At The Curb Of History

Some Muslim women, including more than a few in my extended family, still wear the niqab, hijab, and jilbab year round, even in the sweltering heat of June and beyond.  I have always advocated for the right of women to choose their wardrobe and to determine self-image.  With religious pretext, this choice and this right are denied to women, typically by the men in their lives.  Fathers, brothers, sons, male relatives, and even male strangers, in some cases, decide what a woman may or may not wear inside and outside the house.  

To all these women, I would like to direct this open letter.  Please know that you are equal to men.  Also know that God has nothing to do with the way you dress, with whom you are a friend, with whom you are in love, or whom you chose to spend your life with as a wife or a companion.  The niqab, hijab, and jilbab, like all other types of gender-specific restrictions, are instruments of male dominance which have no place in a civilized society or a happy home.  

Left to her own will, no woman would choose to wear multiple layers of full length clothing which cover the entire body, head and face included, during the hottest days of summer.  It simply doesn't make sense, especially when male siblings & husbands walk alongside them in t-shirts, shorts, and sandals.  Beyond this, it is inhuman.  No God would expect or ask women to do so and no man should either.  

It is time for you to gather all your niqabs, hijabs, and jilbabs, put them in garbage bags and take them to curb of your house on trash day.  That is exactly where they belong, at the curb of your house and curb of history, and ultimately in a trash depository, not on your body.  You should feel free to wear what you see as appropriate, in any color you like, not just black, and in any style.  Feel free to celebrate your identity as a woman and as an equal partner to men, with fifty percent of the responsibilities and fifty percent of the rights.  You are already doing most of the household work, child rearing, and many other chores, and so why not reclaim what is rightfully yours...your image, your body, and your personal freedom.  

It is also time for the Muslim men in your life to help initiate this change.  This change will require extraordinary courage but it is doable and within reach.  To those men I say you need to trust the women in your life (daughters, sisters, mothers, etc.) to do what is right with their bodies and their freedom, just as you have trusted their male counterparts.  Women are not intellectually inferior; they are at least fifty percent responsible for making you the man you are.  If you truly believe in God, regardless of what religion you believe in, then you must believe that God is fair and just and that God would support such change.  The time for this change is now.