Hijab's utility in the western context must be evaluated

Submitted by Prashant, Aug 2, 2018 at 22:46

Dear Dr Pipes, I will ask your readers to do a thought experiment. Imagine that I go to a middle school somewhere in America and while most students wear casual t-shirts to school, I choose to wear a red tie every day. What are the chances that sooner or later some 7th grader will start bullying me? We all know that bullying is bad but we also know that bullying does happen. And the more different you look from everyone else, the more you invite bulliers to yourself. And every parent who has raised a child in America --and, probably, everywhere else-- knows that certain amount of blending-in is always the best policy.

Can we apply this wisdom to Hijab and Burkhas? If I am not wrong even in full Islamic context the purpose of these two items of clothing is not to save women from the vagaries of nature. The sole reason these items are encouraged is to save women form men. If in a town there are no men at all, will the Muslim women still wear Hijab's? Probably not. In our modern world men and women interact with each other throughout the day and week. It is probably not Hijab that is protecting all Muslim women against us men. Hijab probably does nothing! It is our laws of decent behavior with each other and our legal system that keeps the women safe. Then, as a product, Hijab serves no purpose and Muslims should be intelligent and not stubborn about it. I see more and more Muslim women in Western cities walking with Hijabs and Burkhas on. I think attention is drawn to these women because of their Hijabs and Burkhas. If these women just blend in with the crowd, they can hide in plain sight without drawing any attention.

With this letter, I invite Muslims to not run to CAIR on every small issue (as the parents in San Diego did to resist bullying of their children) and just use common sense.

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