How I Came to Love the Veil - = washingtonpost.com

How I Came = to Love the=20 Veil

By Yvonne Ridley
Sunday, October 22, 2006; = B01

LONDON

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures -- until = I was=20 captured by the Taliban.

In September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist attacks on the = United=20 States, I snuck into Afghanistan, clad in a head-to-toe blue burqa, = intending to=20 write a newspaper account of life under the repressive regime. Instead, = I was=20 discovered, arrested and detained for 10 days. I spat and swore at my = captors;=20 they called me a "bad" woman but let me go after I promised to read the = Koran=20 and study Islam. (Frankly, I'm not sure who was happier when I was freed = -- they=20 or I.)

Back home in London, I kept my word about studying Islam -- and was = amazed by=20 what I discovered. I'd been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your = wife=20 and oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages promoting the = liberation=20 of women. Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to Islam, = provoking=20 a mixture of astonishment, disappointment and encouragement among = friends and=20 relatives.

Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as = former=20 foreign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab -- a face veil = that=20 reveals only the eyes -- as an unwelcome barrier to integration, with = Prime=20 Minister Tony Blair, writer Salman Rushdie and even Italian Prime = Minister=20 Romano Prodi leaping to his defense.

Having been on both sides of the veil, I can tell you that most = Western male=20 politicians and journalists who lament the oppression of women in the = Islamic=20 world have no idea what they are talking about. They go on about veils, = child=20 brides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages, and = they=20 wrongly blame Islam for all this -- their arrogance surpassed only by = their=20 ignorance.

These cultural issues and customs have nothing to do with Islam. A = careful=20 reading of the Koran shows that just about everything that Western = feminists=20 fought for in the 1970s was available to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. = Women in=20 Islam are considered equal to men in spirituality, education and worth, = and a=20 woman's gift for childbirth and child-rearing is regarded as a positive=20 attribute.

When Islam offers women so much, why are Western men so obsessed with = Muslim=20 women's attire? Even British government ministers Gordon Brown and John = Reid=20 have made disparaging remarks about the nikab -- and they hail from = across the=20 Scottish border, where men wear skirts.

When I converted to Islam and began wearing a headscarf, the = repercussions=20 were enormous. All I did was cover my head and hair -- but I instantly = became a=20 second-class citizen. I knew I'd hear from the odd Islamophobe, but I = didn't=20 expect so much open hostility from strangers. Cabs passed me by at = night, their=20 "for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie, after dropping off a white = passenger=20 right in front of me, glared at me when I rapped on his window, then = drove off.=20 Another said, "Don't leave a bomb in the back seat" and asked, "Where's = bin=20 Laden hiding?"

Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly, = but the=20 majority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the = face=20 uncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a personal statement: My = dress=20 tells you that I am a Muslim and that I expect to be treated = respectfully, much=20 as a Wall Street banker would say that a business suit defines him as an = executive to be taken seriously. And, especially among converts to the = faith=20 like me, the attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, = leering=20 behavior is not tolerable.

I was a Western feminist for many years, but I've discovered that = Muslim=20 feminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We hate = those=20 ghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003 when judges = of the=20 Miss Earth competition hailed the emergence of a bikini-clad Miss = Afghanistan,=20 Vida Samadzai, as a giant leap for women's liberation. They even gave = Samadzai a=20 special award for "representing the victory of women's rights."

Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and the nikab = political=20 symbols, too, a way of rejecting Western excesses such as binge = drinking, casual=20 sex and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on the length of = your=20 skirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged = on your=20 character and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through = piety --=20 not beauty, wealth, power, position or sex.

I didn't know whether to scream or laugh when Italy's Prodi joined = the debate=20 last week by declaring that it is "common sense" not to wear the nikab = because=20 it makes social relations "more difficult." Nonsense. If this is the = case, then=20 why are cellphones, landlines, e-mail, text messaging and fax machines = in daily=20 use? And no one switches off the radio because they can't see the = presenter's=20 face.

Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I have a right to an = education=20 and that it is my duty to seek out knowledge, regardless of whether I am = single=20 or married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we told that women = must wash,=20 clean or cook for men. As for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their = wives --=20 it's simply not true. Critics of Islam will quote random Koranic verses = or=20 hadith, but usually out of context. If a man does raise a finger against = his=20 wife, he is not allowed to leave a mark on her body, which is the = Koran's way of=20 saying, "Don't beat your wife, stupid."

It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the place and treatment = of=20 women. According to a recent National Domestic Violence Hotline survey, = 4=20 million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during = an=20 average 12-month period. More than three women are killed by their = husbands and=20 boyfriends every day -- that is nearly 5,500 since 9/11.

Violent men don't come from any particular religious or cultural = category;=20 one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or = otherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the hotline survey. This = is a=20 global problem that transcends religion, wealth, class, race and = culture.

But it is also true that in the West, men still believe that they are = superior to women, despite protests to the contrary. They still receive = better=20 pay for equal work -- whether in the mailroom or the boardroom -- and = women are=20 still treated as sexualized commodities whose power and influence flow = directly=20 from their appearance.

And for those who are still trying to claim that Islam oppresses = women,=20 recall this 1992 statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering his = views on=20 empowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political = movement that=20 encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice=20 witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

hermosh@aol.com

Yvonne Ridley is political editor of Islam Channel TV in London = and=20 coauthor

of "In the Hands of the Taliban: Her Extraordinary Story" (Robson=20 Books).