namaz a day on time.

Our source says Ibn ul Wakt means to live in his own time and not in the past.

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kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

"By the institution of the 'Ulu'l-Amr' , who can be interpreted as Imam and Caliph — and by placing obedience to Ulul-Amr immediately after that to God and Prophet (s.as), he ensured that the Faith would ever remain living, extending, developing with science, knowledge, art and industry.

If, rightly, the Muslims have kept till now to the forms of prayer and fasting, as practised at the time of the Prophet (s.a.s) it should not be forgotten that it is not the forms of prayer and fasting that have been commanded but the facts of life as the circumstances changed. It is the same Prophet (s.a.s.) who advises his followers ever to remain as Ibnu'l-Waqt (i.e. children of the time and period in which they were on earth), and it must be the natural ambition of every Muslim to practise and represent his Faith according to the standard of the 'Waqt' or space time."

Extract from foreword by Imam Sultan Muhammad Shah to the Book "Mahomed a Mercy to all Nations", by Al-Hajj Qassimall Jairajbhoy.

So as far as Ismailis are concerened this is an Ismaili Hadith whether the rest of the Muslims believe it or not. Also Prophet Muhammed is regarded as the Primal Murshid by most Sufi Tariqahs and the notion of Ibnu'l-Waqt is well known in Sufism although it may not have been interpreted as it has by the 48th Imam.
zznoor
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Post by zznoor »

So as far as Ismailis are concerened this is an Ismaili Hadith whether the rest of the Muslims believe it or not. Also Prophet Muhammed is regarded as the Primal Murshid by most Sufi Tariqahs and the notion of Ibnu'l-Waqt is well known in Sufism although it may not have been interpreted as it has by the 48th Imam.
As for my understanding Ismail's do not have their own Ahadith. They pick and choose from Shia and Sunni sources.
They do have Farmans and Talikas which are not available to non Ismailis.
There are thousands of authentic, unauthentic and forged Ahadith floating around Shia and Sunni Hadith collections.
I have yet to find Hadith on "ibnul waqt".
That is only point I want to make.
Salaam
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

zznoor wrote: As for my understanding Ismail's do not have their own Ahadith. They pick and choose from Shia and Sunni sources.
They do have Farmans and Talikas which are not available to non Ismailis.
There are thousands of authentic, unauthentic and forged Ahadith floating around Shia and Sunni Hadith collections.
I have yet to find Hadith on "ibnul waqt".
That is only point I want to make.
Salaam
Ismailis generally do not give great significance to ahadith literature except to prove a point to other Muslims. They place greater importance to living guidance
The statement I quoted was made to all Muslims and hence you may consider it as the first hadith on ibn waqt if there isn't one yet!
To Ismailis it is an authoritative guidance from the Prophet regardless of it being considered as as a hadith or not.
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

America seems to have a different attitude towards hejabs in contrast to France.

Head Scarves Before the Supreme Court

“This is really easy,” Justice Antonin Scalia said on Monday morning as he announced the Supreme Court’s 8-to-1 decision in favor of a Muslim woman who was denied a job at the clothing-store chain Abercrombie & Fitch because her head scarf violated the company’s “Look Policy.”

In a brisk seven pages, the court’s opinion rejected Abercrombie’s defense that it had not in fact known — although it did suspect — that Samantha Elauf, the plaintiff, wore the scarf, known as a hijab, for religious reasons.

More...
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/03/opini ... pe=article
fayaz006
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Post by fayaz006 »

From CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2015/06/09/living/fi ... =obnetwork

"In verse 24:31, the Quran says:

"Tell he believing women to avert their eyes, and safeguard their private parts, and not to expose their attractions except what is visible. And let them wrap their shawls (khimar) around their breast lines, and reveal their attractions only before their husbands ..."

Many Muslim scholars have interpreted the shawl to mean "veil." But the verse clearly directs women to use the shawl to cover their cleavage, not their head.

In the Quran, the word "hijab" refers to the screen that separated the Prophet Mohammed's wives from other people."
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

VIDEO
Why Iranian women are posting pictures of their uncovered hair


http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/why ... lsignoutmd

Iranian law requires women and girls over the age of 7 to wear a headscarf called a hijab, which covers their hair, ears, and neck, whenever they are out in public. Going out uncovered — or even wearing a headscarf that is too loose — can lead to punishment. According to the Iranian government, 3.6 million women were warned, fined, or arrested in 2014 for "crimes against public prudency and morality," which are most often dress code violations.

The headscarf law was passed in 1983, a few years after the Islamic Revolution. For the conservative clerics who lead Iran, requiring women to wear the hijab is part of enforcing compliance with Islamic law. And for many Iranian women, wearing the hijab is an important religious practice, as well as a way to dress modestly and appropriately. But many Iranian women have no such belief. To them, the law's requirement that they wear the hijab anyway feels unjust and oppressive.
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Will the Burqa Be Banned in Berlin?

BERLIN — IN the last few weeks, many Germans have come to know a young Muslim blogger in Berlin named Betul Ulusoy. Having obtained a law degree, Ms. Ulusoy applied for several jobs in Berlin’s city administration as a trainee, and was hired for a post in the city district of Neukölln.

But when she came to sign the contract in a head scarf, she says, she was informed that the administration would have to reconsider the decision because of the city’s “neutrality law.” Like several other German states, Berlin requires its employees in certain positions by law to refrain from wearing religious symbols or dressing in a way that makes them recognizable as members of a certain denomination.

Uncowed, she took her story public and set off a fierce debate about the place of the head scarf in German society.

Though opposition to the head scarf is more closely associated with France, many liberals and conservatives in Germany also believe that the head scarf as a religious symbol should be banned from official posts and schools. They are supported by feminists, who see the head scarf as a symbol of the religious submission of women.

Not everyone agrees, of course: Most of Germany’s sizable Muslim population supports wearing head scarves, and parts of the political left and some conservatives view the neutrality rules as an infringement on individuals’ right to freedom of religion.

Ms. Ulusoy refuses to fit Germany’s most cherished immigrant stereotype, the oppressed Muslim woman. In the world according to Germany, it’s either-or: A young Muslim woman either wears a head scarf, meaning she is subject to the cruel rule of a strictly religious Muslim family patriarch, doomed to be married off to a distant cousin and a life of endless flatbread-making; or she has a law degree, a blog, strong political ideas — and no recognizable Muslim identity.

That piety and independence, religion and political wit can go together indeed doesn’t fit into many Germans’ heads. Germany has become deeply secular in recent decades. Both the Roman Catholic and the Protestant churches have been losing members rapidly. Today, over a third of all Germans do not belong to any denomination.

Immigration, however, is bringing religion to Germany. The number of Muslims in Germany is estimated to be between 3.8 million and 4.3 million, about 5 percent of the population. That makes the Muslim community in Germany the second-largest in Europe, after France.

Though such projections show that Islam will remain marginal in Europe for decades to come, the fear of “Islamization” is widespread. It has led to the rise of right-wing populist parties from Finland to France. Their rise is usually regarded as a political phenomenon. It might as well be seen as a result of cultural alienation, though. In Germany, many have come to see faith as a spooky and potentially dangerous pathology. Want to make a character on a Friday night TV detective show look suspicious? Let him pray.

In Germany’s secular society, religion in general, and Islam in particular, is regarded as an atavism, a relic from a premodern era from which the country has luckily matured. Renunciation and deliberate submission, common elements of religion, throw the average German hedonist into a state of panic (unless they are part of a no-carbs diet or yoga routine). Why would anybody in her right mind refrain from eating or wrap a scarf around her head in the summer? Whoever does so — like Ms. Ulusoy — must either be out of her mind or the victim of some dark power.

Neutrality laws like those in France, Belgium and some of Germany’s federal states also draw from a certain tradition of interpreting religious freedom. In Europe, it tends to be defined as the freedom from religion — not the freedom to practice faith. This approach is deeply rooted in our history, a lesson from the close alliance between monarchy and church, and countless bloody religious wars.

In the rearview mirror, a strict laicism makes sense. But up ahead, there’s a multicultural Europe that requires more room, not less, for religious expression.

At the heart of Europe’s neutrality laws, there’s a bitter misunderstanding: Being antireligious is not neutral. It doesn’t heal the cultural divide that can come with immigration but emphasizes it. Just look at France.

Since 2004, French students have been prohibited from “ostentatiously” showing or wearing religious symbols at school. Since 2011, the burqa has been banned from streets and public places.

Since the prohibitions, the country has engaged in a petty war over inches of visible skin. Just a few months ago, a Muslim student in the town of Charleville-Mézières was suspended because she was wearing a black skirt that went to her ankles. The girl usually wears a head scarf, but takes it off before school. A local newspaper reported the case, and a nationwide Twitter debate broke loose. The country’s minister of education admitted that a skirt was not a religious symbol per se — but lauded the principal for reinforcing neutrality.

Fortunately, it has become less likely that Germany will follow France down the path of interdiction. In March, the Constitutional Court overturned state legislation banning head scarves for teachers. In its verdict, the court said that the constitutional neutrality of the state “promotes religious freedom for all denominations alike.”

Still, the idea of a postfaith German “Leitkultur,” or common culture, is not dead. Every couple of months a politician from the ranks of the conservative Christian Democratic Union calls for banning the burqa. And Betul Ulusoy’s will certainly not be the last contested head scarf. She still has a lot to do, starting with showing that there is no contradiction between using your head and wrapping it in a scarf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/07/opini ... 05309&_r=0
agakhani_1
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Supreme court of India banned Hijab!!

Post by agakhani_1 »

The Supreme Court, while hearing a Muslim organisation's petition challenging the CBSE's circular on dress code for students appearing for AIPMT re-test on 25 July, on Friday refused to allow the wearing of hijab during the pre-medical test.
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Trudeau talks hijab in speech

Check it out ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyRdxdESgnw

Echoing MHI's view below..

April 23, 2014 at 10:49pm

via, NanoWisdoms Archive of Imamat Speeches, Interviews and Writings

"[The Aga Khan] is interested in the current debate on whether the hijab, the Muslim headscarf, should be worn in Irish schools and cautions against the issue being used to create division:

"'My own sense is that if an individual wishes to associate publicly with a faith, that's the right of that individual to do that, whether he's a Christian or a Jew or a Muslim. That is, to me, something which is important.'

"But he says that people should not be forced to wear the hijab:

"'To go from there to an imposed process by forces in society, to me is unacceptable. It's got to be the choice of the individual who wishes to associate with his faith or her faith. I have great respect for any individual who wants in the right way to be associated with his own faith. I accept that totally and I would never challenge it.'"

His Highness the Aga Khan's 2008 Irish Times interview with Alison Healy (Maynooth, Ireland)

http://www.nanowisdoms.org/nwblog/8845/
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Justin Trudeau's government drops controversial niqab appeal

The federal government has formally withdrawn a controversial court challenge involving the niqab, says Jody Wilson-Raybould in her first act as Canada's attorney general and justice minister.

The Conservatives had asked the Supreme Court of Canada to hear a request for an appeal of a court decision allowing women to wear face veils such as the niqab at Canadian citizenship ceremonies.

More....

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/niqab-a ... -1.3321264
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Product Description

Refusing the VeilHardcover– Sep 15 2015


by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown(Author)

Review

"An ambitious new series that tackles the controversy of the topics explored with a mixture of intelligence and forthright argument from some excellent writers." The Observer

About the Author

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a journalist, broadcaster, writer, and Professor of Journalism at Middlesex University. A regular columnist for The Independent and the Daily Mail. She is a past Winner of the Orwell Prize for Journalism.
http://www.amazon.ca/Refusing-The-Veil- ... x139064-20

*****

Review – Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Refusing the Veil

March 2, 2015 by tasnim


Source

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Refusing the Veil, part of the Provocations series by Biteback publishing, is a very short, refreshingly honest book about why the author thinks Muslim women should give up wearing the veil, in all its various forms, so that they can be liberated women in the 21st century.

The book begins with a list of all the possible words for veil. It proceeds, taking a conversational tone with very occasional academic flourishes but a merciful lack of jargon, in three parts. The first, the personal, the most conversational, is entitled “what I see, what I hear, what I fear” – a very accurate reflection of the contents. Here Alibhai-Brown relates various incidents, including feeling judged for what she was wearing (such as a short-sleeved top and a midi daisy-festooned skirt), and when she judged other women for what they were wearing (veils, black or bleak grey). She makes liberal use of the metaphor of veil as prison. Whether you agree with this depends on what you already believe. Discomfort with veils, the belief that they negate womanhood – these are personal. Many of these scenes won’t convince the unconvinced. However, Alibhai-Brown does raise some serious issues here, such as the use of the veil to hide domestic abuse, relating a story of one woman who followed her home and removed her veil to reveal a face covered in bruises. The author returns to this use of the veil as a cover up of domestic abuse frequently – and it is a serious issue, although like security concerns around identity, it applies to the face-veil alone, not the hijab.

I enjoyed this section of the book most. Alibhai-Brown writes as though she is speaking, with self-reflective honesty, as in this passage:

“My reactions were probably unfair. What right did I have to be so censorious? Live and let live is the great British way. Only one can’t. Not really. Clothes worn by men and women, girls and boys, are full of meanings and messages – intentional and unintentional. Advertising, psychology, physiology and social strictures – societal changes determine buying and sartorial behaviours” (10-11).

This passage sums up much of the book for me – it acknowledges what must be acknowledged. Clothes do make a difference. But what does that mean? What dress codes should society decide are acceptable? How narrow should we make the boundaries of the “acceptable”?

The second section “cycles of enlightenment and darkness from the past to the present” provides a historical overview of sorts. It goes over, very briefly, what the references to the hijab might mean in the Quran, with no engagement with hadith whatsoever, even to make the case that some Quranists make that hadith should be dismissed. Alibhai-Brown references a talk by Sahar Amer, author of What is Veiling, for her understanding of what the Quran says on the veil, and notes the talk can be found online (I haven’t found it yet, if anyone has a link please do share).

More....

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2015/0 ... -the-veil/
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

US Muslim women debate safety of hijab amid backlash


NEW YORK — On the night of the California shootings, Asifa Quraishi-Landes sat on her couch, her face in her hands, and thought about what was ahead for her and other Muslim women who wear a scarf or veil in public.

The covering, or hijab, often draws unwanted attention even in the best of times. But after the one-two punch of the Paris and San Bernardino attacks by Islamic militants, and amid an anti-Muslim furor stoked by comments of Donald Trump, Quraishi-Landes, an Islamic law specialist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, wanted to send a message.

"To all my Muslim sisters who wear hijab," she wrote on her Facebook page. "If you feel your life or safety is threatened in any way because of your dress, you have an Islamic allowance (darura/necessity) to adjust your clothing accordingly. Your life is more important than your dress."

Amid a reported spike in harassment, threats and vandalism directed at American Muslims and at mosques, Muslim women are intensely debating the duty and risks related to wearing their head-coverings as usual.

More...
http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/us- ... lsignoutmd
kmaherali
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2003 3:01 pm

Post by kmaherali »

Iran seizes thousands of cars for women's veil offences

Iran has impounded tens of thousands of cars since March because women inside the vehicles had not properly covered their hair with a headscarf, Tehran's traffic police said Tuesday.

"Over the past eight months, more than 40,000 cases of bad hijab (headscarf) have been dealt with," said Brigadier General Teymour Hosseini, quoted by ISNA news agency.

"In most cases, the cars were impounded and cases were referred to the judiciary," he said, while some of the women stopped could face cash fines or warnings.

Police warned in November that women who fail to observe hijab, the mandatory Islamic dress code in Iran, while driving would have their cars impounded for a week.

The measure is part of a wider traffic police crackdown that could also see male drivers targeted.

When in public, all women in the Islamic republic, including foreigners, are required to wear at least a loose scarf covering the hair and neck.

Since the mid-1990s, however, there has been an easing in the dress code.

Many women wear stylish and colourful coats and headscarves and often tight trousers instead of the traditional one-piece, head-to-toe black "chador".

Police patrols have kept up campaigns to enforce the law and authorities also use a network of "trustees" who inform on violations.

Other violations while driving -- not limited to women -- include carrying dogs, playing loud music, tinted glass on windows and "harassing girls on the streets", Hosseini said.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused fast-driving wealthy youngsters in April of creating "psychological insecurity" on the streets after two high-speed accidents killed five people.

"I hear that young people from the generation of wealth, a generation intoxicated by their money, are driving luxury cars and parading in the streets, making the streets insecure," he said, quoted on his website.

In September, a Tehran court fined two women $260 for violating the dress code by not wearing their hijabs properly on the street.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/ira ... lsignoutmd
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

As Muslim women, we actually ask you not to wear the ‘hijab’ in the name of interfaith solidarity

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/act ... olidarity/

Some excerpts:

"For us, as mainstream Muslim women, born in Egypt and India, the spectacle at the mosque was a painful reminder of the well-financed effort by conservative Muslims to dominate modern Muslim societies. This modern-day movement spreads an ideology of political Islam, called “Islamism,” enlisting well-intentioned interfaith do-gooders and the media into promoting the idea that “hijab” is a virtual “sixth pillar” of Islam, after the traditional “five pillars” of the shahada (or proclamation of faith), prayer, fasting, charity and pilgrimage.

We reject this interpretation that the “hijab” is merely a symbol of modesty and dignity adopted by faithful female followers of Islam.

This modern-day movement, codified by Iran, Saudi Arabia, Taliban Afghanistan and the Islamic State, has erroneously made the Arabic word hijab synonymous with “headscarf.” This conflation of hijab with the secular word headscarf is misleading. “Hijab” literally means “curtain” in Arabic. It also means “hiding,” ”obstructing” and “isolating” someone or something. It is never used in the Koran to mean headscarf."
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Do Non-Muslims Help or Hurt Women by Wearing Hijabs?

In the United States, bigots have attacked Muslim women for using a headscarf, sometimes called the hijab, that many feel Islam requires them to wear. In Muslim countries women have been attacked for not wearing it. On Feb. 1, World Hijab Day, women of all persuasions will wear headscarves in solidarity against Islamophobes. But some say the headscarf is not a tenet of Islam but a symbol of oppression created by conservative clerics to set women apart. Does a bare head show greater respect for Muslim women?

Discussion at:
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/20 ... ing-hijabs
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Olympians in Hijab and Bikini

Photo:
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/12/opini ... d=71987722

Since I saw a photograph of an Egyptian and a German beach volleyball player confronting each other at the net in Rio, I have been unable to get the image out of my head. Doaa Elghobashy, aged 19, wears a hijab, long sleeves and black leggings to her ankles. Kira Walkenhorst, 25, is in a dark blue bikini. The outstretched hands of the Olympian women almost meet, the ball between them.

The photo, by Lucy Nicholson of Reuters, juxtaposes two women, two beliefs and two dress codes, brought together by sport. The world confronts less a clash of civilizations than a clash of identities, concertinaed in time and space by technology. The West’s image of Islam and the Muslim image of Western societies are often mutually incommunicable; the incomprehension incubates violence.

No area is as sensitive as that of the treatment of women, women’s roles, women’s sexuality, dress and ambitions. The story is often presented as one of Western emancipation versus Islamic subjugation. That, however, is an inadequate characterization.

What follows are accounts by two women, an Egyptian and an American, of their experiences with the hijab. Chadiedja Buijs is a graduate student in Cairo. Norma Moore is a former actress living in Boulder, Colo., who recently visited Iran, where the rules obliged her to adopt Islamic dress codes.

Chadiedja Buijs:

My parents — Egyptian mother, Dutch father — separated when I was four, and I grew up in the Netherlands. My mom doesn’t wear a head scarf and when I began to at the age of 19, five years ago, she said, “What the hell are you doing? I left my country so that you could be free and this is what freedom did?”

I had a lot of issues with myself, with my spiritual needs and my state of being. I was very hardworking, very controlling. I began to feel that as a religious person I needed to realize that some things are bigger than me. I started with prayer. I stopped drinking. I began fasting. I’d been so obsessed with material things. After a while I became convinced that it would be good if I could wear the head scarf out of devotion and humility, as a sign of giving up some of my control. It worked.

Our Prophet says faith is like the ocean. Sometimes the waves are high, sometimes low. Sometimes I am shaky in my faith, sometimes very strong.

The hijab is a matter of representation. I know the person I am and the ideas I have. But the person in front of me sees only the exterior. With the tension in Europe, things are worse. In a Dutch village, in a café full of rich white people, a man tore my veil off. It was shocking but not as frustrating as some of the looks and comments, the job rejections (“You do not fit the image of our store”).

After the attacks in France, my mother said, “Please take your veil off.” It is my choice to wear it. I will die with it on. That is my right. Nobody will take it away.

But balance is important. There is this life and the afterlife. Sometimes you need to think about your spirituality. Sometimes you need to adapt. In the West, now, I may wear tighter jeans, or have my neck showing, or use short sleeves. Here in Egypt I may wear maxi-skirts, long and wide. They do not look great. They make me fat. But, hey, that’s the point! My family here is quite conservative.

There is very little religious literacy in secular Western countries. And there is a crisis within Islam, over what it means to be a Muslim. As Muslims we have to acknowledge the problem. ISIS controls what Islam looks like in Iraq and Syria — religious symbolism, flags, statements and verses. This is real. We cannot deny it. But we create extremism by talking about Islam only through this prism. The head scarf becomes a fetish.

Elghobashy is wearing leggings in the photo. I think she represents people like me. International-minded, young, modern Muslims who want to go out and study and work and play. We need different images of Islam.

I got different responses from men when I chose to wear a head scarf rather than a short skirt. It created a kind of distance. But I still have my sexuality in my own hands. I can be very flirtatious, go out and meet a man — but I decide in what mode I want to be. I can be focused on my spirituality, prayers and study without distraction, or I can have a period when I choose to be sexy even in a head scarf through how I act or speak. I feel I have more power and independence vis-à-vis men now.

Norma Moore:

I am a deeply religious person. I don’t have a label to attach to my faith, but it is there nonetheless at the core of my being. I believe that God created me and created me with love as I am — just as God creates every other person. When I put on the hijab in Iran and the shapeless tunics I experience an attempt to deny how I have been made — an attempt to neutralize me.

It has made me afraid. I started this trip almost completely covered by my hijab. Before coming I practiced with the help of an internet video so that no trace of hair or neck or calf would show and make me vulnerable to stares or the humiliation of being chastised. I had come here voluntarily and accepted the terms of admission, so I began the trip in a willing state of submission.

But then the weather got hot — very hot. I got overheated and all I could think about was tearing this hijab off. I felt suffocated. I thought how I wouldn’t let an animal suffocate like this. If my animal were covered like this and suffering I would tear the fabric off out of simple decency.

My hair, the curves in my body, were given to me by God. To cover my head and wear shapeless clothes feels like I am pretending not to be a woman and that somehow I am responsible for keeping men’s sexuality within social bounds.

I just can’t wrap my head around God making me responsible for men’s sexuality.

The Olympics volleyball photograph is tantalizing. The few inches between the women’s hands may as well be a chasm. More than once I have heard Iranian imams, with preposterous certainty, equate flimsy women’s attire in the West with decadence and prostitution. To Western sensibilities, the covered Muslim woman must de facto be the disempowered woman awaiting liberation.

Reality is many-shaded. Elghobashy wears an anklet of colored beads. The only colors on Walkenhorst are those of the German flag. Who is to say which of the women is more conservative, more of a feminist or more liberated? We do not know. What we do know is that we need more events that provoke us to ask such questions and discard tired certainties that may be no more than dangerous caricatures.
kmaherali
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Post by kmaherali »

Canada's Mounties allow women officers to wear hijab

Hoping to boost recruiting of Muslim women, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is allowing its officers to wear hijabs as part of their uniforms, the government said Tuesday.

"The commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police recently approved this addition to the uniform," Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale's spokesman Scott Bardsley told AFP.

"This is intended to better reflect the diversity in our communities and encourage more Muslim women to consider the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as a career option," he said.

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http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/ca ... ailsignout
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Turkey’s Islamic Fashion Revolution

Extract:

As Europe grapples with the burkini — a full-body swimsuit that some French beach towns have tried to ban as a symbol of the oppression of women — Islamic dress in Turkey has become a symbol of religious freedom from the strictures of secularism.

Istanbul has sought to become an Islamic fashion capital, an ambition that reflects the degree to which Turkish society has been reshaped under the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Under Turkey’s old hard-line secular system, the head scarf, or hijab, was seen as a symbol of backwardness and banned in government offices and schools. In recent weeks, as France debated the burkini, Turkey again chipped away at old taboos, allowing female police officers, for the first time, to wear head scarves on the job.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/world ... d=71987722
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Muslim woman to appear in Playboy in a hijab

(CNN) — Muslim-American journalist Noor Tagouri will appear in Playboy magazine's October issue wearing a hijab, a decision that has elicited praise in some quarters and provoked condemnation in others.

She'll appear alongside a sex activist, a comedian and novelist as part of the magazine's "Renegade" series, which highlights people who have "risked it all -- even their lives -- to do what they love."

Earlier this year, Playboy enacted several changes, the biggest of which was to do away with fully nude photos.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/27/living/pl ... oman-trnd/

*******
Quebec woman told to remove hijab in court treated regrettably: judge

A Quebec justice says a decision by a lower court judge to deny a woman’s day in court because of her hijab goes against the principles of Canadian law.

But Superior Court Justice Wilbrod Decarie also said he could not guarantee Rania El-Alloul would be allowed to wear her hijab during future court appearances.

El-Alloul’s lawyers had been seeking a legal opinion that would clarify the rights of Quebecers who want access to justice while wearing religious attire.

In February 2015, Quebec court Judge Eliana Marengo told El-Alloul her case involving the province’s automobile insurance board and her impounded vehicle would not proceed as long as she was wearing the hijab.

In his decision handed down earlier this week, Decarie wrote Marengo’s statement went against the principles of Canadian law protecting freedom of religion.

But his ruling does not mean El-Alloul or other women will be able to wear hijabs at future court appearances, saying such matters need to be decided on a case-by-case basis.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/qu ... ailsignout
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Asserting a Muslim Fashion Identity

Extract:

Welcome to Vogue Arabia, a digital-first, bilingual foray into the hearts, minds and wallets of women in the 22 countries of the Arab League. As such, it is the latest, and potentially the strongest, new voice to join a growing chorus demanding global recognition and respect for Muslim culture and its commercial clout.

From Arab Fashion Week, based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which debuted last month on the heels of Paris Fashion Week, to Jakarta Fashion Week, held last week in the Indonesian capital, formal fashion showcases are being institutionalized across the Islamic world.

At the same time, private individuals are also claiming their due. A 15-year-old Saudi teenager called for the development of a hijab-clad emoji this fall, while a fully clothed Muslim journalist was featured wearing a hijab in the October edition of Playboy. If fashion helps define a social and cultural narrative, then this movement is focused on reshaping the perception of 21st-century Muslim female identity in ways that go far beyond the veil.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/03/fashi ... d=71987722
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Meet Canada's First Hijab-Wearing TV News Anchor

Canada suddenly has its first hijab-wearing news anchor on commercial television.

"For me, it's just a step forward in my career," Ginella Massa, who jumped at the chance to fill a vacant anchor chair at the CityNews network in Toronto last Friday night, tells The Hollywood Reporter. But when Massa ended the 11 p.m. newscast just before midnight and checked in with her assignment editor, they agreed Canada had also taken an even bigger leap forward for diversity.

"He said, was that a first? And I said, yes, I think it was, to have a woman in a hijab anchor the news in Canada," she recalls. So Massa marked her career milestone on her Twitter account and on Facebook, where she wrote: "That's a wrap! Thankful to have opportunities like this at a time when there is so much hate and vilifying of Muslims."

Her smartphone hasn't stopped buzzing since. "People started to go, wow, that's amazing that we haven't already had this in Canada," she adds. Massa hopes this is the last time Canadians do a double-take over her religious headscarf.

"It shouldn't be a big deal," she says. But Massa wearing a hijab hosting a major network newscast has become a big deal in the wake of Donald Trump's U.S. presidential win.

A backlash online was immediate, if only from a vocal minority.

"Hatred does exist. I've seen it firsthand, on my Twitter timeline, in the comment sections of articles written about me," Massa, suddenly finding herself in unchartered terrain for broadcasters, insists. She adds the square of cloth covering her head is far more than a fashion statement.

It's a symbol of faith, deeply personal, and yet outwardly showing on air. Massa became Canada's first hijab-wearing TV reporter in Jan. 2015 when she began working as a video-journalist for CTV News in Kitchener, Ontario, two hours away from Toronto.

Massa recounts worrying about how TV viewers would receive her hijab while she reported from the field, but she needn't have. "At that time, it was overwhelmingly positive. That encouraged me to continue in my career," she adds.

But, after joining CityNews in Feb. 2016, her first hijab-wearing anchor gig coincides with Muslims on both sides of the border feeling increasing alarm and vilification as Trump pursued, and ultimately won, the White House. "I do worry for my friends and my family in the States. I worry about traveling through the States. Because, yes, there's a head of state who has been very vocal about how he feels about Muslims," Massa explains.

She also shares widespread concerns among Canadians that hard-won rights by visible minorities and others will be lost with Trump in the White House. "There's a fear that we will go backwards, that we have made so many strides in terms of acceptance and tolerance and understanding each other. It's scary to think that all of that can be undone," Massa says.

She cites a spike in reported hate crimes as grounds for Muslims everywhere to dispel stereotypes by pridefully showing themselves off as everyday people. "That's what I'm trying to do, to do my job as a journalist. I just happen to wear a hijab while doing it," Massa says.

The Canadian TV reporter also works at a City TV station that, besides having given Fox News Channel's John Roberts his start as an entertainment reporter in the late 1970s, is known for having long embraced diversity in its hiring practices to reflect Toronto's multicultural communities.

"If we really want to tap into our diverse communities and tell their stories, then we need to have those people represented," Massa says of her network's Toronto newsroom. And she rejects any criticism that her Muslim headdress stops her from being impartial as a journalist.

"Everyone has biases. That doesn't mean I shouldn't be in this industry," Massa says as she looks ahead to her next CityNews anchoring gig scheduled for over Christmas.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada/me ... li=AAggFp5
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Saudi woman pictured not wearing hijab faces calls for her execution
3/16


A woman in Saudi Arabia pictured without a hijab is facing calls for her to be killed. Some social media users reacted with outrage after the emergence of the image taken in capital city Riyadh, with one man demanding:

“Kill her and throw her corpse to the dogs”. The photo was allegedly first posted by an account under the name of Malak Al Shehri, which has since been deleted, reports the International Business Times.

An unnamed student who reposted the image told the website that Ms Al Shehri had announced she was going out to breakfast without either a hijab or abaya; a traditional Saudi body covering.

The student said she started receiving death threats after posting proof in response to followers who had asked to see a photo.

"So many people retweeted it and what she did reached extremists, so she got threats,” the student said. “She deleted her tweets but they didn't stop, so she deleted her account."

A hashtag which translates into English as “we demand the imprisonment of the rebel Angel Al Shehri” subsequently went viral.

One user wrote “we propose blood", while another demanded a "harsh punishment for the heinous situation". Despite the outrage, many more users in Saudi Arabia came out in support of the woman’s actions.

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/world/sau ... ailsignout
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‘The Fashion of Islam’ to Arrive at de Young in 2018

SAN FRANCISCO — The de Young Museum here has drawn big crowds before with shows on Oscar de la Renta, Jean Paul Gaultier and Yves Saint Laurent. But for its next big fashion extravaganza, the museum is entering new territory — and moving from gowns to hijabs, the head scarves worn by many Muslim women. The museum’s new director, Max Hollein, has scheduled “The Fashion of Islam,” the first major show developed since his arrival, for the fall of 2018.

In Australia, the traveling show “Faith, Fashion, Fusion” recently explored the market for “modest fashion.” Otherwise, few museums have touched the topic.

“There are probably people who don’t even think there is fashion in Islam,” Mr. Hollein said. “But if you look at Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Beirut, the fashion is really vibrant, and it can speak to larger political and social developments, cultural understanding and misunderstandings.”

Mr. Hollein’s idea is to approach the subject from different perspectives, examining how Islamic styles are shaped by seemingly polar opposites: religious beliefs, which seek to avoid any appearance of extravagance and arrogance, or calling attention to oneself, and global fashion trends.

One part of the show will look at interpretations of hijabs by Islamic and European designers, from Iman Aldebe and Hussein Chalayan to Dolce & Gabbana. Another will display Islamic streetwear and sportswear, addressing the burkini ban controversies that have plagued the beaches of France. Another section is expected to be more historical and show examples of traditional Muslim dress.

Mr. Hollein, who is not curator of the show, noted that his wife — the Austrian clothing designer Nina Hollein — is also not involved. Rather, he said, he was working with the de Young’s costumes and textiles curators to “put together a group of scholars and experts to develop the project, both in the area of fashion and the history of culture.”

In museums in the United States, fashion exhibitions often depend on sponsorship from the designer featured, making the show look like an extended ad campaign. In this case, Mr. Hollein said, financing has not yet been lined up. “Frankly I don’t even want to have funding right away because that would skew us in a particular direction,” he said. “We are not collaborating on this with any fashion house.”

“We want to apply the same scholarly rigor here that we would apply to an old masters’ show,” he added.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/26/arts/ ... d=71987722
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Morocco Said to Ban Sale of Burqas, Citing Security Concerns

CASABLANCA, Morocco — Morocco has banned the burqa, the full-body veil worn by some conservative Muslim women, according to local media reports.

Although the government did not confirm the ban, the reports said vendors and merchants had been notified on Monday by representatives of the Interior Ministry that they would no longer be allowed to sell or manufacture the religious garment because of security concerns. They said they were given a 48-hour deadline, but it was unclear when the rule would take effect.

Morocco, a majority-Muslim country and former French protectorate where the influence of Western secularist ideals remains, has been trying to foster more moderate expressions of Islam and subtly warn Islamists not to go too far, though acts of extremism remain rare.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/worl ... 05309&_r=0
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What Does The Quran Really Say About A Muslim Woman's Hijab?

Samina Ali | TEDxUniversityofNevada


https://youtu.be/_J5bDhMP9lQ
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Turkey Allows Women in Military to Wear Hijabs, in Cultural Shift

ISTANBUL — Women in the Turkish armed forces have been given the right to wear Islamic head scarves in a move that represents a significant cultural shift within an institution seen historically as the guardian of Turkey’s secular identity.

The military was one of the last Turkish institutions to forbid the wearing of the hijab.

Just 10 years ago, the military’s commanders briefly implied that they would intervene if a presidential candidate, whose wife wore a veil, became head of state. The candidate, Abdullah Gul, ultimately reached the presidency without obstruction. A decade before that, however, military intervention forced the resignation of an Islamist prime minister.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/22/worl ... middleeast
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