Zaiba Malik, a muslim journalist at the Guardian, decided to wear a niqab-the full head covering you must have seen around-for a full day to find out for herself what it was like. The results were interesting indeed. Her own reaction was to be horrified, and that was just the start of things:
On the street it takes just seconds for me to discover that there are
different categories of stare. Elderly people stop dead in their tracks
and glare; women tend to wait until you have passed and then turn round
when they think you can’t see; men just look out of the corners of
their eyes. And young children – well, they just stare, point and laugh.
She also discovered the down side of wearing the full veil when she went out for coffee with a friend:
I can’t fathom a way to drink my cappuccino and when I become aware
that everybody in the coffee shop is wondering the same thing, I give
up and just gaze at it.
Even within a muslim area, she felt out of place. According to the article:
…I visit various parts of London with a large number of Muslims[...].
Not one woman is wearing the niqab. I see many with their hair covered,
but I can see their faces. Even in these areas I feel a minority within
a minority. Even in these areas other Muslims turn and look at me.
My own discussion about women wearing a niqab led me to a few conclusions of my own. Humans rely on the face for a lot of information about the other person. Small facial movements are an important part of non-verbal communication, and I suspect that people find that when women wear the niqab, it somehow almost dehumanizes them because we can’t tell what emotion they might be feeling. As Zaiba says in her article:
I cannot tell how old she is, how much she weighs, whether she has a
kind or a sad face, whether she has long or short hair, whether she has
any distinctive facial features at all.
What do you feel about this? Do women who wear the full veil intimidate you? Make you wary? Or doesn’t it bother you at all?
[Link: Zaiba Malik wears a niqab for a day and is shocked by the reaction of strangers]
It’s probably wrong on, like a million different levels, but I think it’s kinda sexy…
This is a veerrry heated topic to bring to the blog Mr. Fayyaad. I’d agree about a face being a very important part of communication… 80% of our communication is actually non-verbal and the face plays a major factor of that. But then again do blind people have the same problem, are they not able to commincate?
Personally if a person wants to do something they have the right… that said, people can often be made to think that they want something. The main reason for the Niqāb seems to be that a woman must cover their faces when around “men” they do not know as “no harm will come to them. God is forgiving and kind”
So is this much like the debat a woman wearing a short skirt is asking for it. So cover up and “no harm will come to them.”
It’s very interesting to read the reactions she got from people who saw her in the niqab. From what I can gather, she was very uncomfortable wearing it and I think that the people she mentioned reacted in the way they did because they picked up on this. It seems to me that if people cannot take their communication cues from seeing your face, they would react to body language instead. And if your body language signals that you’re unsure of yourself, there are people who would take advantage of that.
I know a few people who wear niqab and they get treated with quite a bit more respect and courtesy than the author of this article. Yes, there are those who will make comments…and I’m almost certain these are the same people who would make those comments if the girl was wearing a short skirt…but from what I’ve been told, these are few and far between.
I’ve never worn the niqab but I have worn the hijab (long black cloak and head scarf) and I can honestly say that I have found people to react a little more courteously when I do. I remember one incident when I was out shopping and an African gentleman came up to me and said ‘Ma’am, I just wanted to say that I think you Muslim ladies look very nice when you wear your traditional clothing.’ He then respectfully clapped his hands together and walked away. I think he was older than I was but he treated me as a ‘respected elder’, hence the clapping of the hands. Very flattering stuff.
Oh and she’s right about the tripping thing. Dude, those long cloaks are a hazard to people in a hurry!
I don’t know dude. I’m dead against people wearing Nikab. I mean, I think everyone should be allowed to dress the way they want — whether it’s a bikini or niqab – but this is one of those things that’s not actually a prescribed part of the religion and yet people make as if it is. And that’s what really gets to me about it.
I’m with Joe — you’ll probably find that a lot of people who wear the niqab are subtly “brainwashed” into believing that they should wear it. They think it’s them that want it for themselves but actually it’s a whole host of social, cultural and religious pressures acting all the time.
I was in Miami and everyone there wears skimpy bikinis. It was a bit odd to see at first but after a day or so you stop noticing and you realize that few people on the streets or beaches are gawking at the literally half naked people walking all around.
Compare this with news coming from Egypt, where sexual harassment is at an all time high. And guess which women get the worst harassment on the streets of Cairo? You probably didn’t guess, but it’s the women who wear the niqab. In the article I read (I think it was from Salon or Slate), women were followed, touched, leered at, spoken to disrespectfully (called prostitutes), and hounded through the streets and on buses, and everyone else just turned a blind eye.
Desire, temptation and what you wear has absolutely nothing to do with anything. Men will sexually harass whoever they feel they have the most right to pick on.
I think the writer got some pretty harsh treatment coz it was the UK and people have issues there. I think Safas are a lot more tolerant of other cultures and that’s why people who wear niqab don’t get treated badly here, just more with sort of respect from afar.
Personally, I find that people who wear niqab creep me out. I don’t think they’re particularly religious or pious or anything. When I see a women in niqab, (particularly here in Joburg), I look around for the man she’s with, usually someone with a footlong beard and pants that don’t reach his ankles. And then I think “Tablighi Gestapo”.
Is it wrong? Yes. But personally, I do see the niqab as a form of oppression.
That pants not reaching the ankle look creeps me the feck out!
Dig it:
http://www.salon.com/mwt/broadsheet/2008/10/06/one_eye/index.html
Now the Saudi sheikhs are saying two eyes is too sexy, women need to cover one of them up.
These people won’t stop until women are shapeless, formless, voiceless breeding stock and nothing more.
Earlier jokes aside, I tend to agree with the folks who say you should get to wear whatever you want, but I guess I have my personal lines I’d draw also – I wouldn’t want my wife to go out wearing a Niqab, but I also wouldn’t want her going out wearing nothing but a thong.
Full respect would say that I trust her enough that even if she did go out in only a thong, she would be fine. Problem is that I know men. I also think that dressing overly provocatively is disrespectful to me, as she has committed to being with me and therefore shouldn’t need to dress to entice the attention of others. Obviously this isn’t cut-and-dried though. There are levels of what is and isn’t acceptable based on both partners physical AND emotional comfort.
I imagine it is the above thoughts that started the road towards the Niqab. It is an over-extended version of the same thing: The look of women can make men think sexual thoughts. Thinking sexual thoughts about women to whom you aren’t married is sin. Therefore – ipsum dipsum full of gypsum – women should be covered to lessen the amount of sin in the world.
To conclude: The overly cloaked body tipped the scales too far in one direction, because for a long period of history, men and their insecurities dominated. It is disrespectful of the woman because it means the man doesn’t trust her.
However…
The scantily clad body can also be seen to have tipped the scales, but in the other direction. Where women dress in a way that will draw and excite the attention of men, it is as disrespectful to the man she is married to as if he forced her to cover up.
Dress sense, like all things in a human partnership should be a negotiation between the partners to find a commonality that suits both within the context of their society.
That’s my 44.6 cents worth.
Faranaaz – I sooo want to see what criteria they use to determine which eye is sexier than the other. How completely asinine.
Tim – Word.
My feck, I’ve never seen such long comments in a blog
Hi,
I am not muslim, but I must confess I love the mistery a niqab confers to a woman wearing it
So… totally in selfish grounds I hope de trend catches up, and more woman start wearing them
.
Btw I am tottaly against forcing anyone to wearing anything.
Its not my bussiness and if what someone is wearing offends me, its my problem and I should move. Not force the other person to confer to my standards…
I’ve been wearing niqab for two years now and i totally agree with the stares thing. personally i just laugh under my niqab as i find it hilarious that people find me scary! [they dont always find me scary though!]
I agree with the previous comments stating it is a form of oppression.
I am entirely tollerant of ones freedom of choice and respect that culturally I may never understand the grounds on which the women who wear the niqab do so.
However, in a society where social interation from technology, transport oppertunity and the security of the nation not just the indivdual being taken into account as upmost importance I simply cannot see the place for covering the face and hands.
I have no issues regarding the covering of the rest of the body if the woman feels more comfortable doing so, however the covering of the face is a step too far and echos dominance and limitation of rights faced by women of medieval ages.