Christina Patterson: Hijab and civil war in the House of Lords
Politics is, boringly, necessarily, but at times gloriously, the art of the possible
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Independent Minds
One of the more cheering sights of the past week has been young women in hijab getting excited about politics. Sure, what's been happening in Iran is great, but I'm talking about the House of Lords. On Thursday lunchtime, in a room overlooking the Thames, there was a gaggle of them, scattered among young men in skull-caps, young men with spiky hair and young women with long, glossy hair bouncing free.
The Iranian morality police would have applauded the "good hijab" of Deqa, Sara, and Alia, young women who, unlike some of the young hussies on the streets of Tehran this week, had not a hair exposed between them. Deqa came to Britain from Somalia in 1998. Her mother has "lots of illnesses" and doesn't work and neither does her father. Deqa, who spent the first half of her life in a war zone, and the second half in what can only be described as poverty, is studying politics and international relations at Royal Holloway. She wants, she told me, to work in international development.
Sara came to Britain from Lebanon in 1990. Her parents, like Deqa's, sought asylum from civil war. Like Deqa's, too, they are unemployed. Sara is studying politics and economics at Goldsmiths and SOAS. She wants to work in politics in the Middle East. Her sister, Alia, another large-eyed beauty whose perfect features are framed by a severe headscarf, is training to be a lawyer. "Our parents didn't get the chance to complete their education," she explained, "so it was important that we did."
Deqa and Sara were both taking part in "ParliaMentors", a parliamentary mentoring project run by an organisation called the Three Faiths Forum. The aim of the Forum is to "build lasting relationships with people of different faiths (and none)", and the aim of the scheme is to help young people of different faiths (and none) understand the political process and take their first baby steps in what Obama might call community organising. Deqa had helped to organise an interfaith week at UCL and Royal Holloway, which included a performance by a Muslim-Jewish hip-hop group and a discussion chaired by Labour whip, and their MP mentor, Dawn Butler. Sara had been involved in a project looking at religious education, and its effect on tolerance, in schools.
Another group ran training workshops for young people in "Human Rights Activism", another ran a project aiming to raise awareness about child labour, and another went into a school in Southwark and talked to them, as an MP would say, about their "concerns". Their concerns, it turned out, focused heavily on buses: on the irregularity of the service and the rudeness of the drivers. But then the moaners got a shock. Elected representatives of the class were marched along to see their MP, Simon Hughes. He answered their questions and told them that they could join youth councils and elect a youth mayor. "They were really surprised," said Daniella Shaw Gubbay, the mentoring programme manager, "that there were things they could actually do."
It may not set the world on fire, these nice chats about faith and tolerance, these little workshops, these parliamentary moans. But there's nothing like inviting a panel to speak at an event to make you feel you'd sure as hell better get some people in the hall, and there's nothing like being told to list your complaints to make you work out what they actually are. And there's nothing like a discussion about the intricacies of bus timetables, council tax and the congestion charge to remind you that politics is, boringly, necessarily, constrictingly, but also sometimes gloriously, the art of the possible.
On Tuesday, I interviewed Benjamin Zephaniah, a poet who has written a novel called Refugee Boy, about a child fleeing civil war, not in Somalia or Lebanon, but in Ethiopia, a child, like Deqa and Sara, who buries the horrors of his past by working hard at school. Every few minutes while we talked, we were stopped: by men and women, largely black, largely working class, who had been touched by Zephaniah's poems, touched by his message, touched that he spoke for people who were poor and people who weren't white.
If the BNP had their way – two of whose members we have elected to represent us in Europe – Deqa and Sara wouldn't be here, and neither would Zephaniah (who, by the way, Mandela asked to meet, and who, at his behest, has worked in some of the grimmest South African townships) and neither would those young men in skull-caps and neither would Dawn Butler. Deqa's parents, and Sara's, had more to worry about than MPs' expenses, and so do all those young women who've been flaunting their "bad hijab" in Iran this week, and so, now, do we. Democracy, as Churchill said, "is the worst form of government, except all the other forms that have been tried" and it's in a bad state, but it's all we've got. Let's make sure our children have it, and use it, too.
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Comments
Is this another of your anti Islamic attacks? You should note that the most honoured woman in Islam is the mother of Jesus, who always wore a hijab in public - do you?
Yesterday would have been the birthday of a very "intergrated " woman , Her family spoke the local language at home and despite the rules of their religion her mother did not cover her head and her father had no beard ..
Yesterday would have been Anne Franks 80th birthday
But she was betrayed by de people who's culture her family adapted to ...
the same people who just gave 5 of the 26 Dutch seats in the European Parlement to a party which is based on hate for Muslims ..
I do not have any information or proof to debunk your claim of the the Mufti's aid of the Nazis, but I can tell you with all faith, that Muslims are not Nazis. Islam teaches that people from all faiths and cultures are shown sown upmost respect, especially those of the Christian and Jewish faith. If the Mufti's actions you speak of are true, then he was not a good man, but his actions were not reflective of what Muslims worldwide might have thought, and I strongly disagree with your claim that Muslims and Nazis have the same goals, as Islam is not an anti-semitic religion.
You might believe my opinions are biased and therefore cannot be taken as a valid argument, but what concerns me most are not your claims, but the possibility that you might see Muslims as racist monsters who hold Nazis as their friends.
Mus'ab Ahmed
When the line isn't drawn somewhere, and our governing bodies don't lay down clear rules and regulations, we have incidences where women working in nurseries molest one year old babies. There have to be some limits to what is acceptable.
This article focused on our country and that should be our primary concern. Until we are an example to others we shouldn't try and judge their ways. Last time I checked we were far from being the model country.
You seem to have very little grasp of religion including the religion of Jesus, which you say you follow.
God lays down laws for men and women for all the Abrahamic phases.
So complete freedom is not on the cards for believing men or women, otherwise you become disobedient to the Almighty - like Iblis.
Those who disobey God knowlingly are the equal of the devil.
You, as someone who doesnt understand the history of Western Christianity and its connection to the Roman empire, should research before you start lecturing people on the rights and wrongs of Christianity.
You should invest sometime to understand the faith you follow. You will find that you are not follow the faith of Jesus but that of the Roman empire - they are two different things.
With regard to reporting me to the police, you are a complete joker - foolish woman, you dont really think they will take your side over this debate, do you?
Who introduces Hijab? Prophet Mohamed SAW or many with Peace be Upon Him. When he walked the road of his daughter?s house, he always looked down and wondered what he could do best fro the women then who were buried as taboo. He changed the face of the door of the house of the daughter and she wore the hijab or Veil as we call this. Then she imposed very tactfully with Fiza her maid who recited the Quran all the time and her questions to her were always in Quran verse. That shows the honor of the ladies. The Jesus had no Hijab or the full hijab if you want to call this. Prove this from ay verse of Bible. I quote from Quran. There was a small cloth the ladies wore in the ancient time that too was for wiping the forehead in the heat or carry the breads in these clothes. Wet these at times in need of dry weathers.
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
You seem to have very little grasp of religion including the religion of Jesus, when you say you follow.
"Higab" redirects here. For the municipal company of Gothenburg, Sweden, see Higabgruppen.
For information about Hijab in the world, see Hijab by country.
Hijab or ?ij?b (????, pronounced [?i?d?æ?b] ) is the Arabic word for "curtain / cover" (noun), based on the root ??? meaning "to cover, to veil, to shelter". In popular use, hijab means "head cover and modest dress for women" among Muslims, which most Islamic legal systems define as covering everything except the face and hands in public
The term hijab or veil is not used in the Qur'an to refer to an article of clothing for women or men, rather it refers to a spatial curtain that divides or provides privacy. The Qur'an instructs the male believers (Muslims) to talk to wives of Muhammad behind a hijab. This hijab was the responsibility of the men and not the wives of Muhammad. However, in later Muslim societies this instruction, specific to the wives of Muhammad, was generalized, leading to the segregation of the Muslim men and women. The modesty in Qur'an concerns both men's and women's gaze, gait, garments, and genitalia. The clothing for women involves khum?r over the necklines and jilbab (cloaks) in public so that they may be identified and not harmed. Guidelines for covering of the entire body except for the hands, the feet and the face, are found in texts of fiqh and hadith that are developed later.[4]
O Ye who believe! Enter not the dwellings of the Prophet for a meal without waiting for the proper time, unless permission be granted you. But if ye are invited, enter, and, when your meal is ended, then disperse. Linger not for conversation. Lo! That would cause annoyance to the Prophet, and he would be shy of (asking) you (to go); but Allah is not shy of the truth. And when ye ask of them (the wives of the Prophet) anything, ask it of them from behind a curtain. That is purer for your hearts and for their hearts. And it is not for you to cause annoyance to the messenger of Allah, nor that ye should ever marry his wives after him. Lo! That in Allah's sight would be an enormity. (Qur'an 33:53)
I thank you
Firozali A Mulla
Most often, the reasoning cited is that wearing hijab is a sign of a woman's modesty and helps protect her from mistreatment. What complete nonsense-a whore could easily dress in a hijab, just as a woman in a hijab can still be raped. But more importantly, if one believes that wearing a hijab demonstrates a woman's modesty, by default, one would have to believe that those who don't wear hijabs are immodest, i.e., deserving of wrongs done to them as a consequence, whether the wrongs are rape, disdain, discrimination, disrespect. The criminal is thus "pardoned" because he has been "provoked." This mentality strikes at the very heart of mercy and freedom, and is a mentality that we simply won't allow to creep into our society or our courts.
From my point of view, the hijab is THE perfect symbol for the idea that women by their very nature are things of shame to be concealed. Ironically, in me, hijabs bring out the very reaction those who wear them seek to avoid: shame. When I see a woman dressed this way, I feel ashamed of her betrayal of other women.
Should men wear hijabs? If they don't wear them, does that mean they will have no self respect or low self esteem? If men dress in a "scantily clad" manner, do you blame them for disservice to mankind?
You should examine your double standards and prejudices.
A woman in a business suit wearing a shirt that is buttoned just below the collarbone-not wearing a veil
A woman in slacks and a sweater wearing sling-back sandals
A woman with her hair in a bun wearing a slim skirt and a boat-collared sweater tank top
A woman whose hair falls to her waist wearing a shift-style, sleeveless dress
None of these women are dressed inappropriately. I suspect if you were their boss, you would discriminate against them because you think they are hussies somehow flaunting their sexuality. Maybe you think women shouldn't be working outside the home in the first place? Or, hey, maybe you aren't really a woman?
Poison on the Platter?, is an eye-opening film, made by Mahesh Bhatt and Ajay Kanchan, illustrating how all of our lives are gonna be (adversely)
Robertson quote that legalizing gay marriage would lead to legalizing sex with ducks.
I thank you
Firozali A.Mulla
Children from minority groups, especially the Muslims, are exposed to the pressure of racism, multiculturalism and bullying. They suffer academically, culturally and linguistically: a high proportion of children of Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin are leaving British schools with low grades or no qualification.
In the 1980s, the Muslim community in Britain started to set up Muslim schools. The first was the London School of Islamics which I established and which operating from 1981-86. Now there are 133 schools educating approximately 5% Muslim pupils. Very few schools are state funded.
The needs and demands of Muslim children can be met only through Muslim schools, but education is an expensive business and the Muslim community does not have the resources to set up schools for each and every child, and only eight Muslim schools have achieved grant maintained status.
This leaves a majority of children from Muslim families with no choice but to attend state schools. There are hundreds of state schools where Muslim pupils are in majority. In my opinion, all such schools may be designated as Muslim community schools with bilingual Muslim teachers as role models.
Prince Charles, while visiting the first grant maintained Muslim school in north London, said that the pupils would be the future ambassadors of Islam. But what about thousands of others, who attend state schools deemed to be "sink schools"?
The time has come for the Muslim community - in the form of Islamic charities and trusts - to manage and run those state schools where Muslim pupils are in the majority. The Department for Education would be responsible for funding, inspection and maintenance.
The management would be in the hands of educated professional Muslims. The teaching of Arabic, Islamic studies, Urdu and other community languages by qualified Muslim teachers would help the pupils to develop an Islamic identity, which is crucial for mental, emotional and personality development.
In the east London borough of Newham, there are at least 10 state schools where Muslim pupils are in the majority.
The television newscaster Sir Trevor McDonald is a champion of introducing foreign modern languages even at primary level in schools in Britain. The Muslim community would like to see Arabic, Urdu and other community languages introduced at nursery, primary and secondary schools along with European languages so that Muslim pupils have these options.
In education, there should be a choice and at present it is denied to the Muslim community. In the late 80s and early 90s, when I floated the idea of Muslim community schools, I was declared a "school hijacker" by an editorial in the Newham Recorder newspaper in east London.
This clearly shows that the British media does not believe in choice and diversity in the field of education and has no respect for those who are different.
Muslim schools, in spite of meager resources, have excelled to a further extent this year, with two schools achieving 100% A-C grades for five or more GCSEs. They beat well resourced state and independent schools in Birmingham and Hackney.
Muslim schools are doing better because a majority of the teachers are Muslim. The pupils are not exposed to the pressures of racism, multiculturalism and bullying.
Iftikhar Ahmad
www.londonschoolofislamics.org.uk