The French Burqa Ban

This is an excellent, very touching article written from the perspective of a Saudi woman, who expresses how she feels about the burqah, the niqab and other coverings Muslim women are expected to wear by their male controllers. 

I tell you this - I'm sure it's Muslim women; especially in countries that are the most repressive to them, who are the KEY to the spiritual transformation of Islam, that Muslim countries and the entire world need so direly.

"Kill me if you like, but you can't stop the emancipation of women!"

~Táhirih of Qazvin

  Poetess and First Woman Suffragette of Persia (c. 1817-1854)

Islam's heart has been lost for centuries, and it is underneath those oppressive black veils that She will find it!

 ~Madison Reed

The French Burqa Ban

"These are the women “choosing” to cover, brainwashed into living to die. I wish I had the power to take the choice away from them."

From A Saudi Woman's Weblog

Covering the face has been a highly emotional and politicized issue in the Muslim community for the past two decades. I have written about it before and called it the sixth pillar of Islam. It has become a false banner for Islamic piety. Islam is now reduced to a dress code. It does not matter if you lie, steal or slander your friends and neighbors, if you cover your face you are perceived by society as an untouchable religious God fearing person.

When I read that the ban has gone through the French parliament with an overwhelming majority, I was unexpectedly ecstatic about it. I don’t live in France and I don’t even to plan to visit anytime soon and yet it made me happy that women there don’t have a choice. Yes this is one area where I’m anti-choice. Covering the face is the very essence of objectifying women. With her face covered, a woman is reduced to an object that needs to be protected by a male guardian. For every woman who truly chooses of her own freewill to cover her face, there are hundreds if not thousands forced and pressured to by the religious establishment, family and society. Who would you sacrifice, that one woman who can manage to find God in something else or those hundreds, so that one can liberally  choose?

The number of  times I have heard Saudi women here, who are conditioned to believe that covering is an unquestionable issue, sigh as they watch uncovered women on TV and say لهم الدنبا ولنا الأخرة (they get the world and we get the afterlife). These are the women “choosing” to cover, brainwashed into living to die. I wish I had the power to take the choice away from them. Article continues here 

IMPORTANT Related news! 

About HRH Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal's Work in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Advance Women (youtube.com)

Saudi Cleric OK Removal of Face Covering in Anti Burqah Countries