How I Came To Love The Veil

I used to look at veiled women as quiet, oppressed creatures—until I wascaptured by the Taliban.

In September 2001, just 15 days after the terrorist attacks on the UnitedStates, I snuck into Afghanistan, clad in a head-to-toe blue burqa, intending towrite a newspaper account of life under the repressive regime. Instead, I wasdiscovered, arrested and detained for 10 days. I spat and swore at my captors;they called me a "bad" woman but let me go after I promised to readthe Koran and study Islam. (Frankly, I'm not sure who was happier when I wasfreed—they or I.)

Back home in London, I kept my word about studying Islam—and was amazed bywhat I discovered. I'd been expecting Koran chapters on how to beat your wifeand oppress your daughters; instead, I found passages promoting the liberationof women. Two-and-a-half years after my capture, I converted to Islam, provokinga mixture of astonishment, disappointment and encouragement among friends andrelatives.

Now, it is with disgust and dismay that I watch here in Britain as formerforeign secretary Jack Straw describes the Muslim nikab—a face veil thatreveals only the eyes—as an unwelcome barrier to integration, with PrimeMinister Tony Blair, writer Salman Rushdie and even Italian Prime MinisterRomano Prodi leaping to his defense.

Having been on both sides of the veil, I can tell you that most Western malepoliticians and journalists who lament the oppression of women in the Islamicworld have no idea what they are talking about. They go on about veils, childbrides, female circumcision, honor killings and forced marriages, and theywrongly blame Islam for all this—their arrogance surpassed only by theirignorance.

These cultural issues and customs have nothing to do with Islam. A carefulreading of the Koran shows that just about everything that Western feministsfought for in the 1970s was available to Muslim women 1,400 years ago. Women inIslam are considered equal to men in spirituality, education and worth, and awoman's gift for childbirth and child-rearing is regarded as a positiveattribute.

When Islam offers women so much, why are Western men so obsessed with Muslimwomen's attire? Even British government ministers Gordon Brown and John Reidhave made disparaging remarks about the nikab—and they hail from across theScottish border, where men wear skirts.

When I converted to Islam and began wearing a headscarf, the repercussionswere enormous. All I did was cover my head and hair—but I instantly became asecond-class citizen. I knew I'd hear from the odd Islamophobe, but I didn'texpect so much open hostility from strangers. Cabs passed me by at night, their"for hire" lights glowing. One cabbie, after dropping off a whitepassenger right in front of me, glared at me when I rapped on his window, thendrove off. Another said, "Don't leave a bomb in the back seat" andasked, "Where's bin Laden hiding?"

Yes, it is a religious obligation for Muslim women to dress modestly, but themajority of Muslim women I know like wearing the hijab, which leaves the faceuncovered, though a few prefer the nikab. It is a personal statement: My dresstells you that I am a Muslim and that I expect to be treated respectfully, muchas a Wall Street banker would say that a business suit defines him as anexecutive to be taken seriously. And, especially among converts to the faithlike me, the attention of men who confront women with inappropriate, leeringbehavior is not tolerable.

I was a Western feminist for many years, but I've discovered that Muslimfeminists are more radical than their secular counterparts. We hate thoseghastly beauty pageants, and tried to stop laughing in 2003 when judges of theMiss Earth competition hailed the emergence of a bikini-clad Miss Afghanistan,Vida Samadzai, as a giant leap for women's liberation. They even gave Samadzai aspecial award for "representing the victory of women's rights."

Some young Muslim feminists consider the hijab and the nikab politicalsymbols, too, a way of rejecting Western excesses such as binge drinking, casualsex and drug use. What is more liberating: being judged on the length of yourskirt and the size of your surgically enhanced breasts, or being judged on yourcharacter and intelligence? In Islam, superiority is achieved through piety—notbeauty, wealth, power, position or sex.

I didn't know whether to scream or laugh when Italy's Prodi joined the debatelast week by declaring that it is "common sense" not to wear the nikabbecause it makes social relations "more difficult." Nonsense. If thisis the case, then why are cellphones, landlines, e-mail, text messaging and faxmachines in daily use? And no one switches off the radio because they can't seethe presenter's face.

Under Islam, I am respected. It tells me that I have a right to an educationand that it is my duty to seek out knowledge, regardless of whether I am singleor married. Nowhere in the framework of Islam are we told that women must wash,clean or cook for men. As for how Muslim men are allowed to beat their wives—it'ssimply not true. Critics of Islam will quote random Koranic verses or hadith,but usually out of context. If a man does raise a finger against his wife, he isnot allowed to leave a mark on her body, which is the Koran's way of saying,"Don't beat your wife, stupid."

It is not just Muslim men who must reevaluate the place and treatment ofwomen. According to a recent National Domestic Violence Hotline survey, 4million American women experience a serious assault by a partner during anaverage 12-month period. More than three women are killed by their husbands andboyfriends every day—that is nearly 5,500 since 9/11.

Violent men don't come from any particular religious or cultural category;one in three women around the world has been beaten, coerced into sex orotherwise abused in her lifetime, according to the hotline survey. This is aglobal problem that transcends religion, wealth, class, race and culture.

But it is also true that in the West, men still believe that they aresuperior to women, despite protests to the contrary. They still receive betterpay for equal work—whether in the mailroom or the boardroom—and women arestill treated as sexualized commodities whose power and influence flow directlyfrom their appearance.

And for those who are still trying to claim that Islam oppresses women,recall this 1992 statement from the Rev. Pat Robertson, offering his views onempowered women: Feminism is a "socialist, anti-family political movementthat encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practicewitchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

Now you tell me who is civilized and who is not.

Yvonne Ridley is Political Editor of Islam Channel television station www.islamchannel.tv and presents the flagship current affairs show Agenda every weekday morning at 10amGMT.