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The Hijaab: 20 Years On?
Posted by: The Platform
Tags: ban,bosnia,el-sherbini,Europe,hijaab,hijab,intolerance,Law,marwa,schools,teachers,tolerance Posted date:
February 14, 2010 |
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By Aisha Alvi
I dedicate this short piece to my late father, Dr. Abdur Rab Alvi, 1929 -2006. The dedicated support and guidance through our long, drawn-out hijaab fiasco was exemplary of what a Muslim should be; he displayed humility, tolerance and gentility.
Over the last 10 years, the British Muslim community has endured and witnessed the toughest decade since the post-war period when mass migration of Muslims to Britain took place. Unlike our elders whose self-segregation from mainstream British society was a defensive reaction to racism, second and third generation Muslims have been under attack for their faith.
By God’s Grace, as far back as 1990, my sister Fatima Alvi and I won the right to wear the Islamic headscarf at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls in Cheshire. Prior to this, we were suspended from school after two long years of persuasion, and negotiations broke down. Finally, in December 1989, we made a completely independent decision to attend school and refused to remove the covering from our heads. What did we go armed with? Our faith in God and knowledge of our educational rights.
What was all the fuss about? This was not a battle of wills and we did not want to jeopardise our education. We were privileged and attended one of the best Grammar schools in the country, but we simply wanted to follow our religion as prescribed by the tenets of Islam. Discussions ensued between ourselves and the head of the school, and on one notable occasion, the Holy Quran was opened and the school insisted that there was no evidence to suggest that we needed to cover our heads. At the tender age of 14 and 15 respectively we were not only attempting to secure a basic right to practice our faith, but we were having to justify that donning, what was to us, an inconspicuous cloth on our heads was compulsory in Islam.
This was an out-of-court battle won by the media. Being the first such case of its kind in Britain, it hit the headlines, creating phenomenal national and international media interest. The tabloid front-pages relished it. The school’s attitude was to find an alternative school, the public’s was, ‘if you don’t like our way of life, then you should go back to your own country.’ Everyone had an opinion and we were the centre of discussion everywhere.
Britain was being tested on its levels of tolerance, something novel for the Muslim community at the time. The school was in the limelight for the wrong reasons – not for their usual academic recognition, but for being intolerant of Islam. We gained unexpected support from the Commission for Racial Equality, National Union of Teachers, Jewish Gazette, Manchester Council of Mosques; the list was growing and swinging the pendulum back in our direction. So the head and Governing Body were being forced to back down.
My love for wearing hijaab is purely, this: it is a commandment by Allah, my Creator, in the Quran. My scarf is my pride, honour and dignity and it has shaped the person who I am today. It may bring hardships and difficulties but it is with pride that I deal with these. At the time, anti-Islamic sentiments were not widespread. Our conclusion from the school’s attitude and the piles of hate mail was simply that ignorance prevailed in Britain, but we never considered that these were deeply-rooted prejudices. How naïve we were.
20 years on? I am not so sure.
We are witnessing in Britain, like many in Europe, an unashamed national reaction to the new visibility of Muslims. Our memories are short but need we be reminded of the genocide of Bosnian Muslims in 1992, long before 9/11 and 7/7. They did not practice Islam assiduously, they inter-married with fellow citizens, and were certainly not visibly Muslim. Nevertheless, this did not prevent a mass victimisation of Muslims through an ethnic cleansing.
In the Summer of 2009, Marwa Al-Sherbini died the ‘headscarf martyr’. Marwa was a 31-year-old veiled Egyptian pharmacist who was brutally stabbed eighteen times in a German courtroom as her 3-year-old son watched. Her attacker was a German man who was being prosecuted for calling her a “terrorist” and, in one incident, tried to rip off her headscarf. Marwa’s tragic death took place just days after Nicolas Sarkozy gave a major policy speech denouncing the burka and the resurgence of far-right groups in the latest European elections.
We can now ask ourselves this question: does the law afford us any protection in our varying forms of Islamic dress? The answer in short is ‘No’. The same battles rage on in a climate where prejudices towards Islam and Muslims have intensified beyond comprehension in my lifetime. The right to wear the hijaab in schools has brought the same arguments back to the drawing board, the arguments which we once faced by our head, whose sentiments echoed “when in Rome, do as the Romans do”. Globalisation has changed multicultural Britain overnight. New citizens, skins colours, traditions, cultures, religions and open ostentatious symbols means English society has dug its heels in hard and regurgitated the same old clichés of “our way of life” and “our values”. We cannot all be deported back to our motherlands, so we are being told the best Muslim is the one we cannot visibly see.
My vision for the next ten years is this. We need to enlighten people so they know that the hijab, niqab and jilbaab are part of our religious freedom. If you don’t want religious freedom in this country, ban the religion, but don’t ban parts of a religion that don’t fit in with British sensibilities. Islam is totalitarian and let us not be apologetic for that. It is one and whole and not to be de-fragmented to divide Muslims with the introduction of various classifying notions, such as Radicals, Moderates and Islamists. There is no difference between forcing hijaab off or forcing it on.
Real practical progression over the next decade will only be seen when Muslims are truly accepted in wider British society and Muslims genuinely feel free to practice their faith. My vision is a Britain that allows Muslims and all other faiths to practice their faiths openly and freely without the fear of England’s green and pleasant land being taken over by people who are not white enough, or not atheist, secular or Christian enough.
The future is bright, the future is an Islam which is part and parcel of British life. The solution lies in the hands of each and every single Muslim living in the UK and all Muslim organisations. We need to take ownership of our community before others do.
Aisha Alvi , Barrister at Law, LLM (Islamic Law) University of London, aims to use the privilege of her training not for personal gain, but to show the wisdom of the Shariah. Recently, her expertise in Islamic law and the English legal system has led her to be involved as a key advisor in several anti-terror prosecutions. Her expertise in the Islamic law of transactions has also allowed her to become a pioneer in the development and promotion of Islamic wills.
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35 Comments
Muhammad Imran Khan
Dear aisha, Congratulations for such a nice article……its indeed the need of time. keep it up, i pray for your success in all future endevors.
Mohammed Salih
Seek first to understand before seeking to be understood, I think running a publicity campaign is due now to promote not only Hijab for Muslim women, but a wider comprehesive trend to market decent dress code for all women. Aim high, and change a wider audiance via films, celebraties, school education and political lobbying.
Zohaib
Dear Aisha your article is really very nice and based on realities. GOD bless you
Gazzala Chaudhry
Salam Aisha, I just want to commend you on your brilliant article. I think you have truly summed up the sentiments of many a muslim out there, myself included.
Sumra K.
Well done Aisha,
We absolutely need to take charge of our community before others do..
Mansour Alharaib
Thanks Aisha for this great article. I think some western countries dance with the freedom in its absolute term. However, when it comes to hijaab there is no real explanation by them why hijaab is banned. Hijaab keeps the girls with thier islamic identity in any palce in the world.
Moazzam Begg
Excellent post sister. May Allah bless you and increase you in wisdom and strength.
The Hijaab: 20 Years On? « Earwicga
[…] Uncategorized Leave a Comment A powerfully written piece from The Platform by Aisha Alvi: I dedicate this short piece to my late father, Dr. Abdur Rab Alvi, 1929 -2006. The dedicated support and guidance through our […]
SAAB
Sister, instead of using the word totalitarian to describe Islam, why not say “holistic” or “a complete way of life”? The word totalitarian is inherently negative and immediately conjures images of Nazi Germany, Stalinist Russia, and Middle Eastern dictatorships, to name a few. I hope you see my point. I do agree that Islam completely covers our actions, but I think there are better ways to communicate that.
Bejeweled
I agree on this use of language. Islam is not totalitarian or dictated, it encourages choice -and good choices.
Ayesha
Your story really is an inspiration – jzkAllah for sharing it 
Perhaps visual expression of our faith does challenge the status quo – does being British really mean equality, freedom and celebrating diversity or is it becoming more selective when it comes to applying these concepts?
Come on Britain!! Let’s show everyone what we’re about and who we are! Our identity is not wrapped up in flags and symbols – Britain stands for values of equality and freedom Is a headscarf really enough to jeopardise these things???
InshaAllah, in 10 years time….Britain will be stronger, united and proud of it’s identity for embracing all women’s right to wear what they want by not giving in to the pressure to narrow it’s vision or expectation of itself. InshaAllah.
shahina shakil
I totaly agree with your artcle well done! we all have to work together and work for the betterment of our nations suffering. May Allah forgive us for our mistakes and we are grateful for everything He has bestowed us and may He guide us to take steps that please Him and make us jannati.
Lamia
Salaam Aisha, masha’Allah an excellent article & very well put. I remember clearly the incident that took place at Altrincham Grammer as if it was yesterday. Subhan’Allah many changes have taken place over the past 20 years yet in some respects when it comes to our faith some predjudices remain the same especially with regards to the hijaab & jilbaab.
Keep up the good work & thank you for speaking up on behalf of all us Muslim women living in the UK.
Ahmad
A very truthful article. But the reality is you are asking Britain for something it will never give you, not in 10 years not in 10 centuries.
But the reverse might happen in 10 years, i.e, ban burqa altogether only for the Muslims. The nuns will wear it.
Kashif Alvi
Hi, Barrister Sahiba,
Congrats.
you have done a great job.Its amazing.
God bless you.
HEATHER D. FLETCHER
well done ! A brilliantly written article
Noorah
i was so touch with the article and at the same time i was so amaze, i am a new muslim and the time i embrace islam as my religion i wear the hijab because i believe my creator want me to be like what i am now… subhanallah…
ms.jishna ali
mashallah aisha,very good article….
whenever i read articles on islam,tolerance etc,i think about the country i reside in,i.e. the uae.and i pray for this country..
all the religions co exist here peacefully….there are churches and temples…..their festivals…..
i think the west should learn a lesson from the uae….
anyways,keep up the good work aisha,may allah reward u…
jishna
Mogamat Hashiem Fryddie
Assalaamu Alaykum Aisha. May Allaah give you the courage and strength to see you through. And may he guide the rest of us to not render your efforts in vain.
Here incidents like these are few and far between and definitely not part of government policy. Yet most of our Muslim sisters seems loathe o be seen in hijaab. May Allaah help us.
maryam
Great piece, but my heart stopped when I read ban the religion (Islam)
Sirea jabar
Excellent article Aisha! Well done. You are an inspiration and strong positive role model for young muslim women, who are still faced with the challenge of not being able to practice their faith without prejudice and discrimination.
Manfred
OK, how come then that when Jemima Khan married Imran, she was ripped to pieces by the Pakistani media for wearing jeans and showing a bit of ankle? She had to change her dress code after that, as did a lot of high profile people like Princess Diana.
Why is that we Westerners have to abide by others’ dress codes when we visit their countries, but when others come to our, the feel they can wear what they want?
It’s one rule for us, and another for everybody else. I’m sorry, I just don’t get it. We are a secular country by nature, we are like this because that’s the way we want it.
Religion is evil, devisive, and had caused most of the world’s ills. Just look at the Middle East.
Opiya
Jemima Khan was a subject of a country’s culture. The Quran, the primary source of Islamic law, states that ‘there is no compulsion in religion’ [2:256]. Please don’t conflate religion and culture. And Pakistan hardly threatened to impose any bans. This was a point of the media, not the law nor the officials of an institution.
If anything, the approach in some European countries [btw, we Muslims who are born and raised here are also Westerners as Western Muslims] by seeking to ban all or parts of Hijab is a case of double standards. How is forcing a woman, who by choice wears it, to take it off any different than forcing her to wear it against choice? If you expect the freedom of choice in other countries, then practice what you preach.
And your final line reflects sheer ignorance. Have you studied no history? Or did the mass murder in the name of Godlessness in communist Russia completely wash over you? And which bit of the Middle East do you refer to? The bit where America and Britain supported the dictator Saddam when it suited them and then illegally blew apart Iraq to a state of exacerbated lawlessness when he stopped serving their capitalist aims? Or the bit where Britain and America colluded in establishing Isreal and supported and continue to allow the illegal occupation and subjugation of the entire Palestinian nation? Do you wonder why there is conflict in that region? If anything, the foreign policy of our secular ‘civilised’ Western nations are ‘evil, devisive and caused most of the world’s ills’. As you say, just look at the Middle East. Or any of the many other countries that have suffered from Western colonialism and imperialism for that matter.
MOmran
Muslims in britain must work with other organisation to ensure the Uk never reaches the level of france in its banning of the headscarf in schools. Because any ban will be an infringment on our basic human right of practising our religion, which is something we can never compromise on.
Bejeweled
Fantastic response Opiya, I couldn’t have said it any better.
Manfred
“And your final line reflects sheer ignorance. Have you studied no history? Or did the mass murder in the name of Godlessness in communist Russia completely wash over you? And which bit of the Middle East do you refer to?”
Try reading it again. I say ‘most’ of the world’s evils, and by that I meant wars. How can you deny it? Get rid of religion and overnight the Middle East i.e. Israeli/Palestine problem would evaporate. As would the Taliban threat. As would Al-Quida. As would Muslim women wanting to wear burkas.
From the tone of your comments Opiya, you sound like you really hate Britain, it’s history, and everything it stands for.
Do you live here? If you do, you are what is wrong with this country in terms of immigrants. You don’t really like the country or want to be here. You want everything on your own terms, and you have no interest in the native culture, history, or traditions, which quite frankly, you are probably quite dismissive of.
Someone else has made a comment on this thread about ‘when in Rome’, and there is some truth in that adage. The fact that so many people come to this country and have no intention of doing just that, means communities become divided and segregated, fostering distrust and antipathy, and leads to issues like ‘the veil’ being discussed.
Opiya
I explained how I denied it in that previous comment, but let’s break this down:
-Isreal and Palestine: a conflict against illegal occupation of Palestinian homeland and subjugation of the people. Prior to the UK backed establishment of Isreal [which continues to illegally grow with Western backing], a harmonious multi-faith community existed for centuries.
-Iraq: a war caused by Britain and America when they fell out with their previous sponsored buddy, the dictator Saddam, over trumped up WMD charges [in reality – oil supplies].
-Taliban: a group, like Saddam, created and sponsored by the US until they fell out. Then the US lead the Afghan war, which rather than removing the Taliban, made them go underground only to re-emerge elsewhere.
The common denominator is not religion but such Western foreign policies, which has created enemies and conflicts to everyone’s detriment.
And I hardly need to justify my Britishness to you, but I am British. I’ve lived here since I was born here. I am more British and proud of it, with a formal education in our culture and history, than the average. And I spend most of my voluntary time working and campaigning for the benefit of Britain. Yes, that does includes campaigning against our foreign policy as it not only damages other countries but damages our country deeply.
British values are about appreciating our richness in diversity, not forming some kind of homogenous police-state where the authorities feel they have a say on everything down to how people dress – as in France. Social harmony and cohesion is not about everyone being the same, it’s about everyone respecting each others’ differences.
It may be time you realised – British native culture has not stayed stagnant. It has shifted, since colonial times and particularly over the past century when mass immigration from British colonies [to, by the way, keep the post-war UK economically afloat] developed the racial diversity of Britain, and with it, cultural diversity.
There are now many more colours, cultures and, yes, faiths that are part of British culture. Hijab is as much a part of our culture as hats. And if you don’t like that, it is you who are dismissing British history and culture and maybe you should be the one to move.
Manfred
You can trace all what you said back to religion. Foreign policies have only been formed since then – rightly or wrongly. The Israeli problem is there, largely because of WW2 after the Germans tried to exterminate an entire religion.
Multi-cultural Britain does not exist. Most immigrant populations (MOST) live in isolated poverty in this country, native poor live amongst themselves on vast council estates, and so on and so forth. We are nation divided as much by the way a man speaks i.e. accent as we are the colour of skin and the religion one follows.
As somebody once famously said, Britain is the only country on earth where one man will hate another simply for the way he speaks.
And you think we can live alongside other races and religions in harmony.
“British values are about appreciating our richness in diversity” utter tripe – you don’t know what your’re talking about.
Get yourself out into a boozer on any town centre street of a Friday night dressed in your veils and your burkas, and just see how the average Joe reacts. Your are living in PC cloud cuckoo land.
Bejeweled
Manfred- the only person living in a ‘cuckoo’ land is yourself, consumed in your hazy alcoholic stupor, in the blessed boozer you refer to. I’m not even going to begin on your historical perceptions, which completely lack any speckle of understanding.
The fact is that British Muslims are here to stay, they are part of the fabric of the society, whether you like it or not. This is their home. The women are not going to come to their local boozer to get your approval, they’re going to do what they do best- make a positive, constructive contribution to their society.
I lived in London and had the most amazing high-school experience. I made life-long friends with white,black, malaysian, sri-lankan and iranian friends. And *shock horror* they weren’t all Muslim. It’s this exciting, wonderful diversity that I experienced here, which I am incredibly proud of.
These comments about what ‘your average Joe’ thinks and judges are completely irrelevant. If you’re average Joe is a bigot living in his/her close circle of pub-friends, then I guess you should be more seriously concerned about the future of these kind of average Joes, than the problems of Muslims.
You really need to get out more.
Manfred
You keep burying your head in the sand then.
Average Joe, AKA Joe Public = the nation at large. And I think you’re right – Joe Public can be quite bigoted – regardless of race, creed or colour.
It’s interesting you refer to the average Joe who only sticks to his/her ‘close circle of pub-friends’ as you really summarise many an immigrant community in this country, where many don’t even bother to learn the language.
Really, it’s you who should be getting out more – immerse yourself in our culture, enjoy it, live it, experience it – you aren’t in Pakistan anymore. There’s more to life than an arranged marriage and 15 kids.
Bejeweled
Well let’s just say the nation at large that you know are, thankfully, not the ones I have come across.
Whilst I take your point that there are immigrant communities who need to broaden their horizons a bit more, your stereotypes of Pakistan and the world are deeply flawed. I have Pakistani friends who say that Pakistan is more westernised than here. So let’s let go of this superiority attitude please, it’s getting old.
Yes we’re not “in Pakistan” and most of us never claimed to be. This is home. Let’s get over it and learn how to live alongside each other.
Manfred
We’ve gone off topic here anway. What I originally said was that religion had played a part in most major conflicts of over the past several hundreds years. Fact,
whatever slant you want to put on it.
Enough of this anyway, insults are now being traded, and thus a good time to stop the debate.
Bejeweled
Religion was ingrained in most societies in the past millennium. To speak of it as a separate influence is wrong from the outset. You may hold to it that it caused wars and conflict, whilst others hold to it that it was the cause of social cohesion, good mannerisms, moral etiquette and spirituality. Getting rid of religion at the time, and today, is fatal by any standards.
A good time to stop the debate, agreed, and maybe we should pick up some history books and question our ideas in the meantime.
Rehanna
May Allah bless you Aisha you are a truly wonderful role model and a shining example for our young muslim today, jazakallah
I have seen western educated Muslim women are in Burqa while their mothers never even covered their heads in Pakistan. I do not know whether it is due to western education or because they find themselves victim of racism. According to Lord Burtend Russell, western education makes a man stupid and selfish. The credit cruch in the world is due to the policies of blue eyed western educated elites. British schooling is also in a mess because of such western educated elites.
Burqa is not locking women, it is a buffer line between protecting chasity and exposing. Being naked and drunk is acceptabl but being covered and modest is inhuman.
French president wants Muslim women to be topless like his wife who posed topless in fashion shows. He has no right to ban the burqa because it is undemocratic and an unqualified attack on individual freedom. Burqa is not just a piece of cloth but a lot of ideological and cultural connotation to it. Women are just being exploited in the name of rights. Burqa protects women’s rights and treat each women like a princess. No one has the right to ban the freedom of choice in a secular and democratic country. The right to choice is a basic fundamental right the person should have.
French president’s interpretation of burqa as a symbol of subservience is false. It is a usual habit of western ideologists to twist history and distort the facts inorder to project their culture as superior one. The president should be criminally tried for spreading such falsehood. To veil or not to veil should be an individual choice. Dress codes are for children, not for adults. Government legislated dress codes for the Taliban religious policy not western democracies. Women should be free to wear burqas. If women can get away with wearing cropped shirts and pants that show their panties, they should be able to waer burqas too.
One Muslim woman, Caroline Chaiima, writing in Lepoint.fr, said she wore a veil: “Let those most closely concerned speak. I am a French woman born in France, with French parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, and I am a Muslim. I wear the full veil and I feel like saying: So what? I am happy behind the veil, I protect myself from depraved stares. Neither my father, nor my brother, nor my husband forced the full veil upon me; it’s a personal choice.”