I wear a niqab! AMA

[JamTea]

Hi everyone,

I am a regular MNer and NC'd for this :). As background, I have a successful career in tech, I am a Muslim and I wear niqab too. Since Boris's comments, I've seen quite a bit written on MN about burqa and niqab, and thought it may be useful to answer any questions people have in relation to niqab. I also know a large number of Muslim women and have lived in various Muslim communities, so can probably speak from my experience and relay other people's experiences too.

Just as a note: I don't know any women in the UK that wear burqa and I have never seen anyone wear a burqa in real life. The difference between niqab and burqa is illustrated here: cdn.images.express.co.uk/img/dynamic/1/590x/scarf-651554.jpg

Do you understand why many of us feel disturbed by not being able to see a person's face?

One reason is that some criminals do this to disguise their identities. I'm not suggesting that you are a criminal, just that face covering is something we associate with disguising your identity.

@candysugar1
Reported your post again. Don't pretend like you feel sorry for me after calling me 'brainwashed' and 'deeply disturbed'.

@candysugar1

Before you leave, give us the name of the school you claim that forces 5 year olds to cover their face with niqab, so I can report it to Ofsted. If you really care, do this.

I feel very uncomfortable with the idea of banning any clothing because I hold the idea of personal freedom very highly. That being said I feel uncomfortable when confronted with a person wearing a burkha or niqab. I live in London and both are common here.

I find it interesting that the OP repeatedly encourages us to strike up conversations with people wearing a burkha or niqab rather than resort to stereotypes and yet the very act of wearing a veil immediately segregates the wearer and puts a very physical barrier between them and society.

It is this act of separation that I find uncomfortable. I can't ever imagine approaching someone and asking them to remove their veil so that I could speak to them.

Lastly I am interested to hear that the OP wears a veil in order to bring her closer to God or to be more pious. In Christianity God frowns upon people who make a public show of their piety as the Bible says, the left hand should not know what the right hand is doing when performing acts of charity for example. Is this very public demonstration of faith not an act of vanity?

I see lots of very little girls here wearing islamic dress - robes and head scarves - while their brothers wear very western clothing, so shorts and t shirts and I cannot see how that is not oppressive.

Thank you though to the OP for opening the debate and allowing difficult questions to be asked. I guess that the way we help oppressed women is by allowing frank discussions and encouraging all of us to be open minded and supportive of difference.

I would hope that no muslim women should ever face abuse because of what she is wearing. I'd also like to be able to visit parts of London (where my parents and I were born and grew up) without facing abuse from groups of asian men because we were wearing jeans and t shirts.

If someone says they are male or female or closely assign to one gender, I take that at face value.

This is the thread that keeps giving.

I am confused by a (any) religion that asks women to dress as if they were part of a society from many hundreds of years ago. A society where women were unequal. This lack of change suggests to me that women are still not considered equal within this religion. Do you feel equal when wearing the niqab?

Most Islamic schools require girls to cover the face and relax this only when inspectors come to visit.

This could literally not be further from the truth. I believed both you and the OP up until this point but anyone who has been enrolled in an Islamic school anywhere knows that this is absurd. This is a complete lie.

I do know at least one primary school in the UK where I used to see tiny girls in niqab (have just checked with your helpful infographic OP, & yep we are both referencing the same garment re niqab).

As other students were not wearing it, I guess the decision that they wore it was parental, not the school's. This would be perfectly consistent with Candy's earlier post.

I would also definitely expect a madrasa attended outside of regular school hours to promote a conservative dress code.

I live now in an Islamic country where some women & girls do cover in various ways, & the ones I know are comfortably off professionals who definitely do choose this - I'm not dismissing your experience either.

I'm generally of the view that I don't think it's a great choice, but nor is it my place to restrict other women's choice.

Equally I think it's disingenuous to pretend it's not often imposed on women.

I'd be happier to see the trend die out, tbh.

As other students were not wearing it, I guess the decision that they wore it was parental, not the school's. This would be perfectly consistent with Candy's earlier post.

But is completely contradictory to her later post where she said that most Islamic schools require girls to cover the face, which is definitely not true?

MN have just emailed me to inform me that Candy is no longer a member of the site. They have deleted quite a few of her posts too.

@PurpleCrowbar
I do know at least one primary school in the UK where I used to see tiny girls in niqab (have just checked with your helpful infographic OP, & yep we are both referencing the same garment re niqab). By tiny, do you mean around the age of 5? I honestly don't know any who would enforce it on a 5 year old and it would be banned. If you do re-call the school's name please name it here, or if you prefer, refer it directly to Ofsted. (If you said you saw a 9 year old wearing niqab to a primary school, I don't believe that is right but I can believe that, but never ever a 5 year old).

I guess this is the kind of thing candy is referring too,

If those photographs are of genuine situations then they just reinforce my view the niqab should be banned.

@Bluntness100

She was referring to a Muslim school in Birmingham that is making 5 year olds wear niqab. But she refuses to name the school, and I have asked her many times for the name, so I can report to Ofsted. Either a troll or lying through her teeth. And MN seemed to have realised that and have very rightly banned her.

My 4 year old likes to mess with my niqab and try it on, doesn't mean she wears one when we go out to school or to mosque - so a picture from Google doesn't prove anything.

There are also shops online in the U.K. selling them for children.

@Bluntness100 Please provide us with a link.

One of many,
Everyone can google. They don't need me to post it. But here you go.

sunnahstyle.com/children-s-hijabs/193-kids-daisy-shayla.html

People sniggering at the use of the term ‘face value’, you do understand that refers to the face of a coin, not a persons face?

Jamtea

These pics are obviously not of a child wearing her mum's clothes.they are made to fit this child.

www.ebay.co.uk/i/332726428877?chn=ps&ul_ref=https%253A%252F%252Frover.ebay.com%252Frover%252F1%252F710-134428-41853-0%252F2%253Fmpre%253Dhttps%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.ebay.co.uk%25252Fi%25252F332726428877%25253Fchn%25253Dps%2526itemid%253D332726428877%2526targetid%253D142405560546%2526device%253Dt%2526adtype%253Dpla%2526googleloc%253D9045829%2526poi%253D%2526campaignid%253D207297426%2526adgroupid%253D13585920426%2526rlsatarget%253Dpla-142405560546%2526abcId%253D%2526merchantid%253D119347291%2526gclid%253DCjwKCAjw2MTbBRASEiwAdYIpsWo3mxaPJtfIFl3gs_PeWokFmwc1vv72CxRc_a-S7IsPiWSrHiyUFRoCiHYQAvD_BwE%2526srcrot%253D710-134428-41853-0%2526rvr_id%253D1630736022765%2526rvr_ts%253D33656d9f1650a99b15562b11fff784ab

@Bluntness100

One of many,
Everyone can google. They don't need me to post it. But here you go.

THAT IS NOT A NIQAB (FACE COVERING)!!! it is a shayla! I would have given you the benefit of the doubt that you don't know the difference but you clearly do, based on your previous posts. STOP DELIBERATELY trying to deceive those reading, people are more intelligent on MN than you are giving them credit for.

@Bluntess100

As for your ebay link, that is a) not sold from the UK (as you claim shops from the UK are selling it online) and b) That is a 'burqa' NOT Niqab and c) I have never seen a woman (forget child) in the UK dressed in a burqa.

@JamTea

Go to London. You will see many women wearing a burkha, particularly around the West End. Even where I live now, in Greater London and around Whitechapel it is very common.

Maybe JamTea that’s because your the only niqab wearer in your village - oh no! Then you said there was fifty others...

JamTea You said far earlier in the thread that you began headcovering with a hijab a few years ago. I'm curious if you've noticed differences in how you think or how react to things in the time you've done so or in the time you've worn the niqab.

I ask because I used headcoverings for nearly a decade and I noticed after some time how my automatic reactions changed like when guests would arrive early even otherwise I was covered neck to toe, I felt bare and slightly embarrassed without my headcovering while on the other hand, I found it very freeing to entirely not think about my hair - just brush, pull up, and cover - and even now a couple years after I stopped headcovering, I find I think about it far less but when I catch my reflection, I find it very frustrating how it's no longer entirely under my control most of the time.

Personally, I've found it interesting that myself and quite a few others I know who use what many around us see as extremely covering attire is that on top of connecting with a variety of cultures and traditions visually, quite a lot of us have body and appearance issues that covering in part helped us cope with but also in ways made worse in that without our choice of covering or attire, the anxiety around those issues increases. Obviously, it's not true of all of us but it's a significant enough pattern that I think there is something there in why some are drawn to such things particularly when it's within our family culture to do so in a celebrated way others might not have in theirs may struggle to understand.

Hi OP, I was wondering what situations you don't wear it? Sorry if you've already been asked this? Would you wear it if you were at hospital for example?