Is the hijab oppressive? Speaking negatively about Islam. In Canada the image of Islam and it symbols are protected from being disrespected.. Comment deemed to negatively reflect on Islam or symbols of Islam are met with accusations of Islamophobia. This protects the religion of Islam and the sensibilities of the Muslim Canadian population.
NCCM ISSUES – ACTION ALERT: Tell CMAJ to Apologize and Retract their Islamophobic Article. Quebec Dr. said Hijab can be Oppressive.The action alert reads:
On December 20, the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ) published a letter from Quebec Dr. Sherif Emil with deeply disturbing Islamophobic content targeting Muslim girls and women who wear the hijab.
Following are excerpts that are highlighted on NCCM’s web page:
… does not alter the fact that the hijab, the niqab and the burqa are also instruments of oppression for millions of girls…
… so many women have been traumatized by such an upbringing, which, I believe, frankly borders on child abuse…
NCCM: This article falls short of the standards of the Code of Ethics and Professionalism of the Canadian Medical Association. This article contributes to dangerously harmful stereotypes about a population that has been targeted by some of the most violent forms of Islamophobia in this country.
There are voices within the Muslim community that agree the hijab is female liberation. The hijab is Mandatory or voluntary?
We first learn this from a book Balancing Islam and Beyond that is distributed at Dundas SQ in Toronto:
For Westerners who embraced Islam the hijab is a symbol of ‘liberation’. The Islamic tradition of hijab frees women from being perceived primarily as sexual objects.”… Naturally when you see a woman scantily dressed versus when you see a woman modestly dressed, covering her head, not revealing any of her physical features, impressions that will come to mind do not need mentioning. Needless to say, dress represents her modesty, and through it she commands the respect in the society. Whereas when a woman chooses to show her body in one form or another, the message is only one: she wants attention and possibly much more.
Islamic Research Foundation International, Inc.
Many Muslim woman believe that wearing the veil, hijab or burqa is a form of liberation… When a Muslim woman moves to a Western country, for example, where wearing the veil is not compulsory, they are faced with a dilemma. To wear or not to wear? Of course, if your husband does not allow you to go without a veil, then there is not a dilemma.
A woman who adheres to the tenets of Islam is required to follow the dress code called Hijab which is liberating... Covering of the Muslim woman is not oppression but a liberation… She is immune from being portrayed as sex symbol and lusted after. Islam exalts the status of a woman by commanding that she “enjoys equal rights to those of man in everything, she stands on an equal footing with man ” (Nadvi, 11) and both share mutual rights and obligations in all aspects of life.
Ilhan Omar: “To Me, The Hijab Means Power, Liberation, Beauty, & Resistance”
Toronto Imam Syed Rizvi is perhaps the most senior influential Shia Imam in all North America. He gave a lecture on December 17, 2021. Imam Syed Rizvi made it clear that Muslim women wear the hijab as a form of Jihad that empowers females to advance the cause of Allah.
Women who wear the hijab will be recognized and not molested. Some classical scholars say the woman should cover her face and hands when she goes out of the house.
Others can view the hijab as a sign of oppression.
Women in Iran Are Standing Up to Oppressive Hijab
Recent protests over compulsory hijab laws in Iran remind us all why International Women’s Day is important… Under this law, all women and girls over the age of 9 are required to wear a hijab in public. For any woman to remove her hijab in the public square is a crime and puts her at risk of incarceration.
Shafia family: CBC News · Posted: Nov 23, 2011
Confided in school and child protection authorities that she was being pressured to wear a hijab.
She also said that she was subject to verbal and physical abuse by her older brother and that her parents wanted her to leave school, the assistant principal told court.
It was all too much, so she took some pills in a suicide attempt, Josée Fortin told the mass murder trial.
“I had enough,” she said Sahar told her. “I wanted to die.”
‘I killed my daughter with my hands’
Aqsa Parvez’ murder on Dec. 10, 2007, sent shock waves prompting heated debate on the hijab, integration for newcomers, and whether her death was Toronto’s first honour killing or a terrible case of domestic violence.
In this instance it seems that the Hijab can be Oppressive
By Bob Mitchell & Noor Javed, Toronto Star, Staff Reporters, June 16, 2010.
She first refused his demands to wear the hijab and the traditional Pakistani clothing her four older sisters always wore… On the morning of Dec. 10, 2007, Aqsa was murdered in the basement bedroom of her Mississauga home.
Some interpret the following teaching as liberating but other interpret them as oppressive.
Sheikh Abu Ameenah Bilal Phillips founder of Islamic online University
Hijab is quite simple. Hijab is an obligation on Muslim women. From the perspective of God she is in sin if she does not wear the hijab, meaning that she covers her body, the whole of her body, with loose garments from head to toe, nothing being seen of her except her face and hands.
In this case Islamophobic content does not negate the facts.
Shaikh Ahmad Kutty issued an Islamic legal fatwa opinion. Hijab – an individual choice or a mandatory duty?
Hijab is female liberation or Hijab can be Oppressive
Imam Faizal Kutty
Hijab in the sense of modest attire for woman that covers the whole body excluding face and hands is ordained by Allah in the Qur’an...Once it has been proven to be the order of Allah, no Muslim or Muslimah can reject it on the ground that I am an adult, and I can decide for myself
Hijab is Mandatory or voluntary?
