Islam essay
A debated matter in contemporary society, which has evolved overtime, is the mounting question of liberty and freedom of women in Islam, with specific reference to the veil. In saying that, the controversial issue of the covering of the head will be discussed with close reference to the Quran, Authentic hadith, scholarly consensus (ijma^) and scholarly articles, particularly talking about the evolution of the matter as well as political, cultural, social and religious perceptions that associate with the Islamic veil.
The veil is generally classified into two types; the hijab, and the niqab/burqa. To differentiate between the two, the hijab is the veil that covers the head, and the niqab/burqa is the veil that either covers the face excluding the eyes, or covers the complete face. Some claim that the covering of the complete face is an obligation within the Islamic faith, except she who is in the state of Hajj, or Prayer. In a hadith stated by Abu Dawood in his Sunan, about Islamically accepted clothing “^A'ishah, Ummul Mu'minin, (the most knowledgeable woman in the Muslim nation), narrated that when her sister Asma', the daughter of Abu Bakr, entered upon the Messenger of Allah, (peace be upon him), wearing thin clothes, the Messenger of Allah (peace be upon him), turned his attention from her and said which means: “O Asma', when a woman reaches the age of menstruation, she is not allowed to show of herself except this and this”, and he pointed to her face and hands.” (Hassan, 2004) In this authentic hadith, it is evident that the Muslim female is not obligated to cover the face, as this judgment was not specified by the Prophet for the state of Prayer and hajj only.
Abu Hayyan Al-Ghamati stated in his book Al Ba...
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The article “My Body Is My Own Business” by Naheed Mustafa is about an Islamic women’s principle that putting on her usual headscarf, or Hijab, actually empowers her as a female, contrary to the popular principle that the hijab represents male oppressiveness. She ex...
In From Behind the Veil, Siham is forced to cover her body and this causes her to rebel against her family's beliefs. Siham's society in the Middle East wears niqabs to preserve their virginity and honor
On September 27th, 1996, the extremist militia, the Taliban, seized control of the capital city of Afghanistan, Kabul. Up until that day, women and girls in Afghanistan could go to school, work, and walk freely. Then the Taliban issued decrees banning woman and girls from receiving education, entering the workforce or leaving their homes without a close male relative as an escort, wearing a burqa. The Taliban violently plunged the occupied territories of Afghanistan into a brutal state of gender apartheid in which women and girls have been stripped of their basic human rights. The Taliban claims religious reasoning behind this gender apartheid, using the Muslim faith as their backing, though many critics denounce this logic, saying that The Qur'an condones no such thing. Woman in Afghanistan have become but a shadow of real people. Not only can they no longer enter the workforce or attend school, they cannot choose what they wish to wear, or call to friends in public for fear of being beaten, stoned or killed. The female sex has truly been enslaved by the Taliban, however what rarely comes to light, is that males in Afghanistan have also had strictures of dress and conduct imposed on them. These conditions have roused quite a varied response from the Western World. Western-born Muslims who practice Islam identify with some of the Taliban's strictures, even wearing the burqa or hajib in Canada. Others who do not know the Muslim faith, are outraged that woman can be subjugated so completely and that the rest of the world can sit back and watch it happen complacently. Human rights atrocities are committed towards women everyday by the Taliban in the name of their religio...
Muslims, Sikhs, and many other religious affiliations have often been targeted for hate crimes, racial slurs, and misfortunate events. We are all different in our own ways some are good and some are bad yet one event changes everything for everyone affiliated with the group. The book The Politics of the Veil by Joan Scott a renowned pioneer in gender studies gives a detailed and analytical book of about the French views towards the Muslim females in France during 2004. The author talks about why the French governments official embargo of wearing conspicuous signs is mainly towards the headscarves for Muslim girls under the age of eighteen in public schools. The main themes of book are gender inequality, sexism, and cultural inequality historical schools used in the book are history of below, woman’s history, cultural history, and political history. In this essay, I will talk about why Joan Scotts argument on why the French government’s ban on wearing conspicuous signs was
Muslim women cover themselves by wearing Hijab. Hijab, which is also known as the veil, is the Islamic dress for women consisting the head covering, along with the body covered modestly. In Learning Islam 2, according to historians, the practice of Hijab was “part of [the] everyday dress for women in Ancient Christian and Jewish communities”(D32). Back then, many Christian and Catholic women wore a head covering as a sign of chastity. We can also see that there are references to the practice of wearing the veil in both the Old and New Testaments, “…if a woman does not have her head veiled, she may as well have her hair cut off. But if it is too shameful for a woman to have her hair cut off or head shaved, then she should wear a veil” (I Corinthians 11:6). As you can see, the Bible gives the woman the choice of wearing the veil or have her hair cut off.
The constant smear remarks from media headlines are chiseled into the minds of Westerners and no amount of “educated [and] articulate women fulfilling the modest conditions of the hijab can do little to dispel the myths” (Stacey). She writes how even when these women are simply placing their focus on the spiritually constructed values rather than socially constructed ones they still may be labeled as oppressed. Indeed, the majority of the women in the world have the free choice to where a hijab or not. The Gallup Poll mentioned earlier actually concludes that that “most women in the Muslim world are well aware that they have the same capabilities and deserve the same fundamental rights as men”
Fatemeh Fakhraie’s essay “Scarfing it Down,” explains how Muslim women suffer because of what they wear. Fakhraie blogs about Muslim women in her website she explains; “Seeing ourselves portrayed in the media in ways that are one-dimensional and misleading." Several people judge Muslim's by their appearance because they assume they're a bad person. The author of this essay wants the reader to know that Muslim women wearing a hijab are not a threat to the world.
Most of these things it is possible to see through the analysis of the situation that exists in practice and analysis of several court cases. In France, for years women with Hijab encounter problems, both in education and in ...
Within the Middle East, the largest population of the men and women are Muslim. The Muslim religion suggests that women wear a veil or hijab, which is a head scarf that only exposes a woman’s eyes, accompanied by a burqa, which is a full-body cloak. The sole purpose of the clothing is to cover a woman’s feminine features from men’s eyes. The Qur’an, an Islamic scripture, supports and slightly obligates the uniform by saying that women are to be conservative, “let them wear their head covering over their bosoms, and not display their ornaments.” (Qur’an).
Many Muslims believe that women must wear hijab because of scriptural interpretations and cultural law. The Quran and Hadith states that both men and women should dress modestly. This is wear most Muslims start to interpret the text differently. Women and people who believe that you are not required to wear hijab interpret the text as exactly what it says, to dress modest. Technically the Quran does not say that women are required to wear hijab but Muslims who believe that you are required to wear hijab interpret the “dressing modest” as you are required to wear hijab. Hijab was also required in some countries so through legal traditions many people feel as if wearing the veil should be required.
Smith, Jane I. “Women’s Issues in American Islam.” The Duncan Black MacDonald Center for the Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. Hartford Seminary, Hartford CT, 2002. http://macdonald.hartsem.edu/smithart1.htm.
As an article of clothing that is used to hide one’s face, the veil, hijab, burqa, and niqab are objects that are often associated with modesty. In the context of the Muslim and/or Islam religion, the hijab is used as a barrier for to ensure that moral boundaries between men and women aren’t crossed. (Stacey, 2009) Nowadays, society has been known to associate the negative connotation of female repression with the words veil, hijab, or burqa, a large number of women who wear these headscarves in public have chosen to do so due to their own religious reasons and/or preferences. In relation to the short story “The Veil,” written by Ismat Chughtai, Chughtai challenges the symbolic meaning and/or significance behind the veil and the power that they hold in society in relation to the power struggles of the women behind them and the men who lift them.
Introduction The issue of women’s rights in Islam has been a particularly hot topic as of late, with the execution of women who attend school in Pakistan, and the ban on women driving in Saudi Arabia, most of what is known and heard is negative. And as such, people paint all those who practice the religion with the same brush, they allow what little they have heard to form their opinion of a whole religion, of a whole community, a community that forms almost a third of the planet; and that is the problem. People allow the actions of the few to distort their view of the many, and this, coupled with a lack of knowledge, a lack of understanding about the Islamic religion leads to a misrepresentation of Islam that many people view as the truth.
In the Qur’an, God speaks directly to all Muslim women and says “.guard their private parts and not expose their adornment except that which [necessarily] appears thereof and to wrap [a portion of] their headcovers over their chests and not expose their adornment (The Qur’an 24:31)”. Muslim women have to wear a hijab, or a head covering, when they are in public places and when they are around men who are not close relatives. In fact, countries like Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a mandatory dress code enforced. Muslim women in these countries have to wear a hijab and an abaya, or a full-length, loose fitting garment on top of their clothes. Although God requires Muslim women to dress modestly and Saudi Arabia and Qatar have a dress code, it is entirely their choice on what they would like to wear.
“Women’s rights in Islam” is great controversial topic going on nowadays. The world is colored with different cultures and religions. Most people come up with different thoughts for other religion’s people by just having one look on them. Veil is obsession for some people, whereas, being bald is freedom in some people’s point of view. There are lots of misconceptions about women’s rights in Islam among non muslims. If women are covering their body or if they like to stay at home, people think that they don’t have any freedom in this religion and women are obsessed. But this is not reality. A person cannot point out anything wrong and blame other’s religion just because of his own confusion. He needs to study thoroughly and then come up with opposing viewpoints. Therefore, the misconception about women’s rights in Islam should be removed because women have equal rights, veil is for their protection, and they have freedom of speech and expression.