If that is intolerance and I am intolerant…I don’t mind!!

To wear or not to wear the headscarf is a question being asked in many non Muslim countries of the world today. With the banning of the burqa (full head cover) in public places in some countries France, Belgium, Turkey and Kosovo and the headscarf banned in schools in France and about to go the same way in some other European countries I had to ask myself the big Question – How tolerant of others am I??

I was walking through the mall the other day and a woman (I think) in full black outfit and burqa with slightly dark reading glasses on through the slit in the eyes, came walking towards me and I looked really hard trying to understand what this was all about. I have not read the passages in the Koran that insists on this practice so am fairly ignorant on those matters on this subject. My understanding is from my perspective of freedom!! I am not being rude when I say ‘I think’ but in full honesty it could have been anyone under that garment!!

Anyway back to this idea of looking…and I remembered a brilliant 2 part series TV show I watched fairly recently when the first picture was of a young suicide bomber blowing himself up in London and then followed the whole story on how he got to that moment in time and in the mind. His sister who was a devout Muslim did not wear the burqa and was ostracised by those who did and the men who wanted her to do so. One day she tried it after a friend explained to her that when wearing a burqa people treated you really badly…like a ‘non person’. She then got similar ‘non person’ treatment!!

I do apologise in advance for my feelings but when looking at a person who is choosing or maybe forced into choosing to cover up the whole body with a flowing rob just like Denis Roussos did when trying to hide his large size, I got to thinking of others who do the same for different reasons!! Our nuns in Catholicism wear full dresses and cover their hair. Practical philosophy followers wear flowing ankle skirts and not so tight tops. The Amish wear simple outfits with long sleeves and long skirts. The fundamentalist Mormons also have their thick course dress material and the ‘we all buy from the same catalogue one choice style’ look and awful long thick stockings that must be worn. I am sure there are many other instances of dress code which make you conform to belong through religion, customs and beliefs. We have the total opposite here In SA with the Zulu maiden who is allowed to let it all hang out!!

I do not even mind the head scarf that covers up the hair. It is the face and the eyes that matter to me!!!! It’s the covering of the face and the mouth and the eyes with the burqa that make me think ‘non person’. If your personality shines through your face and eyes and expression which to me it does and I can’t see you, you become ‘non person’!! And I can only think that out of choice or husband’s choice that person wants to be a non person. Intolerant - yes absolutely but my intolerance goes deeper than that!!

Gheerah is the driving emotion that is supposed to protect and safeguard a man’s own woman and children from the leering look of strangers. Hijab the terminology for covering yourself fulfils this action. A real man would thus want this for all women so he can’t leer at others and others can’t leer at his possessions. If people choose to really wear these full outfits because of their own relationship with God and the humility they feel in face of him. I understand; but when it is a male that dominates the world and is doing this to curb the lust he might feel. I freak out.

Especially when living next door to a brothel! The police have checked the number plates and the car owners are a large percent Muslim! They even arrive from Mosque still dressed in their white robe and turban. I know this is a small percentage of men and men from all religions do visit (trying very hard not to generalise) But when you walk in a mall and the man is dressed in jeans and normal clothes and the woman is covered from head to toe…I just don’t get it!! My intolerance level heightens!!

I realise that my tolerance is ruled by do unto others as you would do to yourself.

In calcutta in India (a largely Hindu society) a devout Muslim teacher who does not wear Hijab with full face burqa was told by her students that they would not come to class unless she wore it. In some places in France and Norway statistics show rape has increased in certain areas where hijab is not practised!! Even in Australia a Muslim cleric condoned the rape because the girl was ‘asking for it’.

If their was absolute freedom world wide and only those women who really wanted to wear it, did and I was free to visit Iran, Iraq and a few other Muslim countries without conforming to Hijab I think I would be more tolerant and advocate to not ban the burqa – full face cover. But in its symbol of suppression for so many people in worlds where freedom of women is non existent in mans insistence to keep her as a non person because of what he feels and his non ability to fight these feelings with reasoning instead of succumbing to it – I say – Ban the burqa!!

If that is intolerance and I am intolerant…I don’t mind!!

P.S. – thought left in a Muslim internet chat room!!

‘What kind of dignity a non-believer has by the way; they conduct their life and expose themselves. They have removed the shield of protection, that modesty of Hijab and left themselves unprotected and that is the cause for the assault, which takes place once every ten seconds in rape and murder around the world. But those true Muslims who observe proper Hijab are protected from such assaults and not one [case of] this type is ever heard of.’