Yesterday as I was driving, while stopped at an intersection I saw a pair of young people. One was a totally unexceptional young man. The other was an incredibly beautiful young woman, dressed in dark skin-tight bell-bottoms and a white skin-tight shirt (I think it was long sleeved) and a white and black head-scarf. The kind where there is a close-fitting under-layer at the skull in white, then a scarf much more loosely tied around it.
This girl was built like a man’s wet dream. Hell, I’m a woman and I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her! But my immediate thought was the question - isn’t the head scarf there to prevent men from being distracted by the beauty of women’s hair? And if so, isn’t showing her body as she way violating the spirit if not the letter of the law that requires her to wear a head-scarf? Does anyone know enough of Islamic law to tell me? I know of course there are variations, and that also, of course, people often follow the letter without the spirit. But I was just curious.
Boy, she sure was a demonstration that a head-scarf can look great! On the other hand, chances are she would have looked great in a burlap sack.
In today’s Arab News was a photo of one of the UAEian Royals at Ascot. The men in top hats and Abe Lincoln beards, the king’s wife in a modern, bright yellow dress. Lots of variation.
Unless they live in Islamic countries where they are required to wear such garments. To illustrate that point, in Saudi Arabia the religious police let school girls die in a fire because they didn’t have the proper head dress to leave a burning building.
If it had just been the loose headscarf, I would not have thought so. But underneath was a closefitting thing almost like a white skullcap, at least in front. It’s possible she’s not muslim, of course. But I’ve never seen that kind of headwear on any woman except a nun or a muslim, and this girl was DEFINITELY NOT a nun!
I’ve attended conferences at which several female Malaysians were participants. Among the Muslim women, they ran the gamut, full Muslim dress to Western wear, and they all got along together. In Malaysia at least, it’s personal choice, except maybe in the stricter northeastern-peninsula states like Kelantan and Terengganu.
I work with a large number of Muslim women, roughly half of which wear head scarves. I’ve never asked them about it specifically, but I’ve noticed that almost all of both groups are real clothes horses - designer clothes, dozens of pairs of shoes, etc. The only significant difference between their outfits is that the ones wearing the scarves always wear long sleeves. My assumption (again, haven’t asked) is that the only requirement is that the head and arms be covered, not that the clothing not show off their beauty.
These are modern women living in the U.S. and working in the tech sector, mind you.
I have noticed among Christian women on the street, that some keep their breasts covered completely at all times, some show some cleavage, and others seem to only cover their nipples.
I wonder what the Christian law is regarding this…
Wearing the hijab is as much cultural as it is religious. And different cultures have different ideas of what is inappropriate dress, which may not make sense to people of a different culture. For example, where I lived in Cameroon Muslim women would regularly go outside wearing a headscarf but no shirt. In their culture, this made total sense. To me, it seemed wacky.
Another thing is that going out without your hijab is pretty cut and dry- if she gets in trouble with her family, it’s hard to argue with. But if she was just wearing something a bit too sexy, that is a bit more ambiguous and she’s got a lot more room to work with. Each culture has its own boundries that can be pushed without going over the edge.
That was a horrible tragedy. However, the reaction was quite strong–even in Saudi Arabia.
As I said “not robots.” And there are few Islamic countries as conservative as Saudi Arabia. (The fire happened in Mecca.) Afghanistan, perhaps. But few Afghani girls probably attend school.
IANAOrthodox Jew, but I used to work for an orthodox kosher organization. The wife of one of the rabbis was knock-dead gorgeous, but always covered her hair with a scarf. I was told that her hair was only for her husband, and it would be improper to tempt anyone else.
Then one day she came in with long black hair, uncovered. Had she converted to Reformed? No, it was a wig.
So it’s OK to see hair that looks exactly like hair, but not the real hair, even though both may look the same.
I had a Muslim student who kept Ramadan faithfully but was captain of the drill team–which means dressing in very little and taking part in some pretty racy dance routines. I have another Muslim student who also keeps Ramadan, isn’t allowed to see boys outside of school (at all. Not even in mixed groups, not even with parental supervision) but who is captain of the cheerleading team. Neither of those girls covered their hair, but they were Bosnian and Macedonian/Albanian, not African or Middle Eastern. I’ve had Muslim students who only covered their heads during Ramadan, and a few I suspected only covered their hair three minutes before they walked in the door at home (i.e., they wore a scarf around their shoulders all day).
How strong exactly was the reaction? The BBC doesn’t say what happened to those religious police. Were they fired and lashed? Demoted? Given a stern lecture?
Even in a fairly progressive society like Thailand, such a suit would take at least a decade to make it through the courts, and that’s on the fast track. I can’t imagine how long it will take in Saudi Arabia, but I bet I can guess the outcome.
