When I covered my head...

I received this as a fwd a few weeks ago and thought it was good enough to share. Something I used to think was so overly represented throughout the Muslim community, but am sadly coming to the realization that such views are not presented enough!

One sister wrote:

"As a non-Muslim living in Western society, the idea of modesty was not exactly foremost in my mind. Like all other women of my generation and mind-set, I thought such ideas were antiquated and excessive. I felt pity for the poor Muslim woman who had to "wear all that junk," or "walk around in bed - sheets" as I used to call it.

I was a modern woman, educated and liberated. Little did I know the awful truth? I was more oppressed than any Muslim woman in the most culturally oppressive village in the Muslim world. I was oppressed not by an inability to choose my clothing or to choose my life-style; I was oppressed by an inability to see my society for what it really was. I was oppressed by the idea that a woman's beauty was public, and that lustful admiration was equal to respect.

It was when Allah guided me to Islam, and I put on the hijab (covering), that I was finally able to step out of the society in which I lived and see it for what it really is.

I could see how the highest paid women were those who exposed themselves to public display, like actresses, models and even strip-tease dancers. I was able to see that the relationship between men and women was unfairly stacked in the man's direction.

I knew I used to dress to attract men. I tried to fool myself by saying I did it to please myself, but the painful reality was that what pleased me was when I was admired by a man I considered attractive. I now know that there is no way for a person to know that he is dirty if he has never been clean.

Similarly, I was not able to see that I was oppressed until I stepped out of the darkness of this oppressive society into the light of Islam. With that light shined on the truth, I was finally able to see the shadows that had been so obscured by my Western philosophies. It is not oppression to protect yourself and society; it is oppression to voluntarily throw yourself into the quagmire while denying it is dirty.

I am grateful to Allah that He allowed me to recognize that

• When I covered my head, I was taking away from people any means for judging me other than my mind, my soul and my heart.
• When I covered my head, I took away the incentive for exploitation based on beauty.
• When I covered my head, I made people respect me because they saw that I respected myself.
• When I covered my head, I finally opened my mind to the truth."

Sister Shariffa Carlo