"Modesty Back"- Get Your Burka On

I need to take Justin Timberlake's "SexyBack", which was the longest-running number one single of 2006 on the the Billboard Music 100 Charts, and turn it into "ModestyBack"the lyrics can go a little like this:

You're bringing modesty back
Them other girls don't know how to act
I think it's special when its under wraps
So walk around ahead of the pack.
Take em' to the bridge

Burka* Babe
You see these shackles
Baby You've moved away
I can see your faith, no one wants to approve
It's just that jannah doesn't feel this way

*The Burka is a mesh face covering worn by small minority of Muslim women, most notably in Afghanistan. The Niqab is a similar covering that has an opening for the eyes.

Well that's a rough draft, you can put it on Lota-Pani's next TopHits. The whole controversy started with the social contructionist found in President Sarcozy. He made some comments about the burka. While, it has been clear if you follow my blog, I am not a supporter of the burka lifestyle/concept, I am not one that calls for its abolition either.

There is much talk about the Burka and Muslim women. I was reminded by Gioia Diliberto's piece about the following quote:

High Fashion, Oscar Wilde once said, "is a form of ugliness so unbearable that we are compelled to alter it every six months."

Infact, those who choose to wear burka here in the WEST, are doing so becuase of their strong faith convictions. My cousin is a Niqab practictioner. She lives in the Middle East, but last year I got a chance to catch up with her and we discussed the Niqab. While in Pakistan, she maintains strict- I MEAN STRICT- burka standards. You know, more power to her. She has convictions and she isnt worried about social norms or regulations that inhibit her practice, to her its simple- "I wont leave the house, I wont visit France".

However, to go to the extreme and talk about "liberal democracy" where he states in a speech:

“In our country we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity...The burka is not a religious sign. It is a sign of subservience, a sign of debasement,” he added. “It will not be welcome on the territory of the French Republic."

Talk about a man with convictions. In a nation that colonized the Muslim world and imparted social standards and then opened its borders to those it colonized in order to gain cheap labor, Sarcozy seems like a man out of touch with the world and living in a bubble of his own making. What leads me to say this is his strong language- "subservience", "sign of debasement", "deprivation", "not a religious sign", "prisioners".

Skipping that an looking at the responses by Muslim leaders- France, talk about not feeling comfortable about "freedom to speak and practice one's religion". Pretty solidly, I believe across the board Muslim scholars will not inhibit the practice of wearing the Burkha, some might contextualize it, but I feel comfortable to say that no Muslim scholar will abolish it, and those that do will do it under the threat of death, or some other worldly loss.

Back to the statement, which comes from the head of a western democracy that has outlawed the very ability of all people of faith to display faith symbols- sepcifically targeting Muslim women who wear the head scarf. I think he has little room to nurture any sort of dialogue with anyone in regards to religious, let alone moral, authority. His own vision is of a nation promoting his moral deprivity and lacking conscience of the effects of ones actions given immidiate gratification.

Again, I am no supporter of the Burka. In fact, I can see how a person in the West would view this article of cloth in that light. In fact, I see it clearly when I veiw how Afghan women, and even in Pakistan, are treated and kept from education, work, livilihood. However, Afghan culture and interpretation of religion are to blame not Islam itself. In fact, the women who were liberated, remained behind burka and the Western media complained about how there werent massive burka burning parties on Kabul street corners.

The fact is, its a cultural norm. In fact, women said that they feel "safer" wearing the burka/niqab then not. In Pakistan, one of my cousins who doesnt wear the burka, leaves the house wearing the burka becuase if she doesnt men cat call her, she gets looks that are not welcome, comments about how pretty she is that are not just inappropriate but given the "lack of law" can be dangerous, especially in a culture that holds social morality and dignity in high order- much like Victorian Britain. However, when wearing burka her treatment is different.

I think most westerners will be startled in hearing that I might be startled with a cousin wearing the Niqab or even another cousin wearing the Burka. While in most Muslim majority country the HIJAB- headscraf, like that worn by many Muslim women here in the US, is common place, the cultural understandings behind it shift. For example in Desi culture, most women as part of their outfits carry a "scarf"- its a fashion necessity for an outfit to come with a matching scarf. Most women when they hear the Azan, or the Quran being read, will hurry to cover their heads with that scarf- we lovingly refer to these types of people as the "convertable hijabi's" here in the US. But the Burka and the Niqab are not common place in the vast majority of Muslim countries- only Iran and Saudia Arabia from my knowledge mandate the wearing of the niqab and in Iran its called the Chaador. So readers shouldnt be startled to hear that Muslims, like myself, are a bit thrown off when they see a family member doning a burkha or a niqab.

Again, this is from the "east to west" perspective and I can not begin to tell you why Muslim women in the West would wear the burka. In fact, to connect it like some law enforcement and policy people do with radicalization, would be an immense misunderstanding of identity, religion, doctrine, interpretation, culture, experience and a slew of other things. I think western media needs to explore that, if they havent already.

So far, Sarkozy is a politician trying to build momentum on phantom issues in a country where he seems to lack the political will to move away from economic issues not being properly addressed- the scape goat, Muslim women wearing the burka.

In response I believe my collegue at CAIR-Chicago, Ahmed Rehab the Executive Director there, had a piece in the Huffington Post that had a good direction, however, I agree with some of his personal premises:

Interestingly, Mr. Sarkozy's rationale for the ban is not centered on public security concerns, but on what the burka symbolizes to him. "The burka is not a sign of religion, it is a sign of subservience," he opined.

Moreover, contrary to what many in the West are loathe to accept, some women actually choose the burka or the Niqab for themselves.

You see, while I do not believe in the Niqab and the Burka, I do believe in this one other thing I picked up in my high school American history class. I believe in the right of others to disagree with me. Moreover, I believe in their right to practice what they believe so long as it is not harmful to others.

Is there a real difference between France or Turkey forcing women to remove their veils, and Saudi Arabia or Iran forcing them to keep them on? Well there is one baffling difference: we hypocritically label the former as liberation, and the latter as oppression. That is a double standard that sacrifices the integrity of the principle for the benefit of arbitrary cultural determinism.

Should the state be mandated to tell citizens what they can or cannot wear? That is the real question.

I do not agree with Rehabs personal premises- all of which are debatable and really personal opinions, however, I firmly agree with the right of an individual to decide their religious practice and having the freedom to practice it. I moreover, strongly view the hyporcrasy found in liberal democracy advocates, sadly promoted by the learned and worldy left many times, as a ridiculous double standards of "sensibilties and cultural determinations"given the very nature of global development and reltavity of defining cultural norms. Its the same sort of conversation when we have the Evangelical rights discuss "Marriage Equality" in terms of moral and social norms and the left's response is that the social norms are shifting.

We live in a society where one's sexual orientation is accepted, yet one's religious practices- that are one's individuals choice, and only a crime in terms of how others "feel, view, sense" that "other's choice- are banned.

It is sad to see the left wrangled up in their self-righteous debates and cornered by the right, and the right so busy abusing rights and promoting democracy.

The second piece I would share is the one by Gioia Diliberto in (guess it?) Huffington Post:

Westerners have always been uneasy with Islamic dress, which often seems like a rebuke to our liberal values. Consequently, head scarves have been banned in schools in several European countries, including France, and earlier this week, French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged parliament also to outlaw burkas, the face-hiding, all-body covering sack, which he called "a sign of debasement" that has no place in a democracy.

Sarkozy would better serve the cause of liberté, egalité, and fraternité by mandating sensitivity courses in why Muslim women wear hijab. Several of the Muslims I've talked to say their attitudes toward dress have less to do with repression, than with a strong belief that God commands both sexes to be modest (devout men wouldn't be caught dead mowing the lawn or swimming shirtless) and a sharp sense of the difference between what's appropriate for the public and private spheres.

She goes on to give a personal account of a Muslim women:

Kareem Mejri, a devout Muslim mother of two who also happens to be vice president of international business for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. "It has to come from the heart. A woman should not be forced to do anything," she says. "My husband is more religious than me, but when I started wearing the [head] scarf only two years ago, he was completely shocked."

Ms. Mejri, who lives with her family in Orland Park, a southwest suburb of Chicago, loves jewelry and make-up and has "tons" of Victoria Secret lingerie. "We care as much about beauty and fashion as do women everywhere," she says. "And we wear whatever we want indoors, with our families."

It might seem counter intuitive to non-Muslim Americans, but many Muslim women actually find hijab liberating. "I used to wear [short] skirts and fitted jackets like any normal business woman, and I travel all over the world," says Ms. Mejri. "Often times, I'd be sitting in a meeting, and men would be staring at my body and not listening to what I was saying, especially in Latin America. What I find now is that they're hearing me, they're listening to what I have to say. There's no distraction of sexual tension."

The piece goes on to discuss Muslim women and fashion and how Channel's line of 50's clothing inspires much of what Muslim women wearing Hijab in America are gearing up with- hence the title- Muslim Chic.

Gioia Diliberto ends with this- most appropriately I believe- "Western women are slaves of fashion. Muslims, meanwhile, answer first to God."