The Freedom of a Muslim Woman

One day I was speaking with my friend, whom happens to be an African-American Muslim women who wears a nikab (an Islamic face covering worn in the presence of men). She was very frustrated that when she went out with her husband a strange lady approached her and said, “You don’t look free! Your husband does but you don’t look free.” My friend was offended and said defensively to the lady, “I am free! I wear this on my face by my choice and I even wore it before I was married to him.” This disturbed my friend and it also disturbed me since I too am a Muslim women. I don’t wear nikab, however, it has been something that I have been considering doing in my future. Why would this woman just come up to her and say a thing like that? I ask myself questions like this all the time especially when I get strange stares in public or hear the madness that is being said on television about Muslim women. Many people don’t believe that the women of Islam are free. However, that is because many of these people go by propaganda and their own perceptions of the religion of Islam.

Women’s Rights was the “big thing” in the 1800’s up into the late 1900’s. Many women were not allowed to have the same freedoms as men and this caused many women to want to become liberated. Being “liberated” meant voting, working, and dressing the way that a woman wanted to. Women no longer had to hide their bodies behind knee high skirts to be accepted they now could wear bikini tops and mini skirts. However, in the present day this so called “liberation” has caused women to become exploited and used as sex toys in the media world. Not to say that “women’s liberation” is bad, however, certain aspects of women’s liberation has caused much controversy in our world today.