Currently riding in a Lyft with a Muslim woman as the driver.
Found this experience interesting.
Her profile pic required her to remove the niqāb (garments that she religiously/customly wears). So I didn’t have any idea or inkling that she would be this type of woman while she was on her way. I only knew that she drove a red Lexus, had a five star rating, her name was Christine (perhaps), and she had really gorgeous hair.
I started noticing things
The first thing I noticed upon entering the Lyft was her politeness. It’s always lovely to experience polite people. She had a very smooth and velvety voice, and her accent indicated English was not her first language. Her manner of speaking indicated to me that she was a very lovely and intelligent person. I found myself wishing, as I often do with foreigners, that I spoke her language so I could better connect with her, any attempt in conversing in English would likely only be standard pleasantries; knowing her language would allow me to have a more in-depth conversation with her. Though maybe she was the type of person who would have loved to practice and I shouldn’t have assumed what the conversation would have been because I may have been pleasantly surprised.. but assume I did, content to just play with my thoughts.
The second thing I noticed was that she was wearing a mask AND her niqāb over her mouth (mask under garment) without complaint, and given her personality it was likely without even a negative thought about it despite perhaps finding it uncomfortable. She’s always worn something over her face after all, what’s one more layer?
The third thing I noticed was that she was playing Christmas music (one week before Thanksgiving being somewhat acceptable). This was curious to me. Was she playing it for her riders? Does she celebrate/like Christmas too? Perhaps. Why wouldn’t she choose to have other music playing? She doesn’t have to listen to Christmas music.
My only guess is that she is probably using the same logic as “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” combined with a love of America for allowing (read: protecting) her freedoms. If she immigrated here, then this is her new home and she is relaxing/reveling in the ability to love and be herself as well as love those, her new extended family, that are around her here.
It’s not often that I am ever around the type of Muslim woman who dresses in such a way, and the very first occasion in this setting. As such, I found my mind begin to wander.
Did she also have to remove her niqāb to have her drivers license photograph taken? Where does that line up with her belief system? Seeing her picture leads me to believe there must be instances where this is ok. I have yet to ever actually go in and read up on the rules of that, it is on my list to do now though. (I actually did read up on this while writing this and learned the Quaran never actually says it’s mandatory, it merely advocates for modest clothing for women). I suppose if you want to have a drivers license you have no choice and have to compromise when necessary.
I continued to ponder the Muslim garb. Many see it in quite a negative light for multiple reasons (mostly ignorance), but it did not take me long to see the beauty behind it’s reasoning.
Let me make it clear, I am in no favor of controlling or regulating the way any person is dressed, let alone shaming them for it.
This led to further thoughts
I began to think, why would it be a custom and how do people see value in completely covering the body, especially the majestic and stupefying body that is woman?
The first thought that came to mind is that it allows for others to not first consider what they see. Hide the body, and you are left with one thing, the mind.
In a way, I see dressing this way as a way of saying “my looks don’t matter and they should not be considered, it is what is on the inside that counts”. This should not be needed of course, but people are superficial beings and are often blinded by what they see; completely covering one’s body removes even the opportunity from someone doing this. This logic empowers the woman (wearer), she took everything away from others through her own action.
The next thought that grew was that well, while that idea is beautiful, the fact of the matter is that this is a “law” and “requirement” pressed upon to them by “men”.
Technically one of the things it is, is men’s belief that it is God’s law and not a law of man, men are merely upholding the commandment of the Almighty. Another technicality here is that while men “command” or “force” someone to do something, nobody can actually force anyone to do anything; women, while sometimes led/cornered into that position, choose to place these garments upon themselves of their own volition.
Taking God off of the table, because both of us are nowhere near ready to have that conversation, let’s consider the above.
So let’s pretend that God doesn’t exist (please keep any unhelpful mental quips at bay).
That means man wrote their religious texts. Well probably, but not necessarily that is– for who can say for sure?
We can never rule out that women didn’t have a direct input because it has been shown time and time again throughout history how the right women with the right words have been listened to and respected; even if it was disguised or hidden from view.
How do you know a woman wasn’t involved? Were you there when they were written?
“Well women they had a ‘place’, the way the world was women had no input”
-You, maybe
Sure, fair point to make, but even if it wasn’t directly done/known… how do you know, in the writing of this important document, a husband didn’t speak of this with his wife? I certainly would as a husband, and I feel any good husband would.
Even if these conversations weren’t official, they were had. People with the most mundane jobs bring them home and talk about them and their experiences/struggles from the day with their spouse and sometimes this is the most exciting part of the day for each of them. You cannot sit there and tell me someone who was writing the QURAN (or any such religious document) wouldn’t bring that home and talk about it with his wife, ideally the love of his life, and in some way find additional input/revelations/value in talking it through with her.
So definitely written by Man as in HuMANs, but not necessarily solely by men (personally, I would drop the “necessarily” there).
So men wrote the Quran
Now, for the sake of conversation, let’s say that solely men wrote the Quran, because at the very least I can submit that they probably had their hands on it the most.
Why would they write “laws” requiring women to cover up their body? (Or any “laws” for that matter?– but that’s a future discussion)
Well let’s take what we know to see what we can infer.
This is a large book, with many many stories written to convey the ideas/values/knowledge of the world in a very concise way.
Knowing that, we may take many relatively safe assumptions.
The first of which that we should take (and in absolutely no particular order) the Quran was written by many men and over a long time.
The Quran is a book of contributions from many individuals so there are also many viewpoints, these viewpoints can also drastically change as time marches on. This allows us too many variables in trying to discern meaning, for while it’s important to know that it was many people contributing their own personal thoughts/feelings/perspectives and knowing that there will be a clear difference in writing here, we must narrow down our scope further because in the end it is not helpful/fruitful to know who did what and it is supremely unlikely that we will know this any time soon (if at all).
Stripping down everything that (this author believes) is erroneous information for this conversation, I think it would be fair to assume that the largest similarities these individuals shared are: male, advanced in age (at least for the time period), educated and thus of status, leaders, trusted, religious, husbands, and fathers. So when attempting to understand one of the finest works of literature, we must assume the perspective of one who possesses the above listed traits; once you are able to properly see with their eyes you will be infinitely better set to understand the thought process behind their creation.
So to reiterate, for the remainder of this reading you are now an older gentleman of high intelligence and status that is a loving husband and father. The farther you are from that position, the more difficult this will be for you to understand, but I suggest you to please make the effort for it will greatly benefit you, otherwise this will be a waste of your time.
With this persona, you are placing yourself in the shoes of someone attempting to write the greatest book that has ever existed (according to your belief) or a the very least a good source of knowledge that is capable of being understood (en masse).
Once more, we are solely discussing the idea of including the covering of a woman’s body, please leave any other part of the Quran out of your minds for now.
As a father and a husband you would likely put the happiness and safety of your children/wife above all else, including yourself and any accompanying wants and desires.
Your wife and your children are the most beautiful and infinitely valuable “possessions” that you have.
An Aside:
While there are countries that still, in 2020, practice slavery (I’m looking at you India, China, Pakistan, Blngladesh, Uzbekistan, and North Korea. [An aside of an aside: why is nobody talking about this? You should spread this information around, maybe with enough global pressure we could have some real positive change. I think it would be a more pressing matter for every being to have freedom in the world, “clean the dirtiest spots” so-to-speak.. but maybe that’s not actually important to anyone]), it is a well understood FACT that nobody actually “owns” anybody. I understand the distaste for using the word “possession” in regard to individuals, however this distaste stems from a misunderstanding of the word “possession”. “Possession” can certainly mean “ownership of” and if one uses that word with that meaning in regard to people it is certainly distasteful, however, one must keep in mind that “possession” can also mean simply “to have” and that is the meaning the word “possession” is used in increasing frequency as one goes father back in time when people spoke more “properly/elegantly” (when language was more archaic). So, when you read older texts containing the word “possession”, it is this author’s belief that it is always it would be more apt to assume the meaning “to have” rather than “ownership of”. I believe this because, back then, the word “possession” while a more sophisticated word to us, was likely more conversational to them. So if you were to translate it to modern day vernacular it would be: “I have a wife/daughter”. I hope this helps you see that there are more lenses required for proper understanding of this “thought project” than just the character you have (hopefully) placed yourself into.
So, that was a long aside ha, you’re a father and husband who understands that there is nothing more valuable than your loved ones a.k.a., your daughter/wife in this case. Let me ask you, what does one want to do with valuable things? One wants to keep them safe/protect them from harm and not lose them.
Let’s explore this idea
To convey the idea properly, let’s think of something that is very valuable to you. It would be a gift, very meaningful, irreplaceable, and probably given to you by a loved one or someone very close to your heart. It’s likely that it already came to mind, but take a moment and think about it… if you already have it in mind take a moment to think about why this particular object has such a deep/meaningful place in your heart… Got it handy? Good, let’s go.
Thank you for pulling that out, I’m sure it’s really beautiful. Now that you’ve got it out let me ask you a few things, how would you feel if you lost/misplaced that? How would you feel if that thing suddenly was tarnished or destroyed? Truly, what would be your feelings if someone was to throw that into a bonfire? Probably nothing positive.
It’s likely, that you already to take measures to protect this thing you hold dear.
You probably take of it in such a way that will have no harm to it. You would likely treat this object in such a way similar to the way someone’s grandma treats their fine china or an exhibit in a museum, behind a layer of glass so it’s on display for people to appreciate and only brought out for the most special of occasions (and thus only for certain “special” people). This metaphor is a stepping stone metaphor to lead us to a more proper metaphor for, while there are some similarities in that all of the hijab isn’t worn forever and always, I am mainly speaking of it in its extreme as a total body covering.
For this instance it requires another metaphor.
Really the object that you have brought to mind isn’t just some thing, especially not to you, for all intents and purposes this object is one of your most valuable treasures so let’s think about it as such.
So you’re a person who has a big valuable chest of treasure now, think Pirate-type treasure or something such as the “Holy Grail” (the pretty version, not the Indiana Jones one– a conversation for another time) for this, what do you want to do with it?
You’d probably want to cherish and protect it, but this is different now, we’re not discussing mere fine china.
We have an object with significant value/beauty that has gone from only being valuable/beautiful to some, to being valuable/beautiful to all. This presents new things for consideration.
One shouldn’t have to even think about “protecting” their “treasure” but unfortunately, we don’t live in a perfect world. Once you have something with significant value/beauty within your possession, it goes without saying that other people will want to take that for themselves in one way or another. While most don’t desire to take others things or at least wants to have a proper exchange for it, there are some that will do whatever it takes to get their hands on what you have at any cost.
So while we shouldn’t have to worry about “protecting” our treasure, it would be irresponsible not to think of protecting it, lest we feel like we didn’t do everything in our power to maintain its safety should we lose it. Once we give something the status of “treasure” we must consider “thieves” and “treasure hunters”.
What is the single best way to protect your treasure? Well that is to hide it. You could certainly argue that the better way is to protect, however, I would have to disagree, for in putting protections over things (especially these days), you broadcast the idea that you have something worth being protected. This is why I say hiding it is the superior method, because any attempt at protecting it increases the chances of its discovery by those who you don’t want to know about it, or requires sharing the knowledge of its existence with others.
We’re talking about people here though, not things
While we are using a metaphor to understand this, we are applying this metaphor to a living and breathing human being so we have to consider the translation of logic here.
We are talking of a living breathing human being here, not cold hard treasure. As such, we cannot simply hide someone in a deep dark dungeon till the end of their lives, especially not if these human beings are those that we love and treasure above all else. So what are we to do?
We hide them in plain sight, but we cover them when others (especially those that we don’t know) have the opportunity to see them, we cover them up. If they cannot see what is there, it is harder for them to form any desire for it. I realize this is hard to agree with, especially from a modern day American’s perspective, but upon initial inception and even still today it is difficult to hold any men who decide to do injustices accountable for their actions.
If we add in the consideration of the time it was written this begins to make even more send because we are considering the single most valuable thing that was important then– the continuation of one’s bloodline.
It would be irresponsible to think that we can just trust anyone around our treasure, no matter how well we know them the call of temptation seduces the hearts/minds of even the most vigilant men. We understand as husbands and fathers that we can’t prevent this, we cannot see the wolves adorned in sheep’s clothing for the wolves are not just fierce, they are clever.
The hijab and niqāb both serve as barriers to overcome to obtain the precious and priceless miracle that is your daughter/wife.
Back in time, upon initial inception, I think you can now understand the benefits and beauty in the thinking behind this. It can certainly be seen as cruel and overbearing action in the vein of paternalism, however upon further inspection is really just mitigating against an evil world that shouldn’t exist but certainly still does and one must account for out of responsibility and love toward one’s loved ones.
Anyway, just the musings from a random ride in a taxi, I hope you enjoyed.
All the best,
FCP 🙃
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