Opinion : Hijab for Muslim women
Abu Imran
http://www.edailystar.com/contents/2010/2010_09_15/content_zoom/2010_09_15_7_5_b.jpg
I refer to the picture news published in the Daily Star at page 7 on Sept 15, 2010, where in it appeared that some Thai Muslim school girls in full hijab sat along with the Buddhist monks (also in their religious dress) attending an inter-faith meeting organised locally in the Thailand's restive southern province. The point I want to drive home is that hijab for Muslim women is universal and compulsory. It is not optional.
Either one lives in the East, West, North or South all muslim females are supposed to wear hijab while appearing in public. It is not a part of local culture that would not fit into other cultures. It does not become optional if some small or big persons like 'sentry' or 'montree' (orderly or minister) or even bigger than them say so.
It has the support of Quranic injunction and hence it can not be revoked.
Thailand is not a Muslim country, rather a country where free mixing, liberal sex, scanty and seeing through dresses are common. But there the Muslim females are trying to live a fuller Islamic way life by putting on hijab against odds. They do not give excuses like what we do here in Bangladesh and Pakistan which are Muslim countries. In these two countries the trend is leading towards de-Islamisation.
De-Islamisation process has set in motion in both at personal and national levels. If we walk around, we find young ladies frequenting the streets and markets without hijab. Of course there are some who wear hijab. But their number is negligible, as the national level de-islamisation process is encouraged by the state authorities.
Sometimes back it was a practice both in Bangladesh and Pakistan that at least during Ramzan, the female T. V news casters used to cover their heads with either duppattas (head gear) or Sari anchol. But during the last Ramzan, in most cases the T.V's in Bangladesh and Pakistan (Geo in particular) allowed their female news casters to display themselves without head gears.
There are other indicators too which suggest that de-Islamisation process has set in motion. It is high time that this is checked else we would earn Allah's wrath and sufferings will befell on us. If the Thai girls could do with hijab, then why can't our Muslim females?
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