Great story Manat. It's great that you're here with us cuz I've always wanted to get a better picture of Muslim politics in America. I would really appreciate it if you could talk a bit about how your life as a Muslim in America was (in a different thread and at a time of your choosing). Also, when you have the time and the effort please could you take about the Islamic Organizations there like CAIR and the mosque Imams you have come across there. I realize that the US is a huge country so I presume Muslim community there is not monolithic but still even if you're experiences are anecdotal and unrepresentative, I would love to hear what you have to say about it.
BTW, is your heritage/ancestry from the Gulf region?
“I am dying to work of course but only if they genuinely respected our ideas and our
abilities,” says Mostafa. “But they think we can’t talk and we are introverted. Many
people don’t even want to give us a chance because of what we wear.”
Call me a bad person but when I see a woman in niqab I automatically assume that she's not the social type. Maybe it's an invalid prejudice but you know what? until the niqabi initiates the conversation, I'm gonna keep that prejudice and I'm not gonna start the conversation.
And regarding employment, unless it's a call center or some sort of unseen medical lab or sth, I wouldn't hire a Niqabi. Just show your face and see the difference in attitudes.
Sameh was in her last year at Cairo University when, as she describes, she showed up one
day suddenly dressed in niqab.
“They freaked out,” she recalls, laughing. “I was the only person in niqab in all four
grades. No one knew how to handle it.”
“People have this very negative image of women in niqab - that they are low class and
uneducated,” adds El-Meshad. “One of the reasons why I wore it was the people take a
better idea of the niqab. To me it was like, I am educated, I know how to talk, I am
social, and I wear niqab. I make it a point to go and talk to people for that reason.”
To be honest I personally don't think niqabis are necessarily uneducated. However, I do assume (and rightly so) that the woman is very pious and religious. This is not just with Niqabis. When I see a bearded man dressed in a dark suit and a hat or a kippah I assume this man is an Orthodox/Haredi Jew who is also very devout and strict about religion.
Needless to say, being that religious always implies associated connotations, and the individual in question should expect and accept those connotations
Their decision to wear niqab, they say, was in no way influenced by any
man in their life, be it their husbands or fathers.
I wish this was the case but it isn't. It might even be 50/50 but the truth is even when there is no physical forcing, there
must be some sort of communal/familial pressure or influence.
Out of a huge extended family, only one aunt wears niqab-we call it booshiya-. She was a liberal miniskirt-wearing Witney Houston-listening architecture student until she fell in love with a Wahabi. My grandfather refused to give his approval of the marriage although he didn't physically prevent her. She eloped and now lives with her husband in Dubai. I'm pretty sure he didn't
make her wear it but I also wouldn't say it was
completely her choice.
Topic: Your experiences of the niqab/burka?