Via Islamophobia Watch, the Boston Globe reports that the Tunisian "religious affairs minister", Aboubaker Akhzouri, has claimed that the hijab worn by religious Muslim women does not "fit in with the North African country's cultural heritage". He also opposes long beards and "Muslim tunics like those worn in Persian Gulf states" and has been quoted as calling it "regrettable that we don't respect our specificity", whatever that means. He recommends a "traditional" local Islamic tunic known as the jebbah.
It's worth asking what exactly does count as "specific" to Tunisia, given that you can find pictures in any tourist guide book of local women wearing hijab. In fact, until the late French colonial period, hijab and niqab were common there as in other North African countries. It's certainly regrettable that the Boston Globe report does not mention that Tunisia is a dictatorship (specifically, the one of the last remaining African-style pseudo-democracies) and that the rights and advancements the report mentions have not been available to religious Muslim women who wear the headscarf. That's not my definition of freedom, particularly in a Muslim country. (It's no wonder al-Akhzouri thinks it is fading away given the hostile of the country's secret police to religious dress and practice.)
What a fascist.And walking round in butt tight jeans is hardly traditional, either, but let's forget that shall we? The traditional Tunisian dress which is a white sheet with a few stitches worn over the body and head of women is impractical and doesn't provide sufficient coverage so I can understand religious women abandoning it in favour of other Arab styles.
Salaam alaikum,
He can't be serious, can he? Or maybe he *is* that ignorant and only knows about the last 50 years of Tunisian culture.
Oh, thank you for the recommendation for the Brass Crescent Award
Well Tunisia is a colony of France after all......
The kafirs will only only love you when you abandon your religion for thiers. Nuff said!
Ah, Tunisia, one of our(USA's) best friends in the Arab/Islamic world. When I see stuff like this I know why!
The imbecile "leaders" of the so called Muslim countries prohibiting the wearing of hijab in their stupid believe that only half-naked women could be active in the economic sector will only cause talented and skilled young muslim women who want to pursue their career whilst also wearing the hijab to flee to the West.
When will despotic "muslim" leaders ever learn that there is such a thing as individual rights? Also that one does not have to be secular to be productive? I know loads of professional women in London who wear the Hijab.
My flatmate, an architect, always goes to interviews in hijab and has never had problems with it. She is incredibly talented, never misses salat or Halaqah and her bosses always say her work is outstanding. And she, like me, came from the developing world. I do financial mathematical modelling and people don't treat me any differently b/c I wear hijab.