"Covering of Muslim women"
Reader comment on item: Niqabs and Burqas as Security Threats
in response to reader comment: Niqab...its main reasons

Submitted by Lactantius Jr. (United Kingdom), Mar 26, 2008 at 06:55

Islam has much to say and much to do with the veiling of Muslim women. It is plain wrong to say that veiling "is a sign of modesty with the goal of protecting women," or that it is cultural and not religious. It is nothing of the sort, it is to prevent Muslim men from sinning by seeing them and lusting after them!!!

Apart from her ‘deficiency' in intelligence, in religion, in gratitude and as a witness for example, Islam's most authoritative documents say that a woman has 10 ‘awrat,' literally "things to be ashamed of" (The Encyclopaedia of Islam), the woman herself being perceived as ‘awrah,' with the Qu'ran, Sahi Hadith, Qur'anic commentators, Muslim scholars ancient and modern, all being consistent in teaching the superiority of men over women.

So why are Muslim women veiled? Dr. Buti a modern scholar says, "Muslim teachers unanimously agreed in every generation that the woman should cover all her body except her hands and face, that is without any make up, from strangers."[ Dr. Mohammad Sa'id Ramadan al-Buti, Ela kul Fataten Tu'min be-Allah, Mu'asasat ar_Risalah, Beirut, 1987, Eighth edition, p. 41,42] while the followers of Hanbal and some followers of Shafi'I, consider even the hand and the face to be 'awrah, and therefore should be covered.[Buti, p.43] "And those who allow the woman to show her hand and face -the Malikiyah and Hanafiyah- do so with the provision that make up will not be used, but if the woman's face is naturally beautiful, then she must cover her face for fear of being a temptation to men."[Buti, pp.47&48]

With Dr. Buti saying as follows, just why Muslim women should be veiled. "Allah, the most high, decreed that the woman should be veiled. He did so in protecting the chastity of the men who might see her, and not in protection of the chastity of the woman from the eyes of those who look at her." [Buti, p.98]

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