Before I start, let me post this quote from the Holy Quran:
“It is not fitting for a believer, man or woman, when a matter has been decided by Allah and His Apostle, to have any option about their decision: if any one disobeys Allah and His Apostle, he is indeed on a clearly wrong path.” Surat-ul-Ahzab (33-36)
Now, I’m no religious scholar, but as a Muslim I know the basics of following the path of Islam. I know the issue is a quite sensitive one, not at home but even all around the world. I remember the former attorney general pushing for a ban on any type of veils that covered the face and I know he faced criticism and pressure from all sides. I won’t and am not going to be stereotypical and say that the ‘moonu burqa’ is followed by the extremists of the religion.
I’m someone who wants every woman to wear the headscarf, but I’m totally against hiding their face in public by wearing the ‘moonu burqa’. The religion that I follow (including the mazhab I follow) doesn’t tell Muslim women to cover every inch of their body from head to toe. Let me quote a Hadith by Prophet Mohamed (PBUH):
“. . . If the woman reaches the age of puberty. No part of her body should be seen but this – and he pointed to his face and hands.”
If you look up to verses 30-31 of Surath Al-Nur, god has explained to whom their hijab should be kept from. I know that women should not wear dresses that blend with their figure (ie. must be loose fitting), dresses made in such a way that attracts the opposite sex, the garment should be thick enough that it doesn’t show the color of the skin, dress should not resemble that of men’s clothing and last; should not be a dress of fame, pride and vanity. Isn’t this so hard to follow?
The other thing that I want to point out is, the fact that women are to uncover their face and expose their hands while performing the five daily prayers and during the Hajj. Come on, obviously during the Hajj, the women are surrounded by tons of men. No ‘moonu burqa’ allowed at these events. These are interpretations that a woman’s ‘awrah’ is all except the face and hands.
For security, social and legal reasons, the face veil can be a barrier. Can you tell if the woman wearing a ‘moonu burqa’ passing by is a woman or even a man who’s hiding away from the law? Obviously not. In my opinion, women who are forced (or not) to wear the ‘moonu burqa’, is more of an object than a subject and the dress code is more of a costume.
I hope I made myself quite explanatory and apologize if I had offended anyone. For a number of reasons, I would like to echo the words by Dr. Hassan Saeed and various others that expressed their favor to ban the ‘moonu burqa’. I must emphasis that this disturbs me as much as the half naked women on our streets, but there are more who try to prevent the half naked issue than this one.
