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nice article just read it no need 2 reply

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nice article just read it no need 2 reply
yumna
12/07/03 at 14:34:18
[slm]i got this wonderful artivle or story thought u might like it ;) ( :-[it might ( ie  IS) long
Hijabed Like Me
>A Non Muslim Woman Experiments with Hijab
>by Kathy Chin
>
>I walked down the street in my long white dress and inch-long, black
>hair one afternoon, and truck drivers whistled and shouted
>obscenities at me.
>
>I felt defeated. I had just stepped out of a hair salon. I had cut
>my hair short, telling the hairdresser to trim it as she would a
>guy's.
>
>I sat numbly as my hairdresser skillfully sheared into my shoulder-
>length hair with her scissors, asking me with every inch she cut off
>if I was freaking out yet. I wasn't freaking out, but I felt self-
>mutilated.
>
>I WAS OBLITERATING MY FEMININITY
>
>It wasn't just another haircut. It meant so much more. I was trying
>to appear androgynous by cutting my hair. I wanted to obliterate by
>femininity.
>
>Yet that did not prevent some men from treating me as a sex object.
>I was mistaken.
>
>It was not my femininity that was problematic, but my sexuality, or
>rather the sexuality that some men had ascribed to me based on my
>biological sex.
>
>They reacted to me as they saw me and not as I truly am.
>
>Why should it even matter how they see me, as long as I know who I
>am? But it does.
>
>I believe that men who see women as only sexual beings often commit
>violence against them, such as rape and battery.
>
>Sexual abuse and assault are not only my fears, but my reality.
>
>I was molested and raped. My experiences with men who violated me
>have made me angry and frustrated.
>
>How do I stop the violence? How do I prevent men from seeing me as
>an object rather than a female? How do I stop them from equating the
>two? How do I proceed with life after experiencing what others only
>dread?
>The experiences have left me with questions about my identity.
>
>Am I just another Chinese-American female? I used to think that I
>have to arrive at a conclusion about who I am, but now I realize
>that my identity is constantly evolving.
>
>MY EXPERIENCE OF BEING "HIJABED"
>
>One experience that was particularly educational was when I "dressed
>up" as a Muslim woman for a drive along Crenshaw Boulevard with
>three Muslim men as part of a newsmagazine project.
>
>I wore a white, long-sleeved cotton shirt, jeans, tennis shoes, and
>a flowery silk scarf that covered my head, which I borrowed from a
>Muslim woman.
>
>Not only did I look the part, I believed I felt the part. Of course,
>I wouldn't really know what it feels like to be Hijabed-I coined
>this word for the lack of a better term-everyday, because I was not
>raised with Islamic teachings.
>
>However, people perceived me as a Muslim woman and did not treat me
>as a sexual being by making cruel remarks.
>
>I noticed that men's eyes did not glide over my body as has happened
>when I wasn't Hijabed. I was fully clothed, exposing only my face.
>
>I remembered walking into an Islamic center and an African-American
>gentleman inside addressed me as "sister", and asked where I came
>from. I told him I was originally from China. That didn't seem to
>matter.
>
>There was a sense of closeness between us because he assumed I was
>Muslim. I didn't know how to break the news to him because I wasn't
>sure if I was or not.
>
>I walked into the store that sold African jewelry and furniture and
>another gentleman asked me as I was walking out if I was Muslim. I
>looked at him and smiled, not knowing how to respond. I chose not to
>answer.
>
>BEING HIJABED CHANGED OTHERS' PERCEPTION OF ME
>
>Outside the store, I asked one of the Muslim men I was with, "Am I
>Muslim?" He explained that everything that breathes and submits is.
>
>I have concluded that I may be and just don't know it. I haven't
>labeled myself as such yet. I don't know enough about Islam to
>assert that I am Muslim.
>
>Though I don't pray five times a day, go to a mosque, fast, nor
>cover my head with a scarf daily, this does not mean that I am not
>Muslim. These seem to be the natural manifestations of what is
>within.
>
>How I am inside does not directly change whether I am Hijabed or
>not. It is others' perception of me that was changed. Repeated
>experiences with others in turn creates a self-image.
>
>HIJAB AS OPPRESSION:
>A SUPERFICIAL AND MISGUIDED VIEW
>
>I consciously chose to be Hijabed because I was searching for
>respect from men.
>
>Initially, as both a Women's Studies major and a thinking female, I
>bought into the Western view that the wearing of a scarf is
>oppressive.
>
>After this experience and much reflection, I have arrived at the
>conclusion that such a view is superficial and misguided: It is not
>if the act is motivated by conviction and understanding.
>
>THE MOST LIBERATING EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE
>
>I covered up that day out of choice, and it was the most liberating
>experience of my life.
>
>I now see alternatives to being a woman.
>
>I discovered that the way I dress dictated others' reaction towards
>me. It saddens me that this is a reality.
>
>It is a reality that I have accepted, and chose to conquer rather
>than be conquered by it.
>
>It was my sexuality that I covered, not my femininity. The covering
>of the former allowed the liberation of the latter.
>
>This article was originally published in Al-Talib, the newsmagazine
>of the Muslim Students' Association of the University of California
>in Los Angeles (UCLA) in October 1994. At the time of its
>publication, Kathy Chin was a senior at UCLA majoring in
>Psychobiology and Women's Studies.
PS is it written by u sis kathy?
Re: nice article just read it no need 2 reply
Kathy
12/07/03 at 20:53:37
no, not by me...

the only time I recieved a wolf whistle..was when i was in Hijab!


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