OPINION
Let's
Think Again About The Burqa
The
Quran does prescribe purdah. That doesn't mean women should obey it.
Taslima
Nasreen
My mother used
purdah. She wore a burqa with a net cover in front of the face. It reminded me
of the meatsafes in my grandmother's house. One had a net door made of cloth,
the other of metal. But the objective was the same: keeping the meat safe. My
mother was put under a burqa by her conservative family. They told her that
wearing a burqa would mean obeying Allah. And if you obey Allah, He would be
happy with you and not let you burn in hellfire. My mother was afraid of Allah
and also of her own father. He would threaten her with grave consequences if
she didn't wear the burqa. all dark inside? Don't you feel breathless? Don't
you feel angry? Don't you ever feel like throwing it off? My mother kept mum.
She couldn't do anything about it. But I did. When
I was sixteen,
I was presented a burqa by one of my relatives. I threw it away.
The custom of
purdah is not new. It dates back to 300 BC. The women of aristocratic Assyrian
families used purdah. Ordinary women and prostitutes were not allowed purdah.
In the middle ages, even Anglo-Saxon women used to cover their hair and chin
and hide their faces behind a cloth or similar object. This purdah system was
obviously not religious. The religious purdah is used by Catholic nuns and Mormons,
though for the latter only during religious ceremonies and rituals. For Muslim
women, however, such religious purdah is not limited to specific rituals but mandatory
for their daily life outside the purview of religion.
A couple of
months ago, at the height of the purdah controversy, Shabana Azmi asserted that
the Quran doesn't say anything about wearing the burqa. She's mistaken. This is
what the Quran says:
"Tell the
faithful women that they must keep their gaze focused below/on the ground and
cover their sexual organs. They must not put their beauty and their jewellery
on display. They must hide their breasts behind a purdah. They must not exhibit
their beauty to anybody except their husbands, brothers, nephews, womenfolk,
servants, eunuch employees and children. They must not move their legs briskly
while walking because then much of their bodies can get exposed." (Sura Al
Noor 24:31)
"Oh nabi,
please tell your wives and daughters and faithful women to wear a covering
dress on their bodies. That would be good. Then nobody can recognise them and harass
them. Allah is merciful and kind." (Sura Al Hijaab 33: 59)
Even the Hadis
--a collection of the words of Prophet Mohammed, his opinion on various
subjects and also about
his work,
written by those close to him-- talks extensively of the purdah for women.
Women must cover their whole body before going out, they should not go before
unknown men, they should not go to the mosque to read the namaaz, they should
not go for any funeral.
There are many
views on why and how the Islamic purdah started. One view has it that Prophet
Mohammed became very poor after spending all the wealth of his first wife. At
that time, in Arabia, the poor had to go to the open desert and plains for
relieving themselves and even their sexual needs. The Prophet's wives too had
to do the same. He had told his wives that "I give you permission to go
out and carry out your natural work". (Bukhari Hadis first volume book 4
No. 149).
And this is
what his wives started doing accordingly. One day, Prophet Mohammed's disciple
Uman complained to him that these women were very uncomfortable because they were
instantly recognisable while relieving themselves. Umar proposed a cover but
Prophet Mohammed ignored it. Then the Prophet asked Allah for advice and he
laid down the Ayat (33:59) (Bukhari Hadis Book 026 No. 5397).
This is the
history of the purdah, according to the Hadis. But the question is: since Arab
men too relieved themselves in the open, why didn't Allah start the purdah for
men? Clearly, Allah doesn't treat men and women as equals, else there would be
purdah for both! Men are higher than women. So women have to be made walking
prisons and men can remain free birds. Another view is that the purdah was
introduced to separate women from servants. This originates from stories in the
Hadis. One story in the Bukhari Hadis goes thus: After winning the Khyber War,
Prophet Mohammed took over all the properties of the enemy, including their
women. One of these women was called Safia. One of the Prophet's disciples
sought to know her status. He replied: "If tomorrow you see that Safia is
going around covered, under purdah, then she is going to be a wife. If you see
her uncovered, that
means I've
decided to make her my servant."
The third view
comes from this story. Prophet Mohammed's wife Ayesha was very beautiful. His
friends were often found staring at her with fascination. This clearly upset
the Prophet. So the Quran has an Ayat that says, "Oh friends of the
prophet or holy men, never go to your friend's house without an invitation. And
if you do go, don't go and ask anything of their wives". It is to resist
the greedy eyes of friends, disciples or male guests that the purdah system came
into being. First it was applicable to only the wives of the holy men, and
later it was extended to all Muslim women. Purdah means covering the entire
body except for the eyes, wrist and feet. Nowadays, some women practice the
purdah by only covering their hair. That is not what is written in the Hadis
Quran. Frankly, covering just the hair is not Islamic purdah in the strict
sense. In the early Islamic period, Prophet Mohammed started the practice of
covering the feet of women. Within 100 years of his death, purdah spread across
the entire Middle East. Women were covered by an extra layer of clothing. They were
forbidden to go out of the house, or in front of unknown men. Their lives were
hemmed into a tight regime: stay at home, cook, clean the house, bear children
and bring them up. In this way, one section of the people was separated by purdah,
quarantined and covered. Why are women covered? Because they are sex objects. Because
when men see them, they are roused. Why should women have to be penalised for
men's sexual problems? Even women have sexual urges. But men are not covered for
that. In no religion formulated by men are women considered to have a separate
existence, or as human beings having desires and opinions separate from men's. The
purdah rules humiliate not only women but men too. If women walk about without
purdah, it's as if men will look at them with lustful eyes, or pounce on them,
or rape them. Do they lose all their senses when they see any woman without burqa?
My question to
Shabana and her supporters, who argue that the Quran says nothing about purdah
is: If the Quran
advises women
to use purdah, should they do so? My answer is, No. Irrespective of which book
says it, which person advises, whoever commands, women should not have purdah.
No veil, no chador, no hijab, no burqa, no
headscarf.
Women should not use any of these things because all these are instruments of
disrespect. These are
symbols of
women's oppression. Through them, women are told that they are but the property
of men, objects for their use. These coverings are used to keep women passive
and submissive. Women are told to wear them so that they cannot exist with
their self-respect, honour, confidence, separate identity, own opinion and
ideals intact.So that they cannot stand on their own two feet and live with
their head held high and their spine strong and erect.
Some 1,500
years ago, it was decided for an individual's personal reasons that women
should have purdah and since then millions of Muslim women all over the world
have had to suffer it. So many old customs have died a natural death, but not
purdah. Instead, of late, there has been a mad craze to revive it. Covering a
woman's head means covering her brain and ensuring that it doesn't work. If
women's brains worked properly, they'd have long ago thrown off these veils and
burqas imposed on them by a religious and patriarchal regime.
What should
women do? They should protest against this discrimination. They should proclaim
a war against the wrongs and ill-treatment meted out to them for hundreds of years.
They should snatch from the men their freedom and their rights. They should
throw away this apparel of discrimination and burn their burqas.
