The Veil And The Beauty Behind It

I've been itching to write about this topic for quite some time now. After 9/11, the eyes of the world turned towards the Muslim community. Their beliefs and way of life are being criticized and some of them were labeled as terrorists. Anti-Islamic movements were spurred like mushrooms after the rain, and days after days, the situation is getting worse.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/14/sarkozy-full-veil-ban

This article reported about the recent banned on full-veil wore by the Muslim women in France. The reason was simple, Nicolas Sarkozy said that the veil was not welcomed in a country that valued sexual equality. Actually, the reason itself is a total rubbish, since there is no indication that what people wear could diminish the so-called sexual equality.

The thing is, wearing veils is the way of life for Muslim women throughout the world, it has been and always been the way women in Islam dressed. You don't have to be naked or half-naked to be sexually equal with men, that's what Islam is trying to say.

Beauty isn't something that we have to take for granted. The more concealed your beauty is to the eyes of men, the more precious you will become to the men that you will marry later in your life. Why? The explanation is simple. Imagine if you are trying to get a gift for a loved one. As a surprise, you would want the gift to be fully-wrapped, concealed in a box of some sort rather than just handing it in just like that, correct? Why do you have to wrapped it first? Why don't you just hand it like that, plain and simple?

Because, we wanted that element of surprise and most people love surprises. The same goes with the veil. If you dressed around half naked all your life, and then get married to someone, would it be a-moment-to-look-forward-to for your husband? Well, maybe not. Instead of waiting eagerly to see what lies beneath the veil, your husband seemed not to care if you are naked or fully dressed at the time. And before you knew it, your marriage fails.

Sexual equality is also what Islam is striving for, but more on the modest side rather than ensuing all of its followers to be half-naked all the time.

We also have dress-codes for men, not only women. No, we don't have to be dressed like terrorist if that's what you're thinking right now. Like the women in Islam, we were also required to cover ourselves. So, it's not sexual slavery, it's just how Islam requires its follower to live in modesty rather than showing off everything and comparing each other in never-ending beauty pageant. So, if the men have to cover themselves, then according to the law of sexual equality, the women also have to dress the way the men did and cover themselves up, right? So it is still equal when you compare the women in Islam to the men in Islam. Equal and fair, don't you think so?

Look at the western community today. Most of you were shown how to dress, how thin you should be, and an ugliness is not an option. This however, has negative outcomes. People who do not stand up to the notion of having beautiful body, slim abs, and a face like Barbie will be cast aside. Only beautiful people have the rights to stand tall and be proud of themselves, the rest who do not will be haunted with depressions and inferiority complex.

When you are dressed like this...

....does it matter whether you are beautiful or not? Whether you are fat or thin? Well, Islam is actually a religion that understand human needs, and strive for human happiness. Islam doesn't want human to value beauty through what we see, but to value beauty through the purity of the heart and good will. If you don't want to understand the religion, then leave us be. How we dressed in our daily lives will not harm the way other people live.

Okay, if the arguments above are still debatable, then let us make some quick comparison:

This is a Nun.

...and this is a Muslim woman.

See the difference?

NO. There's no different at all. So, why do people hate it when Muslim women dress the way they are, but totally ignore it when the Nuns dress exactly the same? 

With that, I'll leave you to ponder whether the true reason behind this discrimination against the Islamic world is truly because of sexual equality or just pure hatred.