Mick Hartley

5 responses to “The Full Abaya”

1. 

   Noga

   November 12, 2008

   It seems too cruel. How can they play, jump, run, get on a swing, if they are encumbered like this? How can they develop their idenity, their sense of worth, recognize each other, cultivate new friendships? It’s one step from tying them up, I swear. I have a nine year old girl and I cannot even begin to imagine how miserable she would be restricted like that.

   LikeLike

   Reply
2. 

   Stacey

   November 13, 2008

   It’s not difficult to do all the things you do without it on and not difficult to recognize or make friends wearing these clothes. (I have no idea where the idea that it would be hard to make friends came from.) In my opinion this creates a stronger sense of self worth because you realize your body is worth something it’s not some piece of meat and you don’t have to flaunt it to suck up any scraps of attention that flaunting it might get you. I wear abayas and head scarves and I have numerous friends who choose to wear niqaab and I always know which one I’m looking at when I see her coming. I grew up Christian and in America so obviously I used to wear jeans and t-shirts (and still wear them around the house, under the abaya and in my [female] friend’s houses) so I know what I am talking about when I say you can do all the same things you could do before.
   Starting to cover before you actually have to is not wrong though making it a school regulation may be out of line from a religious perspective. Many schools have dress codes however, and they are not chastised for them. Muslims are singled out because most people who are not Muslim don’t have much of an ability to understand things which function outside their own codes of conduct.
   Stating that they won’t be harassed if they cover more doesn’t say something about Saudi men. I grew up in the USA and I was surely harassed in my hip hugger jeans and tank tops. This is a precautionary measure and it doesn’t indicate that being harassed is your fault only that you can do a few things which prevent or at the very least lessen the looks of people who have no right to ‘check you out.’ We consider our bodies sacred and this is why we don’t wear our high fashion low neckline clothes out for the general public to see. Men also have a dress code by Islamic standards which is not as concealing but frankly in Saudi the men cover almost exactly as much as the women for religious, social and climate reasons.
   If you look at Western fashion’s evolution over the past one hundred years you will find that it is not the Muslims who are changing their morals and values. People don’t bother nuns for covering their figure and you can’t deny that the vast majority of men would much rather stop to check out a woman in a short skirt and high boots than a nun in her habit. Men are much more visual creatures when it comes to the opposite sex and this is a documented fact. This is something men can control (and are responsible for) and there is nothing wrong with adoring your wife….so this like most things in our nature has it’s time and place BUT outside of that time and place it becomes a sin because it breaks down the social fabric.
   The way Muslims dress is the way people dressed in the biblical era. If Jesus were to come today who do you think he would recognize? Which people would look familiar to him? The bible has it’s own texts on maintaining modesty which are by and large cast aside and if Muslims don’t follow suit they’re considered strange and threatening. I find THAT strange but to each his own!
   One thing to note is that you don’t have to cover up the same way around members of the same sex and the Saudi schools are usually completely separate (ie girls go to schools for girls) which means that in classes etc. they don’t have to veil. Even in colleges which have male professors they will allow women to sit in another room and have the professor broadcast the class so women can uncover if they prefer and basically everyone gets a button to push in order to ask questions which is essentially exactly like being in the same room only without any dress code. Furthermore Saudi has women’s malls which are guarded on the outside so you can unveil there and woman’s branch bank so you can unveil there etc etc. The list goes on and on. Saudi Arabia caters to the hijab. Living in the US I will never be able to shop, go out to eat, hit up the bank or sit in my college classes without hijab (veil). Outsiders think of it as so restricting because they don’t know the types of things which are put into place there to make it easy to wear.
   You may be asking yourself, “Why not just do away with the dress code?” But this is not an option because it is a command from God so perhaps you should be asking yourself, “Who else do I know of who will go through such trouble to make this dress code easier for women and isn’t it ironic that these are considered men who mistreat and overlook women?”

   LikeLike

   Reply
3. 

   Mick H

   November 13, 2008

   Covering yourself head to toe creates “a stronger sense of self worth”? In 8-year-old girls?
   Right.

   LikeLike

   Reply
4. 

   Dom

   November 13, 2008

   The criticism that is directed to the treatment of women has nothing to do with a “clash of civilization”, as you seem to think. And the abaya is not a dress code. No one says “tut-tut” to a woman who does not wear one. They are usually beaten. And in at least one case they were incinerated alive.
   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/March_11,_2002_Mecca_girl%27s_schools_fire
   I see many women wearing an abaya in the states. No one bothers them. The same can’t be said for a woman wearing jeans in SA or Iran.

   LikeLike

   Reply
5. 

   Noga

   November 13, 2008

   “Even in colleges which have male professors they will allow women to sit in another room and have the professor broadcast the class so women can uncover if they prefer and basically everyone gets a button to push in order to ask questions which is essentially exactly like being in the same room only without any dress code.”
   It’s not at all “essentially” the same s being in the same room, facing your teacher, asking him a question and looking at him while he answers it. Communication between two human beings is much more than an exchange of words through a some technological means. There is a spontaneity, eye conmtact, body language, mutual recognition of intellect and sentiment, which are all important in an exchange between a teacher and student. Of course the male students have no problem. They have that privilege of being in the same room as their teacher. It’s the female students who have to rely on a button to speak to their teacher, for whom they are just disembodied voices in an intercom.

   LikeLike

   Reply