I find it fascinated the mix of feelings you receive when you tell people around you that you are a muslimah (a muslim woman) not only a muslimah, but also a revert (non-muslim born). You experience all kind of feeling and faces, you see those people who look surprised but interested in the topic, in your religion, in your story, but you also experience those who does look surprised, but as if it was a depressive thing, as if they could almost feel the pain (?) inside you….
What pain?
People still have the vision of oppression toward women in Islam, but the question is what does make them feel like this? Because we cover ourselves up? Because we stay at home and take care of the family?
People are afraid of the unknown, and when exposed to a different situation/information they prefer to assume things, not only assuming but also to complicate simple things, instead of going after the correct information, instead of asking around. When the lack of knowledge hits them, they just prefer to create an explanation that they would be satisfied with, that would mentally protect themselves or their own believes.
I can’t understand why they have that feeling of a covered woman is oppressed while a half naked woman is not. What does prevent the half naked woman not to be hit by her husband or not to obey him? And what makes they think that just because one covers herself up, she is totally oppressed by her family/society?
Have you ever thought that maybe we cover ourselves up, because we simply like to do so? Because we feel good doing what God commanded as to do? Because we feel proud to be following our religion not because we are oppressed but because this is our belief?
Sometimes I feel like these people studied too much math at school: If it is simple, then it is wrong.
These days I was talking to my mom about it, and she reminded me of a documentary we (pretty much everybody in my country since it was on open TV) watched about the life of some couples in Middle Eastern countries, showing the life of 5 or 6 women who suffered domestic violence. But wait… do these 5 or 6 women really represent a whole nation? Does it represent the life of every Middle Eastern couple? Or every Arab couple? Or even, every Muslim couple? Does it only happen to Muslims? Or we could not be able to find 5 or 6 women who suffered domestic violence among the non-muslims as well?
It’s pretty easy to gather 6 people with a similar background and assume it is the whole nation’s background.
It is also pretty easy for me to go to a not well known country in the globe, and come back home telling everybody that in that place people do this and that. Who would say I’m wrong when nobody else was there to confirm it?
It is easy to visit Afghanistan and come back saying that women there is forced by their husbands to wear a burqa otherwise they would beat them up at home. Who would say I’m wrong? My neighbor? Did she ever go to Afghanistan to say otherwise?
“Oh it is wrong, they wear burqa because they want to, not because their husband commanded them to.” –Neighbor
I’m not an old nor experienced person, but with the small knowledge and experience I have I can easily affirm to you that “Life is the same all around the world”. You will find happy and not happy people and couples everywhere in the globe; it doesn’t depend on where you are or what’s your religion. Good and bad people are everywhere.
The fact that the clothes cover our body doesn’t mean that it covers also our personalities. The clothes don’t make us feel less important in the society, it can cover our mouths but it doesn’t shut it. Just because we wear a hijab doesn’t mean that we don’t have self confidence or our own opinions. It also doesn’t prevent me of being a schooled or smart person.
Or you really think we don’t know how to deal with our business by our own?
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