My article is dedicated to all those people who really want to know why Islam “forces” women to put a veil on their heads and faces .Why Islam wants to stop the intermingling of sexes? Only those of you who are sincere in having this understanding can benefit from it.
First let me introduce who I am .1 am a Muslim woman and I believe that Islam is a complete code of life .It guides me in this world and teaches me how to earn an eternal place in Paradise. How I choose to live my life in this world is just a "means to an end " and not the end itself. My real aim or goal is the life in the Heaven, which my deen tells me, is the True life, and it is Etemel. This real life has just two possible results, either Hell for eternity or Heaven for eternity. Nothing in between.
Now as a Muslim I believe in accountability for my each and every deed or misdeed. My life is being video taped from the first moment I came in this world and will be stopped when I breathe my last, by two angles sitting on my shoulders .On the basis of this evidence I will be awarded either heaven or hell by ALLAH, the most Merciful the most Just. So what ever I get would be all my own doing and that’s why I have to be very careful about what I am earning.
Allah has, due to His Mercy; sent His chosen people (the Prophets) to show us how to live a life that would please Him. As a Muslim I believe in all the Holy books and the most modem, complete and final version of the Holy book is the QURAN (in theory) and the life of our last Prophet S.A.W. (In practice).
Now having this background in mind, I want to address the misconception about “veil”. Why this exercise in futility. What if I put a big veil or Burqa or Chaddar, whatever you want to call it, on an educated, liberal, modem young woman without telling her why she has to wear it, and ask her how she feels? She would definitely claim to be stifled, uncomfortable, ridicules, ugly, unwomanly, tragic, whatever because she was “forced” to wear it. That’s how any sane person would feel, that’s how I would feel. But what if the circumstances were a little different? What if she was walking on a crowded street and it is hit by bio-terrorists? What if they spray some kind of poison or germs in the air, which if inhaled could lead to serious consequences. What then? Her life is at stake and when somebody shouts “cover your heads and faces, hide yourself from this unseen enemy that is out to destroy you” what would she do? She would fight tooth and nail to get such a cloth to “protect” and save herself. If she is one of the lucky ones who get their hands on such a cloth and gets its protection, she would be thanking her stars, counting her blessings, saying a prayer, for being the lucky one who is saved while others are dying in front of her eyes and losing the most precious thing they have: their lives. She would not want to throw away her piece of cloth even if she feels hot or uncomfortable as she would know what it is doing for her. It is saving her life and protecting her from a miserable death (Hell).
I am a purdah-observing woman and everyday I thank my Lord for giving me this true gift, in the shape of “wisdom” and showering me with countless blessings due to this veil alone. It gives me this wonderful sense of deep satisfaction that I am trying, hard as it may seem, to live as our Prophet SAW showed us to live which would in return earn me my true goal (Heaven).
Now see the physical evidence of what this veil has done for me. But first I should mention that this veil is only “one” of the many things required by a Muslim to do in order to live a pure life. There is a whole psychology behind this veil. Islam prohibits adultery, secret affairs, illegitimate children, rapes, and gives very harsh punishments for crimes like that. As a Muslim woman I don’t want to have affairs, which could lead to adultery, bastrads, divorces and thus jeopardize my future (as you may have guessed. Heaven). This unseen fear of Hell keeps me straight and it gives me moral support and comfort for what I want to achieve. The veil gives a big “NO” signal to all those people who have any kind of evil in their hearts. Firstly they cannot see me, which keeps them away. The veil is “meant” to put off people who are na-mahram (A na-.mehram is anyone you could marry at any point in your life). I want to keep them at bay. Other than that I have many instructions to keep myself well protected. It is a very long list that includes many clauses, for example how far I can travel uncheperoned. I cannot wear perfume or such jewelry that would attract undue attention. I am supposed to keep my voice harsh when talking to strangers so as to discourage them etc. This list goes on but the purpose is very clear.
That does not mean that I have to live like a nun, who in the liberated world is still a symbol of purity and dignity in spite of the inhuman and unnatural restrictions that are imposed on them, and I have a lot of freedom in the company of my mahram relatives (which includes my husband and all those men I can never marry like father, sons, brothers, uncles, nephews) .1 can wear beautiful clothes, wear jewelry, perfume, go to any place I like accompanied by them etc, and I want it like that as it is for my own protection. After all, one guards and protects something that is precious; no one has to protect some thing that is trash or common. Atjeast that is how I feel. What I gain from all of this is the trust of my husband, who feels secure in our relationship. He respects the way I have chosen to live, feels happy that he has the sole right to his wife’s attention and devotion and the result is a beginning of a new family on secure footing. As a result, the children get a healthy environment from their home. Islam teaches us that married life is the first step of a civilized society. If this relationship works then there is a chance that the whole society would come together. If not then the whole social set up fails.
To prove this point, just take a look at what is happening in the liberal and civilized societies of the west .It gives all the rights and freedom to women that they possibly can dream of achieving. But something is still very wrong as even after getting all those rights they still face abuses at the hands of the male members of the society. If parading naked on beaches, on the streets, in the media, means they have won their freedom, why are there thousands of rapes, sexual assaults, depression, alarmingly high rate of suicide, alcoholism among women, drug abuses, prevalent in their society. Why do woman still suffer? Wearing sexy outfits, modeling for men gaping at them, fighting for beauty contests where they are judged for their proportions makes them only a commodity worth selling and not worth the respect Islam wants to give to women.
The horrors of the free world make me shiver in my shoes. Ugly divorces, broken homes, societies filled with violence and hate, illegitimate children filling the streets, emotionally scarred children who most of the time don’t know their fathers, junkies who hide from this world and its problems, married couples having affairs all the time not ever being able to really trust each other, do I need to go on? Is that freedom, the new age of “civilization” and progress? Can any person in his right mind blame us for sticking to our veils and denouncing this freedom which brings nothing but chaos and mayhem in the society. Thanks but no thanks.
I want to end my article but before I leave, here is some food for thought. Allah punished the west for its immoral behavior with such a disease as AIDS but the west did not take any heed. They want to find a cure for this disease but they don’t want to see why they were punished. They want the pope to give them his blessings and say that gays and lesbians are a part of the modem, free world, when their own scriptures calls them sinners. They know the story of Hazarat Loot (a prophet) whose people were punished by Allah and stoned to death, as a result of their sexual misconduct, but it is a pity that these are mere stories for them, age- old stories. For us, our book is very much alive and it shows us the true path whenever we need it.
We know we cannot hide from Allah and we are going back to Him. We also know that there is no cure for death. Each one of us will die but are we prepared for it? Just THINK! What if there is a real life, an eternal life, and what if it will not fall in our lap like we want to believe and we have to earn our place in the next world, what then? We want to believe that we are doing fine but we have to take a hard look whether or not the devil is taking us for a ride.
Lets do us a favor. Try to find out what QURAN and ISLAM really are. This message of Allah was sent to save us but most of us never know what we have missed until now. Make something positive come out of 11th September. Do not look at what any Muslim might have done and leam what Islam is telling the whole humanity, including you!
The veil is just one symbol of Islam. The non-believers want to use it as a tool of ridicule to poke fun at Islam and undermine its importance. We the Muslim women know its true worth. It is our greatest defensive weapon against people who want to undermine our position as an honorable, intelligent, and an educated person. They want to judge us for our physical assets and not for our intellectual beauty and feelings. We know what the veil is for us and those who want to find out the TRUTH behind it can never do so from the other side of the veil.
–Ayeza Nadeem
Source](http://www.tanzeem.org/resources/articles/articles/ayeza-the%20truth%20beneath%20the%20veil.htm)
