Anyone in the UK should pick up a copy of the current edition of the Jewish news. They have an article on the Niqaab by our very own Goldfinch, which is well worth the read!

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Sir,

How refreshing to see a non-Muslim paper defending Muslim women’s rights to wear the veil. God bless you. However, I am fed up of people like your columnist Charlie Wolf giving their own opinions as to why we wear niqab and presenting it as fact. As Mr Wolf has never worn a niqab before, how would he know?

Please let me take this chance to clear up the misconceptions and give the real reason Muslimahs like myself choose to cover up. Firstly, his comment that ‘the veil is not a Koranic (sic) or religious command but cultural’, is pure nonsense. It is everything to do with religion. There are 4 schools of jurisprudence in traditional Sunni Islam, of which two say that it is an obligation for women to cover their faces in the presence of unrelated men; one says it is desirable and earns extra reward from God but is not obligatory; and the 4th (the Hanafi school, which most British Muslims follow) is split between the previous two opinions. So Mr Wolf, please don’t presume you know more about Islam than the Muslims do.

Furthermore, we do not wear niqab to ’set ourselves apart from society’. I wear niqab and I go out with both my Muslim and non-Muslim friends; how is this setting myself apart?

Second, his comment ‘If Muslim men are sexually incontinent, it should not be women who suffer’. He seems to be under the impression that rape and sexual harassment are only carried out by Muslim men! In fact, Muslim men are commanded in no uncertain terms in the Qur’an to lower their gaze when in the company of unrelated women, whether they are ‘hijabed’ or not. In case you didn’t notice, we are living in a country where Muslims are the minority – and yet women are still assaulted. Go figure. Of course we should all have the right to go out dressed how we like and not be harassed or – God forbid – raped, but we are not living in an episode of Barney the Dinosaur where everyone wants to be your best friend. This is the real world and there are nasty people out there. I cover myself for the same reason you keep your front doors locked, for the same reason you fit alarms to your cars and keep your expensive mobiles concealed in public – and after all, isn’t a woman’s safety and dignity more important than material possessions? Wearing the hijab/niqab does not guarantee my safety from sexual harassment, but it does reduce the risk. You may see it as collective punishment, but ask any niqabi, she will tell you it’s a collective blessing.

In short, my hijab liberates me from the feeling that I need to look perfect and sexy all the time in order to be worth anything; it prevents unwelcome attention from the opposite sex; my body is my own, not public property for anyone to see; my beauty and charms are reserved only for that one special man in my life who is worthy of it. I love my hijab and everything it gives me, and no amount of criticism from Jack Straw, or indeed Charlie Wolf, can ever take that away.

Regards,
Safiyyah Malik
London