Comments on: Khadija Ravat and the niqab’s good name

By: Safiya

Safiya — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 13:32:09 +0000

Spot on! Yusuf. I’m sick of all the drivel being written about the Niqab, especially as most of it is written by people who only learnt what the word means a few weeks ago.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 08:20:18 +0000

How do you distinguish between the religious and the political in islam? Dressing in an islamically correct way is a religious matter, no doubt, and so is requiring others not to offend muslims by doing the same. Killing people who engage in homosexual acts is a purely religious injunction too. Presumably it is merely the prejudices of everyone else that makes us regard such things as political.

By: bikhair aka taqiyyah

bikhair aka taqiyyah — Mon, 11 Dec 2006 01:53:33 +0000

ann,

Now who do u think u are speaking on your behalf? didnt u know old pimple knows u better than you know yourself?

By: George Carty

George Carty — Sun, 10 Dec 2006 11:35:33 +0000

Wearing niqab is a religious matter.

Indeed - most female members of the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir don’t wear niqab…

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 09 Dec 2006 18:16:34 +0000

Thersites: “On the other hand there is the desire to force everyone else to behave like damned fools too, which is expressed by wearing niqab.”

You lost me there… What does that mean?

“Wearing niqab is a politicised decision and a political statement.”

Wearing niqab is a religious matter. I think I asked Old Pickler before to explain what it even means to say it’s “political”, and I don’t remember getting an explanation. As someone who wears niqab and knows many other women who wear it, the idea that we wear it as a “political statement” strikes me as absurd.

By: Thersites

Thersites — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 11:06:14 +0000

There are two aspects to the niqab- and to all islamic customs. There is the fundamental right of people to wear silly clothes and behave like damned fools if they want to if they don’t harm anyone else. On the other hand there is the desire to force everyone else to behave like damned fools too, which is expressed by wearing niqab. Wearing niqab is a politicised decision and a political statement.

By: dawud

dawud — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:40:08 +0000

first, less than 1% of British muslim women wear niqab.

second, there are men who do wear a facial veil [‘niqab’-like], though not in Britain but in North Africa and the Sahara.

thirdly, male or female muslims who don’t wear the veil or view it as an obligation, but as permissible or contextually desirable clothing are not obliged to defend practices not connected with it, such as FGM - 90% Christian Ethiopia has horrific rates of FGM, why isn’t there a Christian uproar?

A lot of women who wear the ‘walking prison’ of muslim clothing come from secular families whose parents may have come here to make money and not be religious - self-imprisonment is as justifiable as self-abuse, if you want to make the argument for those who choose porn or S&M as justifiable options, but not conservative clothing… I for one would be interested in hearing it.

By: Shamil

Shamil — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:23:14 +0000

Well, if the niqab is so wonderful, why don’t men wear it?

What a ridiculous comment. Do men dress the same as women anywhere in the world.

Anyway some muslim nomadic tribes do wear a face veil.

The niqab has no place in the civilised West.

Why if it isn’t against the law?

Most women in Britain don’t cover their hair either. By your logic that should also be banned as well.

By: Len

Len — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 10:10:28 +0000

What a smile I have on my face…. men in niqab. We would never know if they did….maybe they do. When mass imigration into the UK started all imigrants wore western suits. Now it is the norm on freezing cold days to see old men with very thin two piece “pyjama” type suits. Bare feet and slipons. I am cold looking at them. Question: If they moved to even colder countries would they continue to do this? Do they go on skiing holidays? silly question but now I am thinking niqab on skis, bicycles, skateboards!!!! Modest clothing can be dark plain clothing but modest clothing does not mean masks. I am thinking of the balaclavas with the two eyeholes. Is that classed as modest clothing? Viva la difference.

By: Ann

Ann — Fri, 08 Dec 2006 09:37:26 +0000

Assalaamu alaikum,

Doesn’t she know that every Muslim woman who gets married has a “pre-nup”? The marriage isn’t valid without a contract.

I know quite a few women who wear niqab; a few are “Salafi”, others are “Sufi”, and some are neither. As you pointed out, the idea that niqab is a sign of “Wahabis” is just not true.

As for the niqab being used to conceal domestic violence, she’s really reaching… And what about non-Muslim (or non-niqab-wearing) women who have to wear turtlenecks or long sleeves or heavy make-up or sunglasses to hide the signs of physical abuse? Domestic violence is wrong and has no correlation with niqab.

Old Pickler: “The niqab has no place in the civilised West. If women ‘choose’ to wear it, they should be living in Saudi Arabia.”

Alhamdulillah I don’t live in your “civilised” West…