Burka and Niqab are not just pieces of cloths, They are the flags of political Islam and need to be treated as Nazism’s flag!
Homa Arjomand February 16/2015
Would members of society tolerate someone who wears Nazism’s symbol or carry Nazism’s flag in public?
Nazism’s flag is not tolerated because under this flag and symbols people were sent to gas Chambal. Under this flag humanity suffered a great dial, no-one ever would forget what Nazism did to humanity, torture, disappearances, execution, extermination by gassing and burning are the horror that people faced and witnessed. Nazism flag or any Nazism’s symbols are a reminder of lives of devastated people in detentions and concentration camps. Members of society have every right, not to tolerate Nazism’s flag whether it is cried on a pole or worn as a dress. This flag has no place in public, not in court, no at police stations, not at any schools or universities, nowhere at all. Burka, Niqab as well as hijab, they should be treated the same as it known to public as the FLAG OF POLITICAL ISLAM. Under this flag people are being beheaded, their hands and legs are being chopped; their eyes are being pulled out. Girls, young women, and boys are being ganged rapped in detentions and then slaughtered. Its brutality and its murderous act in Afghanistan, North Africa, Iran, Syria and… will always remain in people’s mind. People can never forget the terrorist action of political Islam across the world. In Iran Hijab is and always will be recognized as the banner of political Islam and it is forced on women for the purpose of promoting political agenda.
Burka or Niqab used to exist in only marginalized, isolated rural area in Arabian Gulf where women were considered property of men. They were kept in group of 5 to 100 in Haram-Sara under the control and watch guard of one man that they used to call him master. Most of them were slaves. Their existence was to provide sex and breeding. They had no right to come out of that place ( Haram) without permission of their master. Those women had no right to talk to or to show their faces to any other men.
But now these types of veils are willingly adopted by advocators of the Islamic movement. Strangely enough it is worn by some university graduates who are recently converted to Islam. They have never had any link to Islam. They never lived in any of countries so- called Islamic or run by Islamic state. She is introduced to youth as MD (Doctor of Medicine) or holder of PHD who converted to Islam and chose Burka over Western cloths for the sake of purity and freedom. In her speech for young teens, she talks about the benefits of Burka, stats Burka empowers the women, puts women in control of their own body. Wearing Burka saves them from the evil eyes of men. She expresses women feel light as a feather to move around without getting worried about her body image.
One can see how much these youths admire this pretty young MD. they talk about this new converted Muslim and her courage at home and at school playgrounds. Teens replicate every word, phrases that she used in her speech. At mosque and in public they become her followers. They copy her style of cloths, the way she talks and walks. Soon teens start to challenge their parents to allow them to wear the Burka while their own mothers hardly wear the head cover. If her mother was not under the pressure of her community, she would have got ride of her head cover long time ago. I have heard mothers complaining about their children’s behavior. Time and times I were told by these frustrated mothers that they have never taught their children to become extremists. Never asked them to cover their face but they are coving their face even from their own uncle and would not eat at the uncle’s present.
The question is whom to blame?
The sweat Western young white woman who chooses to manipulate the children’s intellectual for her political agenda or whatever her motivation is OR the sheik, Mullah and Imams who purposely introduced her as a perfect example of purity?
What Feminist see in the above scenario is the tip of iceberg? She simply sees Burka as a piece of cloth that women in so- called Islamic communities willingly chose to wear it. She also sees a male minister of Immigration and citizenship aims to ban Burka at the citizenship ceremony and if women refuse to remove their face covering, they will be denied Canadian citizenship. She sees women’s freedom of choice of cloth and women’s religious rights are under the attack. She quickly rushes to denounce the banning. She wants to accommodate women with their Burka at the court, police stations, schools, and hospitals. But what I and other women’s right activists who lived and witness the horror of this move see, is the whole iceberg; we see how these youth and children are becoming followers of political Islam. Soon the children the followers of this move are used to eradicate any move that prevents Islamists to reach to power. We see the children, the followers of the Islamists will becoming the head for interruption to break all the norms and standards that humanity obtained by going through harsh struggle for many years, such as right to live, rights to education, rights to health, rights to socialize all these rights are under the attack directly by Islamists movement. We see how political Islam is mobilizing their movement globally through these precious children, manipulating the children’s mind, brain washing them and making them the soldiers of Hezbollah. We see to connection between Islamists move in the West and its banner Burka. On this banner invisibly written the following slogans:
· Not to respect gender equality,
· Segregate women from men right from childhood,
· Women have no right to choose their own partner, if she has no father, brother, uncle or grandfather then a shrike, mullah or an Imam can choose her a man if not a permanent husband, a temporary husband (sigheh) can be arranged.
· Women should respect their husbands even if they are abusers; submissiveness needs to be part of women’s character,
· Obedient woman will be placed in haven,
· Women may get involved in polygamy for more purity,
· Women’s place is home specifically to look after their men and children,
· Prevent social integration
· 7th century tribe roles and must become the law of the land
· Religious and cultural rights are above your individual rights
· So long to freedom of speech & freedom of press,
We oppose Burka, Niqab as we see them an attack to our social norm and standard. We see Islamists grow for past three decades. We witness the universal rights of women irrespective of where they come from is under the attack not only by the Islamists but also by some influential feminist individuals.
We know the only way out is to safeguard separation of religion from state. We need to ban Burka, Niqab from public and advocate for complete purging of the state and its administration from religion.