My Personal Opinion on the Hijab, Burqa, and Niqab

[SGOS]

I wonder if Canada allows people to wear surgical type masks in public?

It depends on how this law is written.  An appropriately written law would be written so as to exclude wearing of any apparel designed to conceal identity.  In fact, it may be written that way.

[PunkPingu]

I wonder if Canada allows people to wear surgical type masks in public?

I see people wearing them all the time. It's more common to see that in Asia, though, I find.

[Jason78]

People in masks are intimidating. 

If two men walk into a jewellery store, no one thinks anything of it.   If the same two men walk in wearing balaclavas it's a different story.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

I see people wearing them all the time. It's more common to see that in Asia, though, I find.

I used to think this was because a lot (say, Chinese) people were afraid of things like pollution and their non-Indo-Chinese air or something.

Then a Chinese friend of mine informed me they actually wear them more when they are ill to prevent infections spreading from coughs, to which I think it's actually a really good idea.

[SGOS]

I used to think this was because a lot (say, Chinese) people were afraid of things like pollution and their non-Indo-Chinese air or something.

Then a Chinese friend of mine informed me they actually wear them more when they are ill to prevent infections spreading from coughs, to which I think it's actually a really good idea.

Well, I'll be.  I remember watching a documentary years and years ago, which showed people in China going about their business peddling their bikes all wearing surgical masks.  The documentary specifically stated that the Chinese believed it protected against pollution.  I no longer depend on the media as an accurate source of information, so your friend's comment isn't that big of a surprise to me.

[Shiranu]

The more actual Muslims I have talked to, as well as non-Muslims who have tried the hijab, the more and more I don't have a problem with a woman choosing to wear it... I feel that for the majority of Western Muslim women it IS just as much a choice as wearing a bikini to a beach for a "regular" Westerner.

I completely understand the hatred of the burqa and niqab in-so-much as one might hate Victorian-era clothing and it's repression of women (except they take it a bit further), but yes... the hijab is a cultural norm that women conform to... what is your point? That's kinda the whole thing about different cultures; they don't always look like us, drink like us, eat like us or dress like us. That's...okay.

To answer a question I saw earlier; part of the reason it is being worn more (in the West, anyways) is an increasing desire by women to appear "modest" and not follow the culture norm of you HAVE to be sexy otherwise you have no worth as a woman. To me that is admirable, and coming from ACTUAL women who wear them for that reason... I am prone to believe their opinion on why they are wearing them rather than people who have never met them, never talked to them and view them with an automatic air of suspicion and "pity".

[TrueStory]

The more I see muslim familys with young boys wearing a fresh pair of nikes, pressed dockers and a sensible sweater and the daughters eyes peering out from their all black garb     the more I know it's not a choice.  Comparing it to child abuse would diminish what real child abuse is but it's definiatly not fair. 

[Desdinova]

The more I see muslim familys with young boys wearing a fresh pair of nikes, pressed dockers and a sensible sweater and the daughters eyes peering out from their all black garb     the more I know it's not a choice.

It's a brainwashed choice.

[Mike Cl]

I have no problem with a woman or girl wearing a hijab.  There choice, their culture.  I have no problem with the Skiks turbans or the Arab turbans, or the beards of the men or the Mennonite women's plain dresses and small back hat, or their husbands beards, or the JH Witless carrying their trash, er literature, or any number of other gabrs or stuff they wear--they can wear whatever they like; that's their right.  But wearing masks or other items that hide one's identity, do make me a bit nervous.  On the other hand I should be able to walk around in my t-shirt telling the world I'm an atheist.  I don't do that because I'm not brave enough.  In other countries I'd be dead rather quickly.  So my heart does not bleed too much over any religious group that does not get to wear whatever they want.  As a matter of fact, I regard these types of displays of their religion as an advertisement of their willful ignorance and stupidity.

[pr126]

A Muslim female has no choice, not in the way that non Muslim women have.

The Muslim female is totally subservient to the Muslim male, be that her father, husband, brother and even son.

Freedom in the western sense of meaning does not exist in Islam.
For the female everything is arranged by males, by force if necessary.
Education, marriage, her whole life (which incidentally includes what to wear) is dictated by Muslim males.

So when you say "it is her choice" is true in a sense that if she does not, then she is punished by family, relatives and ostracized by the tribe, and community.

Aqsa Parvez chose not to wear the hijab.





Quran 4:34

Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.

[Youssuf Ramadan]

A Muslim female has no choice, not in the way that non Muslim women have.

The Muslim female is totally subservient to the Muslim male, be that her father, husband, brother and even son.

Freedom in the western sense of meaning does not exist in Islam.
For the female everything is arranged by males, by force if necessary.
Education, marriage, her whole life (which incidentally includes what to wear) is dictated by Muslim males.

So when you say "it is her choice" is true in a sense that if she does not, then she is punished by family, relatives and ostracized by the tribe, and community.

Aqsa Parvez chose not to wear the hijab.





Quran 4:34

Men are in charge of women, because Allah hath made the one of them to excel the other, and because they spend of their property (for the support of women). So good women are the obedient, guarding in secret that which Allah hath guarded. As for those from whom ye fear rebellion, admonish them and banish them to beds apart, and scourge them. Then if they obey you, seek not a way against them. Lo! Allah is ever High, Exalted, Great.

Depends whether they are fundamentalist or progressive.  Not all muslims are the same.

[Munch]

Depends whether they are fundamentalist or progressive.  Not all muslims are the same.

Islam really is one of those plain as day things where the more seperated from it people are, the more they seem like decent people overall. Distancing from such beliefs just makes you into a better person, not the other way around, as the indoctrinated would believe.

[Mike Cl]

Islam really is one of those plain as day things where the more seperated from it people are, the more they seem like decent people overall. Distancing from such beliefs just makes you into a better person, not the other way around, as the indoctrinated would believe.

I think that is true of all religions, Munch, not just Islam.  It seems more pronounced for Islam, maybe, because Islam is one of the more controlling religions going.  I would even go so far as saying that people, in general, want to, and strive to, do good.  Religion subverts that.  In other words, this world would be better off without any organized religions at all. 

[pr126]

What is the vast majority of progressive Muslims do to stop the tiny minority of fundamentalist from indiscriminate mass slaughtering all over the world in the name of Allah?

Do you think that if there was a tiny minority of Christians going on a murderous rampage the rest of Christianity would silently look the other way? Could they go on brutally slaughtering year after year?

[Mike Cl]

What is the vast majority of progressive Muslims do to stop the tiny minority of fundamentalist from indiscriminate mass slaughtering all over the world in the name of Allah?

Do you think that if there was a tiny minority of Christians going on a murderous rampage the rest of Christianity would silently look the other way? Could they go on brutally slaughtering year after year?

Yeah, I do.