(This is a shortened transcript of Dr. Nasreen’s speech from Hizb ut-Tahrir’s UK conference 2009)

In a speech to the French parliament on June 22nd, French President Nicholas Sarkozy said: “The issue of the burqa is not a religious issue, it is a question of freedom and of women’s dignity. This is not a religious symbol. It is a sign of the enslavement, the subjugation, the submission of women. I want to say solemnly that it will not be welcome on our territory. We cannot accept that some women in our country are prisoners behind a grille, cut off from social life, deprived of their identity.”
Mr. Sarkozy – a re-known womanizer, a serial adulterer calling for women’s rights! Sarkozy, a staunch supporter of the hijab ban in France that robbed so many of our French sisters of a good education. If there is any subjugation being done here – it is to control the thinking of Muslim women from Islam, its values, its dress code; and if there is any pressure that Muslim women face to submit – it is the pressure to submit to the secular liberal values of Western states, through demonizing Islam and hijab bans.

Sarkozy of course is not alone in his views towards the Muslim woman’s dress – insults against the hijab, jilbab, niqab, and burqa flow freely today from the pages of Western newspapers and the mouths of certain Western politicians.

“The Hijab…immediately suggests a belief system in which women are inferior to men which is intolerable here.” – Minette Marrin – The Times

“…the values these outfits imply are repulsive and insulting to me. I find these clothes to be physical manifestations of outdated traditional practices…that oppress and victimize women, sometimes in the most degrading, cruel and barbaric of ways.” – Deborah Orr – The Independent – regarding the niqab

Does covering oppress the woman, make her lower than the man, imprison her, and make her invisible in society? Are man-made secular liberal values such as freedom the path to the liberation of woman?

DOES ISLAM ENSLAVE THE WOMAN?

Mr. Sarkozy says that the burqa or niqab makes the woman a slave to the man. No-one is arguing that Mr. Sarkozy doesn’t know a thing or two about “Female enslavement” – he is after all married to Carla Bruni – a former nude model. However, Muslim women do not need lessons in how to dress from the husband of a woman who earnt her fame from showing the world how to undress. Nor do we need lessons in female enslavement from the leaders of any secular liberal state where the enslavement of women is legal under the law, with the existence of brothels, pornography, and lap-dancing clubs – all under the premise of liberty, of sexual freedom – women who serve no other purpose but to service the desires of men.

Some argue that freedom in the West brings the dignity of women. If so, what dignity has it brought the 1 in 4 women who are victims of domestic violence in the UK; what respect did it bring to the 2 women killed each week in Britain by their partners or husband; what dignity has it brought to the 28 million women battered by their husband or partner in the US – the Land of freedom where a woman is beaten every 9 seconds and where battery is the single major cause of injury to women between the ages of 15-44 – more than car accidents, mugging, and rape combined.

If freedom has brought dignity to the woman, then why have 1 in 20 women been raped in the UK; and why is a woman sexually assaulted every 2 and ½ minutes in the US according to the US justice department? What has freedom brought to the 1000’s of women who face sexual harassment in the workplace in Western societies – 50% of women in the UK according to an Equal opportunity commission report in 2000.

So when people say that the woman in Islam is not free to dress how she likes – I say Yes, you’re right, we are not free, we dress according to the Commands of Our Creator – hijab, jilbab, the One who gave us life, the One to whom we will return, the One to Whom we will forever be grateful? He (swt) says, “… let them draw their head-coverings (khumur) over their necks and bosoms (juyub).” [An-Nur 31]

“When a young girl begins to menstruate, it is not correct that anything should be seen of her except her face and hands up to the wrist.” (Hadith Reported by Abu Dawud) “Oh Prophet! Tell your wives and your daughters and the women of the believers to draw their cloaks (Jalabeeb) all over their bodies.” [Al-Ahzab:59]

We embrace a religion, Islam, that says a man is not free to view a woman as he likes, nor use the woman to sell a product – no amount of money in the world will let you buy the respect of the woman.Why? Because in Islam her honour, her respect is priceless.

The Prophet (saw) said, “The world and all things in the world are precious but the most precious thing in the world is a virtuous woman.”

As Muslim women, we embrace a dress that says – we refuse to be an ornament for public display.A dress that says – we demand to be respected as a woman for what we can give to society rather than what fulfillment we can give to men. This is the liberation that Islam and this dress brings to the woman.

ARE WOMEN INFERIOR/SUBMISSIVE TO THE MAN IN ISLAM?

Another accusation that some throw at Muslim women who cover, is that it lowers their status in society, makes them submissive and inferior to the man. Are we then to believe that the miniskirt makes the woman superior to the man? Why does the liberation of the woman have to depend on how much flesh she shows in public? What can lower her status more than a society that says it’s ok to use the woman as an object to fulfill men’s desires, it’s ok to degrade her in this way?

As for submission, If Western politicians and journalists want to talk about the submission of women then why not talk about the constant pressures that so many women face in secular states to submit to expectations in looks, in dress, in her weight, in her body shape – To submit to the idea – “You’re just not quite good enough”. So much so that many women are willing to take drastic actions, sometimes life-threatening actions to change their appearance. The British Assoc of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons reported a 36% rise in facelifts in the UK, from 2006-7; In American there were 11.7 million cosmetic surgical procedures in 2007 – 91% of these being women; In the UK over 1 million women have an eating disorder; 1 in 20 women in the US have anorexia, bulimia, or binge eating disorder; 1,000 women die every year from anorexia (American Anorexia/Bulimia Association). Is this the liberation they talk of that will come to the women of Afghanistan, Iraq and the Muslim world via secular, liberal, democracy?

Rather than this dress making us inferior, quite the contrary, it liberates us from the superficial, unrealistic, man-made expectation of looking flawless and feeling inferior if we don’t; It liberates us from the paranoia of never being good enough; It says that my beauty is not up for public discussion; it says that if you want to judge me – judge me on my mind, my skills, my abilities, not on how I look.As for submission – the Muslim woman submits to no man – only to the Creator and what he has asked of her. So when He (swt) asks her to obey her husband, father or brother, she does so with pride, honour, and grace because she knows she is gaining the Blessings and multiple rewards of her Creator (swt). But No Muslim woman would submit to her husband, father, brother if he asked her to uncover – her submission is solely to the One who gave her life.

How can Western leaders and journalists such as Deborrah Orr, Melanie Philips, and Polly Toynbee accuse Islam of making the woman inferior to the man? Do they not know that:

1.While European thinkers such as Rouseau and Voltaire were still arguing in the 18th century that women did not have the same intellect as men – Islam, in the 7th century defined the man and woman’s intellect and worth as the same because they were created from one soul.

2.While women in secular states had to chain themselves to railings to secure basic rights such as the vote and right to voice their political opinions, Islam obliged women 1400 years ago to be active politically and gave them the vote.

3.While women in the US and Europe struggled for access to higher education, the history of the Islamic Khilafah is flooded with examples of 1000’s of female scholars, held in high esteem for the level of their knowledge, who would lecture in the main mosques, colleges or universities of the time.

4. Umm al-Darda 7th centruy in Damascus – lectured on hadith and fiqh at one of the main mosques – her students included the Caliph of Damascus; Nafisa bint Hasan 9th century – scholar in Egypt – Imam Shafi would sit in her circle in al-Fustat to learn fiqh when he was at the height of his fame; Sheikha Shuhda 12th century – lectured in one of the main mosques of Baghdad – capital of state and like a university – and taught Imam Bukhari.

While the phrase “Women’s Rights” was still a dirty word in the vocabulary of Western Secular states till the 19th century, Islam 1400 years ago raised the status of the woman in society from being the possession of men, insignificant in society to a human being with her own rights and identity, an equal citizen to the man in educational, economic, and political rights. So for women’s rights and women’s liberation from men one should really look up to Islam for the answers.

DOES ISLAM SUBJUGATE THE WOMAN?

Some think the burqa or hijab imprisons the woman, subjugates her, and that we are forced by men to dress like this.We need to examine what really subjugates/controls the Muslim woman?

It is the idea that we cannot think for ourselves? It is forcing us to uncover. It is insulting comments against Islam and our dress code that increases the prejudice and discrimination we face in society.

What has really imprisoned the Muslim woman and cut her off from social life, is the hijab ban in France, Germany,Turkey, and other secular states that has: Denied thousands of Muslim women from access to a good education; Caused Muslim women to be sacked from jobs; Led to Muslim women being denied medical treatment.These have been the obstacles to Muslim women being active in the social life of Western societies. Not our dress code, certainly not Islam. Regarding being forced to dress like this, can Western politicians and media really expect that thinking people – Muslim and non-Muslim alike – to believe that the millions of Muslim women who cover across the world do so because they are forced by men?

Rather than being forced to cover, many women who want to wear the hijab and jilbab feel pressure not to because of prejudice against this dress, how others may view them, the impact on their education or jobs, and the anti-Islamic environment in many Western societies. An-Anti-Islamic environment, made worse by anti-Islamic comments from politicians and journalists that has had disastrous consequences on the lives of ordinary Muslim women living in the West. Like the tragic murder of our Sister Marwa El-Sherbini in Germany earlier this month, killed for her hijab;“A Martyr of the Hijab” as many Muslims have called her. It is scandalous that Western politicians accuse the Islamic dress of oppressing the woman while they have been silent on this bloodbath, this horrific murder, of a young mother, killed because of her Islamic dress in their own backyard.

HOW THE ISLAMIC LAWS LIBERATE THE WOMAN?

It is high time that we turn this debate, this attack on our dress on its head. It is time we expose the false liberation of women claimed by Western freedoms. These attacks on the hijab, jilbab, and niqab by Western leaders and politicians show that they are using their own burqa to cover up their absolute failure to convince Muslim women of the secular way of life.

Muslim women in Britain have a part to show the wider society that it is man-made laws and expectations that oppress the woman – not Islam; If there is any veil we should lift, it is this veil of lies surrounding our dress and Islam’s treatment of women.

“Who is better in speech than the one who calls (men) to Allah, works righteousness and says I am one of the muslims.” [41:33]

So when people say, this piece of cloth oppresses us. Our response is No; it re-defines the way men relate to women in a society, away from an object of pleasure to a human being that has a serious contribution to make in society.

When people say, we are forced by men to wear this dress. No! It is rather men who are forced by this dress to value the woman as an equal citizen of society rather than an ornament that fulfils their desires.When people say this piece of cloth robs us of our freedom – the response must be “So What!” – Why should we accept this value of freedom that has brought such misery to so many women; this flawed value of freedom that Western states have so clearly illustrated with their hijab bans – the freedom which is “here today and gone tomorrow”.And let’s be clear here – we do not dress like this because of freedom of choice – to accept this would be to also accept the freedom of women to undress as they like, which we can never do as believing women.

We dress like this because it is a Command from our Creator. This Islamic dress, along with the other social laws of Islam – the prohibition of socialising between the sexes, the prohibition of pornography and the sexualisation of society, the prohibition of fornication and adultery.All are rules that seek to ensure that the status of the woman is never cheapened.They are rules that seek to ensure that sexual relations and that which leads to it are restricted to marriage.They are rules that seek to ensure that when men and women interact in society, anything that may trigger the sexual desires does not create an obstacle to the healthy cooperation between the sexes.This is the liberation that an Islamic society within the Khilafah state, brings to women and society.