The British foreign minister Jack Straw has set off a controversy around the ‘Niqab’, the supposedly ‘muslim’ practice of women completely covering themselves, including their face, with black garment. A British muslim writer, Zaiba Malik, decided to wear the niqab for one day to experience it herself and to gauge the reaction of others to it. The resulting story is insightful.
Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Zaiba Malik wears a niqab for a day and is shocked by the reaction of strangers:
I look at myself in my full-length mirror. I’m horrified. I have disappeared and somebody I don’t recognise is looking back at me. I cannot tell how old she is, how much she weighs, whether she has a kind or a sad face, whether she has long or short hair, whether she has any distinctive facial features at all. I’ve seen this person in black on the television and in newspapers, in the mountains of Afghanistan and the cities of Saudi Arabia, but she doesn’t look right here, in my bedroom in a terraced house in west London.
Read the full story here
Comments
7 responses to “Wearing the Niqab for 24 hours”
That’s truely insightful! hearing this story from a female Muslim inside London gives another reason on why Strew’s remarks shouldn’t be denounced. I’ve addressed the issue in more details here
I think the overwhelming majority of muslims today don’t believe that wearing the “niqab” is necessary, and I share that opinion.
Some muslims believe it’s “better”, but I think that it can also be “worse” in some situations.
I do understand Straw’s concerns. England is not a muslim country and Straw has no religious obligation towards Islam. He only has a moral obligation towards advancing quality of life in his society and he has the right to explore ideas such as promoting face-to-face communication between people in society. I don’t think it contradicts Islam. It might contradict some muslims’ preferences, and as he said it’s very important to stress that there shouldn’t be any legislation that prohibits wearing the niqab. He’s just advocating the idea of promoting a certain thing and he has the right to do it.
That’s my opinion as a muslim.
I wonder If bumped into her, I’m in West London! HEHE
Well I like those sort of expiditions done by reporters or rather Journalists as to show you something from another Perspective or literally being in someone else’s shoes. And It’s really interesting how she ended up finding they’re the “extremist minority” and how Quran doesn’t order women to wear it.
Thanks for sharing, Ahmad
Excellent article!
that was very interesting to read, sometimes some subject provokes me to be discussed face to face,
the courage itself of doing such experiment
i fascinate big time,
that was a good blog
thank you
“I think this is the best review ever,I love this briefing statement she used in the end:”. I prefer not to wear my religion on my sleeve … or on my face.”And this applies to fanatics in all religions.Thanks for linking us there Ahmad!
I read somewhere that a good professional journalist is someone who is always out on the street fishing for a good story, like this one above. If you ask any ‘niqabed’ woman how she felt, they will never tell you what this article does, and it is all very true, imagine the summer heat and discomfort for example, the staring and simply the awkwardness of the whole outfit! Very enlightening blog – Thanks Ahmad.
Some professions don’t require eye to eye contact, such as telephone sales and computer work.
Furthermore, blind people can’t see your veil – so it doesn’t matter if you help someone with poor or no vision.
Women who want to wear the veil should find jobs which don’t require an analysis of facial expressions.