Yes Joe , the newly converted to Islam on these shores think of the Hijab as a right and a privilege ...something of a deeply felt expression of modesty and humility ,, and that heightened sense of self that comes with that marrying into a new faith, it's custom and love of it's poetry, prose , purpose & ideas, mixed with the zeal of a new follower of the faith .
One can be only to happy for her life & her modesty etc . The article was telling us that this new practice was originated more recently than any would have thought before , as it swept thru the fashion consciousness of the Iranian lasses by the tens of 1000's back in the late 70's as a religious and political obeyance ...but not some older dated edict of dress from this middle eastern prophet himself .
Interesting too , that the original cleric in Lebannon had the Catholic Nuns and their headgear in mind, when he thought of it . And it was an idea that apparently worked well to some degree keeping Arafat's thugs from doing more harm to those women . It was always a pleasure for me too, to see some Catholic nuns dressed for marriage to God walking down the street , though it is a more rare sight these days out west .
I never had a problem with nuns wearing their habits , nor ever felt guilty for looking in their direction to watch them pass by , and greet them if possible . As for the newly converted in Canada or the US to Islam , I always note how pleasantly plump these women usually are, as well as their being extremely modest and well kept.
I'm not sure that back in Iran in the 70's , that "modesty" was really the main reason that those thousands of women almost instantly began to adopt this new custom , though perhaps an inordinate view of the immodesty and excesses of the western influence perhaps might have been . But did that make them truely modest ?
;-) |
