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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| What do you think? |
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| Ameeraana |
| 10/07/02 at 08:33:33 |
| [color=Blue]Salaam aleikum sisters!! I was having a conversation with my fiancee. I was just wondering how everyone else felt about this... he is from Dubai, UAE. Out of the total population over there, 75% of them are foreigners. The foreigners over there are not required to dress Islamically or modestly and most of the foreign women in fact, dress just like they would over here in the US in tight shirts, revealing shirts, jeans, shorts, short skirts.. etc. He has a 20 yr old sister who while she does wear hijab and abaya when she goes out, she tries to get away with revealing parts of her body. She has dyed her hair from black to light brown mixed with blonde and when she wears her hijab, it seems to always loosen up and fall half way down the back of her head to reveal her hair. She also wears tight clothes under her abaya and sometimes the abaya seems to come loose and fall to either side of her body revealing what she is wearing underneath. He has also once found photos of her that she took of herself wearing revealing clothing and trying to push up her breasts to look sexy in those photos. And she has been hanging out with some UAE girls who have bad reputations of sneaking out to hang out with the boys. She had her cell phone taken away because his brother heard her one day talking on the phone with another man whom she had met before. She was caught again once with another cell phone that she had received from a friend of hers. They also have a driver who told them that for a while she would ask him to take her to a certain locations and pick her up an hour or two later and that he saw a certain car there every time. But he never did see her once she went inside some buildings or stores as he drove off to pick her up later. They all suspect she is meeting with a man secretly. I have told him that in a country like his that is modernizing and bringing in so many foreigners and not having any kind of a dress code where the foreign women are free to dress in their revealing clothes, the UAE girls are growing up watching all of this. They go to the malls in hijab and abaya and yet they see all kinds of girls in make-up, revealing clothing, looking beautiful and getting lots of attention over there. They are going to start thinking about all of it and also lots of them are even going to probably want to do those things. I think that is one reason his sister has been trying to sneak peaks of how she looks to the public also. She sees how all these foreign girls are freely showing their bodies and flirting with men. And of course I asked him about what the men over there are doing and just as I thought, yes, they are all looking and drooling over the beautiful women walking around as they do. I also told him that in the next few generations I can see the UAE citizen women rebelling against the Islamic dress code wanting freedom to dress how they want--sort of like in Kuwait where not all the women wear abaya and hijab. He does not believe me at all. But I seriously think that when I move over there and if we have any girls, we may have some struggles with them about how they should be dressing. True, we will bring them up Islamically, and what they see from us will be an Islamic example of way of life, but outside of our home, it is going to be very much a foreign example way of life. They will have influences from them in some ways. But he does not believe me. So sisters and even brothers, what do you all think?[/color] |
| Re: What do you think? |
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| an |
| 10/07/02 at 15:09:40 |
| [slm] sis Ameeraana, I've been to UAE for a holiday to visit my family who were working there and yes, what you said is pretty much true. When I went there, I haven't started wearing the hijab yet. My sisters and I were in a shopping centre and we were uncomfortable about the stares from guys (we weren't wearing the abaya). I have friends who wear the abaya outside but in a house they don't wear it or the hijab eventhough there are non-mahrem males around. At that time I didn't give much thought of it because I didn't understand why ppl wore the abaya or face veils there. But now after I reflected upon it, I realised how the teachings of islam are slowly fading. I couldn't understand e.g. why the boys don't lower their gaze, or why the girls only wear the abaya/hijab outside. But not everyone is like that ofcourse. I think there are definitely families who adhered to the Islamic way of life. You know, one funny thing that I remembered well is when I was shopping in a supermarket with my mom. The sound of the Qur'an being read was playing in the background. People wearing white was walking here and there shopping. Women in abayas were there too. I felt like I was in heaven! :D I told mom that and she laughed .. :P I really like the surroundings there, it was really peaceful. I especially like Ramadhan where people from any background were welcomed with open heart to eat in these white tents in front of ppl's houses. It might be a challenge to live in a place with the influences you mentioned but I think it's the same everywhere. Even in other Muslim countries like Indonesia or Malaysia for example, you will face the same challenges. I think it's a matter of giving your children a strong foundation in Islam since a young age, letting them understand why dressing Islamically is important and letting them mix with the right kind of friends. Once that foundation is established, it would be more difficult to be swayed by the influences. Wallahu alam. I'm not married.. :)...maybe the other sisters especially those who've got children could give some thoughts.. Wassalam |
| 10/08/02 at 14:59:53 |
| an |
| Re: What do you think? |
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| BroHanif |
| 10/07/02 at 18:13:09 |
| [slm], I've been to UAE and what you've said hits the nail on the head. what I found most shocking was you can hear the azan in one ear and have a bottle of Alcoholic Budweiser in your right hand. Think about this a country built on the constitution of Trade and Tourism, who cares if you have women in serongs or abayas or whether there are homosexual night clubs or halaqqas of taleem as long as the money keeps coming in nothing else really matters. And what really gets me is in a country which is supposed to be Muslim how can they celebrate diwali ???. Don't get me wrong sure it has its Islamic themes yet can a country really succeed if there is so much evil going on ??? I don't think so. If you invite to good and forbid evil then yo get hammered and the real way you can do dawah is living out in the sticks perhaps in a remote village or town. As for the sisters case, well Islam starts from home, however a person can be influenced by the company they keep. May Allah have mercy upon us and cahnge the situation of the Muslims worldwide. Salaams Hanif |
| Re: What do you think? |
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| Mohja |
| 10/07/02 at 20:03:05 |
| [quote] I also told him that in the next few generations I can see the UAE citizen women rebelling against the Islamic dress code wanting freedom to dress how they want--sort of like in Kuwait where not all the women wear abaya and hijab. [/quote] unfortunately that's happening in many places. but the way i see it these women are not really rebelling against an "islamic" dress code/way of living. they're merely substituting something that to *them* is purely cultural, with another more "appealing" cultural perspective/way of living. that's the real problem! it's not about seeing all those foreign "unclad" women, nor is it a lack of enforcement from the government which i personally feel should not get involved in something like this..but that's a whole different discussion. you can't really replace something you didn't have in the first place, can you? hijab is ibidah (worship), unless someone understands what it means , they'll never have respect for it nor will they feel proud of wearing it.however, once they understand that, nothing in the world will make them take it off! i lived in egypt and saw plenty of saudi women who throw away the whole abaia/hijab the minute they step out of saudi arabia. at the same time, in AUC (American University in Cairo) ,my uni and the hub of westernization in egypt, girls who used to wear all sorst of revealing clothes, who had boyfriends, are increasingly coming into the deen and donning the hijab. the difference between those two scenarios is DA'WAH!!! and not the i'll-beat-you-with-a-stick-if-you-don't-do-as-i-say type of da'wah either, rather the gentle, compasionate,non-judgamental way of our prophet[saw]..the reason i bring this up is because i've heard so called da'ees(men and women!) who call non-hijabi sisters with horrible names unbefitting of a muslim! speaking for myself, i was inspired(and i lived most of my life in muslim countries) when i met bros and sisters from *gasp* the US who were visiting our uni and had so much love and amazing understanding of the deen it totally changed my life! so if the external environment was the *only* determinant things should've gone in the opposite direction. it's all about understanding,guidance with wisdom, *and* being given the chance to voluntarilly reach that understanding! :) anyways that's my version of the story ;) |
| 10/07/02 at 20:08:15 |
| Mohja |
| Re: What do you think? |
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| Zahra |
| 10/08/02 at 17:03:59 |
| [slm] I agree with all the comments expressed ,but esp. with Mohja when she says that it is not only the way the foreign women dress that is influencing the UAE women.If I take the example of myself,I live in a totally free society where you can wear [or not wear!] what you like.There is no form of modesty or decency.So you would be forgiven for thinking that it would be difficult to wear the hijab and abaya.On the contrary because you see the degading stares and leers that these scantily clad women attract it makes you want to cover your self as much as possible.Alhamdulillah alot of our Muslim sisters are covering up even though they are not pressurised or forced to do so.I am not saying that Muslim countries like Saudi should not insist on an abaya but I feel that when your Imaan is strong enough no one will have to impose anything on you. :-) [wlm] |
| Re: What do you think? |
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| BroHanif |
| 10/08/02 at 18:00:27 |
| [slm] [quote]it's not about seeing all those foreign "unclad" women, nor is it a lack of enforcement from the government which i personally feel should not get involved in something like this..[/quote] Hmm I find that a bit hard to take in, if the govt dosen't do it who will ? When the root of the plant is ill then you have to take immediate action otherwise the plant will very soon die. Likewise its up to our leaders to implement Allahs law not just where you hear the azaan but actually give guidance to the people to live their lives according to Islam. One of the major problems of our Mid East leaders is the failure to act upon the deen, when you look at the likes of Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya, Algeria and all other countries of despots. Where is the effort of dawah taking place ??? If you have a beard or wear a jubbah then you'll have more cameras and secret police after you than flies on honey. Dawah is hard in these countries, where are the groups of dawah ? Most likely undercover, unless they want to end up in jail on a whimsy charge of overthrowing the govt. UAE is one of the most liberal countries and I agree with Sis mohja that you should have compassion in your dawah and not have a stick, yet there needs to be a line drawn otherwise the country and its people can soon fall out of place. Salaams Hanif |
| NS |
| 10/08/02 at 18:01:50 |
| BroHanif |
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