Stand up for Hijab

I saw a group of young ladies pass by and I just thought of how proud I feel when I see modestly dressed young girls with their hijabs (head scarves). With so much of brain washing to look like the perfect air-brushed ‘celeb’, yet they choose the hijab for the pleasure of Allah alone. It is so uplifting and empowering to wear the hijab- a special head dress for the special fairer gender. We are blessed to have freedom of religion here in South Africa, to pray where we want, dress completely veiled and no officer will come up to you, harass you and demand that you remove your Islamic attire immediately. ALHAMDULILLAH!

Are we not ungrateful to Allah by being unmindful of dressing as a decent Muslimah, by wearing the hijab? We must make shukr for the ability to practice Islam here in our country before we are forced to take the hijab off- Ma’athallah! It’s happening in Tunisia and Turkey where Islam poses no threat. Whose to say it can’t happen here? We pray to Allah that such a dreadful thing must not occur in our country. Read this…

Sister Sukeina writes “In Singapore it started on 1 st Febuary 2002 when four 7-year-old Muslim girls were thrown out of school for wearing hijab, after the Deputy Prime Minister had banned it. He said it was to help children integrate, but whilst he stripped Muslim girls of their hijabs, he allowed Sikh boys to continue wearing their turbans.

In the same month, but this time in Spain , a 13 year-old Muslim girl was refused entry to school because she wore hijab. The school and the Education Minister condemned the hijab as “a sign of discrimination against women” and declared that to allow the girl to wear it “would violate HER civil rights”! The Minister for Labour & Social Affairs joined in the attack calling the practice of hijab “savagery”.

This is perhaps the most insidious attack on hijab, when they claim it’s for the good of our daughters. What they are saying is that we as Muslims are not fit to be parents and they must step in to protect our daughters from us and from our beliefs! We see this arrogance surfacing everywhere. When a girl comes to school in hijab her interrogation always begins with the same question “Did someone tell you to wear this or did you decide for yourself?” Apparently we as parents are not allowed to guide our children towards Islam, to do so is viewed as a form of child abuse.

In France this happened when two sisters Lila and Alma, aged 18 and 16, turned up to school in hijab. The school suspected the parents must have “encouraged” the girls to wear hijab, but upon investigating they were shocked to discover that their father was an atheist Jew and their mother a non-practicing Algerian. The father explained his daughters had come under no pressure from radical Muslims. The school were not amused and expelled both girls. They are now forced to continue their studies from home.

And again a 15 year-old Muslim girl, Shabina, was denied permission to wear a jilbab to school, the judge questioned who had put her up to it. In giving his judgement the judge suggested Shabina had been influenced by her older brother and questioned why he spoke for her – as if it was a crime for a brother to support his sister. Shabina’s school with its 80% Muslim population, allows the wearing of shalwar kamees with scarf, but it refused the jilbaab”.

Muslim women and girls who adhere to the Islamic dress code have been subjected to prejudice for far too long. How does wearing a head-scarf bother anyone else when Muslim women are not waving it in the faces of non-Muslims and forcing them to don the hijab. “We wear it because we love to” says 12 year old Aishah. “We will never remove it no matter what. We are free, nobody forces us to wear the hijab, the West will never understand it’s liberation.”