Can a woman in a hijab still get a taxi? asks Yvonne Ridley

[Blessed]

Assalamu Alaikum Nomads;

 

Please read the following article and the subsequent responses from British readers. Sisters living in the UK should consider responding to letters sent in by The Observer readers to challenge some of the ignorant perceptions of the Hijab. You can send your letters to letters@observer.co.uk

 

and forward this letter.. Jizaakum Allah

 

The original article:

 

 

'It's only a piece of cloth'

 

Can a woman in a hijab still get a taxi? asks Yvonne Ridley

 

Sunday December 12, 2004

 

The Observer

 

 

Wearing a headscarf is no big deal... unless you happen to be a Muslim, in which case this simple piece of cloth arouses opinions, hostile glances and worse.

 

When I converted to Islam I knew I would have to embrace the Muslim head-dress. As for many converts, it was a huge stumbling block and I found all sorts of excuses not to wear the hijab - basically a symbol of modesty and a very public statement. When I finally did, the repercussions were enormous. All I did was

put on a headscarf, but from that moment I became a second-class citizen.

 

The reaction from some people was unbelievable. I knew I would become a target for abuse from the odd Islamaphobic oik, but I didn't expect so much open hostility from complete strangers. I can no longer be sure of getting a black

cab in London... something I had taken for granted for many years. Let me give you some examples from the past two weeks: Edgware Road in London, an area with a substantial Arab population: three black cabs, orange 'for hire' lights glowing, drive past one after another. It's about 11.30pm and I'm freezing and

desperate to get home. A fourth taxi stops to discharge a white passenger. I reach the vehicle and tap the window, beaming from ear-to-ear at my saviour.

The driver turns and stares hard, his face contorted into hatred and rage, and

drives off.

 

Last month, pre-hijab, he would have returned the smile; now, in his eyes, I have been transformed into a terrorist. Next day, horrified by the events ofthe previous evening, I tell my story to a non-Muslim friend who is not

sympathetic. 'Well if you go around looking like a Chechen Black Widow what do you expect?' she says. But black is my favourite colour. It's just that my little black dress has become a big black dress. That afternoon, I change my

black hijab in favour of a paler silk turban-look which still covers my head.

 

Very Vivienne Westwood, I think. I get my black cab without hassle, just a mere wave of the arm and I am taken to the West End for lunch with a very close friend who happens to be Jewish. It was the first time she had seen me in a

hijab but she just laughs and makes some nice compliments. In her eyes I am the same person she became friends with five years ago. No change. What a relief.

 

Later that day I meet some Muslim friends who also have not seen me for some time. They are excited to see me wearing a hijab, but tell me I look like a cross between a cancer victim and an Israeli settler. I report the unsavoury

incident in the Edgware Road which had reduced me to tears.

 

'Welcome to the real world. This is what we have to put up with 24/7,' one tells me. There is more laughter at my apparent naivety, but I am puzzled and peeved at their acceptance that this is the way of things in Britain today. A couple

of days later I attend Yasser Arafat's memorial at London's Friends' Meeting House and dress appropriately in black with matching hijab showing a small sliver of Palestinian kaffiyeh across the forehead.

 

I may as well be sporting a Hamas-green 'jihad' tattoo across my temple from the openly hostile glares I receive from some passengers on London's Underground.

Feeling uncomfortable and intimidated I get off at Baker Street and go to a

taxi bay for the shortish journey down Euston Road. 'It's just across the road,

why don't you walk?' barks the cabbie before returning to his newspaper.

 

There have been other incidents including one taxi driver's, 'Don't leave a bomb

in the back seat,' or, 'Where's bin Laden hiding?' There are also amusing moments such as being congratulated in Regent's Park mosque for my excellent grasp of English.

 

But, in the eyes of many, I no longer am a real person. Waiters talk loudly and slowly if I am on my own, and if I am with a non-hijabi female, she is asked what I would like to eat. So, when I see a woman wearing a hijab, regardless of

whether I know her, I smile and say in Arabic, 'As-Salaam-Alaikum,' which means,

'Peace unto you'. I know that the rest of her encounters that day may well be

hostile.

 

 

Yvonne Ridley's current affairs show The Agenda will launch on the Islam Channel

later this month.

 

 

Letters written in response to article in The Observer Sunday December 19, 2004

 

 

Yvonne Ridley's 'it's only a piece of cloth' (Comment, last week) is as unconvincing as couples afraid to commit to getting married who say 'it's only a piece of paper'. No Muslim woman today has to wear even a headscarf (the last vestige of the chador), particularly in a free society where women have been

fighting for so long not to have dress as men choose.

 

Oppressed Muslim women have been fighting to be allowed to walk around bare-headed and it seems a retrograde step to voluntarily put the clock back.

 

Nick Alexander

 

London SE22

 

 

Yvonne Ridley declared: 'When I converted to Islam I knew I would have to embrace the Muslim head-dress.' Who told her that? Among the Muslim women I grew up with in the Middle East, wearing the hijab was seen as a matter of choice or a tribal/cultural adornment. Let's not forget that this 'cult' of the hijab is relatively recent and should not be perceived as a religious necessity.

 

Tanya Tier

Worthing

 

Sussex

 

 

While Yvonne Ridley is happy to describe the hijab as 'a symbol of modesty and a very public statement', she is curiously unwilling to take any responsibility for the statement she chooses to make. There is something ridiculous, not to

mention offensive, in the suggestion that it is immodest for women to show their hair in public. To argue that the clothes you wear have a specific meaning in society, and that anyone who does not approve of this meaning has to

pretend it does not exist, is self-centred. Wearing a headscarf is no big deal if that's all you're doing; making 'a very public statement' is something else, and it's something we're all allowed to do, even those of us who believe that

the decisions of women such as Ridley help to maintain the status of all women

as 'second-class citizens'.

 

Victoria Dutchman-Smith

 

Summertown

 

Oxford

 

 

Yvonne Ridley shows little understanding of the hostile reaction to her wearing of the hijab. To the 'hostile', it represents an alien doctrine that treats women as enshrouded, segregated second-class citizens. One that requires

abasement five times a day. To make such proclamations of adherence to a creed

so at odds with prevailing secular attitudes can only be provocative.

 

A Adler

 

London SW17

 

 

Yvonne Ridley seems to want it both ways. She wishes to demonstrate her allegiance to Islam, and asserts her clothing's symbolic significance; yet when that symbolism attracts less than courteous interest, she claims that symbolism doesn't exist.

Perhaps Ridley should consider the possibility that some of those 'glaring passengers' might have lost relatives to the terrorist organisations whose fashion sense she shares.

 

David Thompson

 

Ranmoor

 

Sheffield

[Blessed]

A little information fort those of you who aren't familiar with Yvonne Ridely- she is the British Journalist that was captured by the Taliban. She has since reverted to Islam and became very active in campaigning for the rights of Muslims- she is particularly outspoken about the Palestinian situation.

 

Related news:

Muslim dress row returning to court

 

War on Islam Audio by Yvonne Ridley

[RendezVous]

~~~Good article with tearful experiences.We also urge all our sisters to take this HIJAB issue with seriousness.

 

The less serious you are, it gets devalued.Explain to the non-muslim we have a very different kind of Religion,Let them try to understand it instead of refraining and abusing it.

 

First let them have a look at ISLAM before criticising on it.

 

We don't know but may be they found HIJABEES in Red Light Districts and Working with Drug Dealers.Acudhu Billah.

 

A verse in the HOLY QURAAN will try to separate the TRUTH from the UNTRUTH.

 

In the name of Allah, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

 

109.001

SHAKIR: Say: O unbelievers!

 

109.002

YUSUFALI: I worship not that which ye worship,

 

109.003

YUSUFALI: Nor will ye worship that which I worship.

 

109.004

PICKTHAL: And I shall not worship that which ye worship.

 

109.005

YUSUFALI: Nor will ye worship that which I worship.

 

109.006

SHAKIR: You shall have your religion and I shall have my religion.

-------------------------------------

 

A VERY BIG FULLSTOP

[Alle-ubaahne]

Am very appalled with the intensity of racism towards our women that exists in the U.K. What else should we expect a typical Gaal who is active in his very cages! :eek:

[RendezVous]

Terrible indeed!!!

[Caveman]

Horrible responses to her article!…..Having recently been in UK, I was impressed with the presence of Muslims or so I though the acceptance of Muslim religion and attire in that society. You could be in same districts of London and B’ham and all you’ll see is sister’s with full Hijaab n’ Brother’s wearing Suna gear, a relatively rare site in this part of the World. So, its surprising to read this article from UK, since I was custom to hear this type of Hijaab negativity here in N-America.

 

Salaam!

Later