Women and Islam

Clothing can be used to symbolize culture at times. I say at times because that would sound stereotypical as I have noticed from people all over the world making that assumption especially when it comes to Islamic women. Islamic women usually cover their heads with something called the Hijab, which is some type of cloth wrapped around the head or at times even the face. This cloth's significance to some Islamic women cannot be disputed. It is sometimes used for status purposes but usually for avoiding attracting people of the opposite sex, i.e. men. Hair in most cultures is often cited as a feature that defines a woman's beauty. In most cultures women cover their heads to avoid attracting males. A good example would be my own culture, which is very identical to most African cultures. To be more specfic, in my culture women that have children are supposed to wear a scarf to cover their heads when they are visiting their in laws. The covering of women hair is a global practice that can be defined separately by means of culture. In Western culture, a woman covers her face with a veil to show that she does not have children or she is still a girl.

To return back to the topic, Islamic women have been identified stereotypically as women that cover their heads with the hijab. That is far from the truth because some Islamic countries such as Turkey permit women not to wear these covers if they choose not to. In fact people in the West have often assumed that women wearing it are oppressed and have no choice. I can agree to some extent but some Islamic women are born into the culture and grow up believing that it should be worn. They are not forced into wearing it. They just grow into the culture with their parents' backing that it is the right thing to do. It is interesting to note that most Western societies, including Turkey are secular. Turkey once banned the wearing of the hijab completely. Secular societies are usually against what is called "religious extremism". That may not be fair to other people such as the women in Islamic culture because whenever they follow their culture by wearing the hijab (not all Islamic women want to wear it therefore it is wrong to generalize that every Islamic women wants to) they are portrayed in the media as religious extremists. That is what perpetuates stereotypes. That is what creates the backlash against some people, in this case the Muslims. Muslims are not a monolith. they are divided in other aspects. Westerners often see Muslim women as objects (to the Muslim societies) and people locked up by extremism when in fact some women wear the hijab by choice. I think we as people should stop assuming that and be willing to meet more people that are Muslim and female so that we can learn more instead of basing our conclusions from what we see in the media.

gender is a social construct

Gender, which is the role that we are supposed to play in society is usually constructed by society itself. We as humans, depending on culture are expected to perform in a certain way. we also have certain chores that we are expected to take care of primarily according to sex. I would say the construct is not universal because I have been through three cultures already (Swaziland, Italy and the USA) and what I am expected to do here is definitely not the same as what I was expected to do, years ago back home. Simple examples are chores like cooking. I am 21 years old and surprisingly I do not know how to cook anything except for rice because my mother believes that it is a woman's job. When I was younger, she would even hire a maid so that the maid would cook because all 3 of us were boys in the house. In Swazi culture cooking is a female's job and culturally, men are not supposed to even sit in the kitchen. Here it is a different case. There is no male or female chore. Almost everyone is expected to play an equal role in such a case.

There are hundreds of examples that can be used to support how gender is definitely a social construct. Generally the roles of our parents is to guide us on how to behave according to society's expectations. They try to teach us basketball or American football as kids when we are male and give us dolls if we are female. That is something that a lot of people have experienced before and it is not an exaggeration. As humans for the betterment of society we are always channeled somewhere according to our sex. If we did not have such, there would be no disparity on the way males and females behave. The only problem arises when a child is born with both male and female organs. Parents are usually faced with a task of choosing the appropriate sex for the newborn child. Usually the child undergoes a sex change between the two because society believes that there is no in between. They then raise the child according to the sex they have selected for him or her. Sometimes the kids grow up and realize that the sex that was chosen for them was the wrong one. They then change and accept that fact by undergoing a second sex change procedure.

One story that struck me this week was a story about a girl called caster Semenya from South Africa. Well maybe I shouldn't refer to her as a girl or boy because she is a hemaphrodite. She has a female genitals but she does not have ovaries and has 3 times more the level of testosterone compared to a normal woman. The sad part is that she won a gold medal in Berlin in athletics. She overpowered her opponents and there was a dispute on whether she is male or female. The hermaphrodite issue appeared after tests had been undertaken. The sad part is that now it is not clear on whether she would be allowed to compete with males or females because on both she doesn't fit. Now she is in hiding after being the face of ridicule to the public. This shows how inadequate the idea that there is only one choice, either male or female and we have to do everything according to our sex. Only society decides that and genetics usually clashes with what society demands at times.