The face-veiled DAP member and all that
Abdar Rahman Koya, TMI
Muslim women’s clothing has been a source of debate among ordinary Muslims and scholars, and like the Sunni-Shiite conflict, it never ends.
It is a popular topic among our male Muslim scholars as it provides an opportunity to caress every part of the female body with their scholarly words, and with quotes blamed on the Prophet, all on the pretext of imparting knowledge.
It is a subject discussed with full zest and excitement, and the audience will usually be in stitches, the same way they are whenever these “inheritors of the Prophet” talk about the Islamic dos and don’ts in sexual intercourse, a subject which is probably as mythical as post-marital sexual bliss.
At one end of the spectrum of this intra-Muslim debate on women’s clothing are those who say it is compulsory for a Muslim woman to cover all of her body and face (the niqab), leaving only the eyes shown. At the other end are those who say there are no such instructions whether divine or prophetic on how a Muslim woman should be dressed, other than modestly.
Somewhere in the middle are those who say it suffices that a woman cover her hair (hijab), leaving “whatever appears thereof” as the Quran has described, and that it is up to her to wear the face-veil.
On the periphery of this debate is a set of people which usually includes the ultra-liberals, who argue that it is the right of the woman to wear whatever she wants.
Ironically, this line of argument has gained followers among many pro-niqab Muslim scholars in the West in facing the onslaught of secular fanaticism while at the same time struggling to become loyal citizens. The irony, of course, is that they would recognise the personal freedom for a woman to go around in public like a walking tent with a small vent through which to breathe (and I suspect, to ogle hot hunks like me), but would not do the same for a woman whose investment of drapery would not exceed 20 grammes. It is like some Muslim leaders who cry for secular values when it comes to minority rights in countries such as India and in Europe, yet would be the first to condemn secularism as evil when they visit Muslim lands.
But why am I talking about the Muslim woman’s clothing, as if we were still in the glory days of Muslim civilisation, where one could indulge in such pious topics of religious vanities?
