Islamic Veil & Celebrities
The Arab world is witnessing a wave of attacks pointed specifically to famous women in the Arab world who wore the Islamic veil in the middle of their blooming careers as movie stars, media representatives or singers.
The wave got specifically stronger following the decision of 2 Egyptian movie stars to wear the Islamic veil: Hala Shiha and Hanan Turk.
Among the few supporting and congratulating voices, many called them different kinds of things for taking such a step.
They’re fame-seekers on one hand, and they’re being this dull example of oppressed women on the other.
Now I’m not here to convince those against the Islamic veil that it’s exactly the opposite of oppressing women, and that it has nothing to do with making women inferior to men in any way, because I’ve said that thousands of times and in the end of the day everyone is free to think what they like.
But what I’m into is asking one single question: does being a famous star in any field mean that we, the audience, suddenly own the lives of those celebrities and have the right to control their decisions?
It really annoys me how people interfere with celebrities’ lives, and what annoys me even more is what they give themselves the right to interfere with. For example, if an actress shoots a scene in which she’s half naked, or appears in lingerie, very few show their dislike. But once the magic word –Hijab- is mentioned, you find almost every one, even the least religiously educated, having a take on their decisions, blaming them of awful things and claiming they’re after fame!
What fame are you talking about if they’re already famous? What fame are you talking about, if it’s easier to be an official prostitute and gain respect these days, than wearing a veil on your head and covering your body!
Why does a celebrity wearing Hijab get all sorts of attacks, but when this very same celebrity takes it off, no one really bothers and no one say: bravo, you did the right thing! It’s because most of the people out there don’t really care about this celebrity, their life, their freedom of choice or their happiness, they only care about one thing: attacking Hijab.
Yesterday I watched a very impressive episode of a Lebanese program: Al Hadath, discussing the phenomena of celebrities wearing Hijab. The arguments were really interesting, and I didn’t want to miss a second of the heated discussions.
The guests were Mona Abdel Ghani, a famous singer/actress who wore Hijab for a while now, and Khadeeja Ben Qinna, a very famous Aljazeera newsreader who wore Hijab recently, as well as Iqbal Haraka, very well known for her anti-Hijab ideas, and who wrote a book called: Al Hijab, in a lousy attempt to convince Muslim women not to wear Hijab and that it’s not even mentioned in Quran and all using really lame excuses and pointless arguments, and so the book turned out to do a counter-effect provoking even those against Hijab to be with it.
Talking of attacks against the Islamic veil, I came across this post of The Big Pharaoh:“Running Out Of Our Minds”, in which our fellow blogger actually believes, like many others, that there is nothing in Quran addressing the Islamic veil in particular. He also says: “I believe the case of these two actresses mirror what my country is currently going through. A fake wave of religiosity that is killing everything beautiful we once had.
All what I am against is this current form of religiosity that places so much importance on outer appearances and neglects everything that has to do with the core inner values.”
As I said, everyone is free to think whatever they like, but if you give yourself the right to take your own decisions, don’t you think you have to give others the right to the same thing as well!
If one calls for not judging people by their appearances and focus on their inner values instead, what does “killing everything beautiful” and “running out of actresses” mean?
In my humble understanding it means that you’re measuring beauty by looks and not by core values and professionalism as you claim, and it means that as long as women don’t show as much skin as possible, they’re no longer welcome as actresses!
Who’s judging by appearances here?
And just for the record, Hijab sure does mean barrier, or separator, but it also means coverage, (hajaba al shay2: covered it), just thought I’d make this clear, because as you very well know, writing is responsibility.
What I’ve been reading online, and what I’ve been watching on TV lately concerning this issue made me just hope people will start thinking more, act more responsible, and know that not believing in something, doesn’t mean attacking it, and if there is no other choice but to attack, do it on solid basis.
