Muslim Women

For an extra credit assignment, I attended a conference titled the Islam I Know. During this presentation three Ohio University professors spoke about the Islamic culture. The speaker that stood out the most to me was by my Women’s and Gender Studies teacher, Mrs. Catherine Cutcher. Her section of the speech spoke out to me not only because she is my teacher, but she talked about how Muslim women wear a veil covering their neck and faces. She spoke about the negative attitudes toward Muslim women from Americans as well. After attending this conference, I knew I wanted to look into this topic more.

Many feminists have pointed to the burqa as a historical symbol and tool of men’s oppression of women (Voss, 22). Americans have this point of view of Islamic women because of their choice to wear a veil, or Hijab.  The hijab, also called a veil or headscarf, is worn my Islamic women as part of their culture; the burqa is a like a hijab, but the burqa has cloth that covers the entire face so the only part of the face that shows is the eyes. The word hijab comes from the Arabic word “hajaba” meaning to hide from view or conceal (Ali). According to the Qur’an 33:59, Allah says “O Prophet, tell your wives and daughters and the believing women to draw their outer garments around them (when they go out or are among men). That is better in order that they may be known (to be Muslim) and not annoyed…” (Ali). Not only do Muslim women wear a hijab for the sole purpose that Allah instructs them too, they wear them for their own individual reasons as well. While hijab posseses some shared religious purposes for the Muslim women who wear it, as a cultural artifact the veil does not have one universal meaning for all Muslim women in the world (Droogsma, 295). I have posted a video from YouTube on this post that has three Muslim women talking about why they cover up. One of the women only wears the hijab, one wears a burqa, and one doesn’t wear any type of veil.

Bibliography

Ali, Mary. "Hijab: Suppression or Liberation."Jannah. The Institution of Islamic Information and Education, n.d. Web. 7 Mar 2011. <http://www.jannah.org/sisters/hijab2.html>.

Droogsma, Rachel Anderson. “Redefining Hijab: American Muslim Women’s Standpoints on .” Journal of Applied Communication Research. 35.3. (2007): 294-319. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 7 Feb. 2011.

Voss, Katrina. “EVOLUTION AND THE THONG-BURQA CONTINUUM.” Humanist 70.5 (2010): 22-23. Gender Studies Database. EBSCO. Web. 1 Mar. 2011.

"Why Muslim Women Cover." YouTube. Web. 7 Mar 2011. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewOVDgS_UHc>.