Some headscarf things

... which I thought I'd blog as they never cease to wind me up.

'It's only a piece of cloth'

Can a woman in a hijab still get a taxi? asks Yvonne Ridley

Sunday December 12, 2004
The Observer

Wearing a headscarf is no big deal... unless you happen to be a Muslim, in which case this simple piece of cloth arouses opinions, hostile glances and worse.

When I converted to Islam I knew I would have to embrace the Muslim head-dress. As for many converts, it was a huge stumbling block and I found all sorts of excuses not to wear the hijab - basically a symbol of modesty and a very public statement. When I finally did, the repercussions were enormous. All I did was put on a headscarf, but from that moment I became a second-class citizen.

The reaction from some people was unbelievable. I knew I would become a target for abuse from the odd Islamaphobic oik, but I didn't expect so much open hostility from complete strangers.

I can no longer be sure of getting a black cab in London... something I had taken for granted for many years. Let me give you some examples from the past two weeks:

Edgware Road in London, an area with a substantial Arab population: three black cabs, orange 'for hire' lights glowing, drive past one after another. It's about 11.30pm and I'm freezing and desperate to get home. A fourth taxi stops to discharge a white passenger. I reach the vehicle and tap the window, beaming from ear-to-ear at my saviour. The driver turns and stares hard, his face contorted into hatred and rage, and drives off.

Last month, pre-hijab, he would have returned the smile; now, in his eyes, I have been transformed into a terrorist.

FULL ARTICLE BY YVONNE RIDLEY HERE

And here are some of the comments she received WHICH WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MADE AND CERTAINLY NOT PUBLISHED HAD SHE BEEN A JEW PRACTISING JUDAISM!!

More than just a scarf ...

The big issue: women and Islam

Sunday December 19, 2004
The Observer

Yvonne Ridley's 'it's only a piece of cloth' (Comment, last week) is as unconvincing as couples afraid to commit to getting married who say 'it's only a piece of paper'.

No Muslim woman today has to wear even a headscarf (the last vestige of the chador), particularly in a free society where women have been fighting for so long not to have dress as men choose.

Oppressed Muslim women have been fighting to be allowed to walk around bare-headed and it seems a retrograde step to voluntarily put the clock back.
Nick Alexander
London SE22

Yvonne Ridley declared: 'When I converted to Islam I knew I would have to embrace the Muslim head-dress.' Who told her that? Among the Muslim women I grew up with in the Middle East, wearing the hijab was seen as a matter of choice or a tribal/cultural adornment. Let's not forget that this 'cult' of the hijab is relatively recent and should not be perceived as a religious necessity.
Tanya Tier
Worthing
Sussex

While Yvonne Ridley is happy to describe the hijab as 'a symbol of modesty and a very public statement', she is curiously unwilling to take any responsibility for the statement she chooses to make.

There is something ridiculous, not to mention offensive, in the suggestion that it is immodest for women to show their hair in public. To argue that the clothes you wear have a specific meaning in society, and that anyone who does not approve of this meaning has to pretend it does not exist, is self-centred. Wearing a headscarf is no big deal if that's all you're doing; making 'a very public statement' is something else, and it's something we're all allowed to do, even those of us who believe that the decisions of women such as Ridley help to maintain the status of all women as 'second-class citizens'.
Victoria Dutchman-Smith
Summertown
Oxford

Yvonne Ridley shows little understanding of the hostile reaction to her wearing of the hijab.

To the 'hostile', it represents an alien doctrine that treats women as enshrouded, segregated second-class citizens. One that requires abasement five times a day.

To make such proclamations of adherence to a creed so at odds with prevailing secular attitudes can only be provocative.
A Adler
London SW17

Yvonne Ridley seems to want it both ways. She wishes to demonstrate her allegiance to Islam, and asserts her clothing's symbolic significance; yet when that symbolism attracts less than courteous interest, she claims that symbolism doesn't exist.

Perhaps Ridley should consider the possibility that some of those 'glaring passengers' might have lost relatives to the terrorist organisations whose fashion sense she shares.
David Thompson
Ranmoor
Sheffield

ARTICLE HERE