Who are You to Call Someone Oppressed

Before this one gets away, because she's currently writing up a storm, I'm linking to a Blog that I think deserves to be far better read than it is, Progressive Muslim Thoughts. It is written by a wonderful young Muslim woman who recently graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and is currently a Scoville Peace Fellow at Citizens for Global Solutions in Washington, DC. She has many good posts on the Middle East, and on America, but this more personal glimpse just melted my heart:

Beyond my veil, I'm just like you

As a Muslim woman who observes Hijab or the Islamic code of dress for women, I often get stares & wonder what people are thinking. Sometimes, I'm tempted to wear a sticker on my head that says "I'm not oppressed" or a t-shirt that says "My headscarf doesn't cover my brain!" It's really interesting how so many books that are deemed as "NY Times Best sellers" are anti-Islam or anti-Hijab.

Although I grew up in a religious community & family in Dubai, UAE, where most women observed Hijab, many of my friends in school did not. I'm not saying Hijab is not a tough choice, but it is one that I have made, am comfortable with, and do not see as an obstacle to my goals in life. And I'm also aware that many many women are oppressed in the Muslim World due to the narrow definitions of Hijab that religious leaders have imposed, but that doesn't mean Islam is at fault. It was refreshing to see an article that reflected my sentiments on the issue by Nadia Malik, a staff writer at the Daily Herald:

This is why she's been on my blogroll for some time now. It's so hard to see America when all it's native-born are in a state of perpetual self-laud, but by reading her I get a glimpse of it, and you will, too.

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