To feel sad to see 5 year old girl in hijab

[INeedSomeSun]

Probably will get flamed for this & iabu as its not my business.
I am not racist in any way. I am Asian myself and have many Muslim friends.

Growing up, I never saw any muslim girls with hijabs. This is a trend which has been growing since the late 90s.

I know that the meaning behind the hijab is to protect modesty and show committment to Islam. It is supposed to be the girls/womans decision after much thought and dedication.

At 5 years old they are still getting changed in the classroom for PE and she won't be able to do this now with boys around. How will she play and do PE freely? She has been singled out by the views of her parents.
Also, she will barely know what religion means, so she has not made an informed decision for herself.

Normally she is chasing about with my DS and other kids before school.Today she was just stood there, perhaps embarrassed or told not to?
I felt very sad

YANBU

Nursery children in Muslim headscarves

It is not just a scarf.

YANBU, little girls have no need to wear a headscarf. It is a choice to be made when they are older.

FrauMoose, I think little girls wearing sexualised clothing, mini skirts etc is also wrong. I don't think of hair bobbles as being a problem though.

What a shame.

The rickets thing is not a myth littleducks.

There are several ways to increase the risk of suffering from vit D deficiency including covering all the skin either with clothes or sunscreen. And the darker the skin, the more sunlight you need to get the required amounts of vit d.

Hence black people in Scotland are at risk. Asian women who cover their skin are at risk.

Horrid. Makes me angry and sad when i see it.

Yanbu, its sad. I would think it would give girls peripheral vision issues in PE, in reply to a pp.

We have a little girl in year 1 who was not allowed on the school trip because she didn't have a chaperone :(

I think tgey shoukd make primary schools totally secular like France. No crosses, jewellry, headscarves etc

Until they are at least in secondry and learning to make their own decisions

Jack maybe I wasn't clear, I was saying that the 'its communities that cover more that are experiencing increased levels of rickets' is a myth.

We live in North London, there have been cases here but it appears to be from mixed communities. Not just from the orthodox Jewish community and the muslim communities (who tend to dress in a more covered fashion).

There has been an increase in all communities because:

Putting sunscreen on has the same effect.
Being dark skinned has the same effect.

Too young and I hope the parents are giving vit D supplements...

My friend is GP in area where lots women / girls v covered up and it's not a myth. There is much worse but d deficiency in their communities...

It sexualises children. YANBU

I was somewhat surprised to see that the NHS now recommends vitamin D supplements for all under fives. There isn't enough UV to make vitamin D here in the winter, but with normal going outside in the summer most people should be able to make enough to last. Even with sensible use of sunscreen.

Someone who describes the UK as continually grey and dreary clearly never goes outside the door and will get rickets.

and wobbling back on topic - the hijab is, I read, to prevent women being judged on appearance. That is WOMEN, not small children. How horrifying.

Any religion/ custom/ practise from any area, race community that seeks to constrict or lessen choices for women ( or men) on dress, behaviour or life chances stinks.

It's about control. It's about accepting your place in life and society and not striving or questioning.

It's usually also about money and power and most generally these are held by men of course.

But that's the point the recommendation is for all under 5s not just those from the communities seen as 'at risk' in the past.

And in comparison to other places in the world the UK is pretty grey in my opinion. There may be scorching hot days occasionally (when we are told to cover up or wear sunscreen to prevent cancer) but lots of 'the wettest month/year' on record too!

My DD did "Race for Life", last week, her friend ran in full headscarf.

I asked if she was hot and how it felt whilst doing sport, we are friends and she wouldn't find this question intrusive.

She said that having grown up in Bangladesh, she had never felt too hot in the UK, regardless of what she wore.

Also, she found that doing exercise at home, without a head cover, wasn't any different and her clothing didn't restrict her, in any way.

She is, however, restricted by the wishes and wants of the senior male members of her family (she has a situation happening at the moment about life choices), so her clothing choice, isn't the biggest issue in her life.

It is just the most visual one.

Yanbu and it makes me sad too because I know for a fact that the hijab is not compulsory for a 5 year old girl. It's normally advised to adopt it after the girl starts her periods.

YANBU OP. I have seen nursery age girls wearing hijab. It's very sad.

Agree it should be a choice that each young woman makes for herself when she is old enough to weigh up the pros and cons.

YANBU - age 5 is much too young. It should be the woman's decision when she is an adult.

littleducks it is not a myth that rickets is linked to Islamic covering of the body.

See: www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22415337

"Vitamin D status and determinants of deficiency among non-pregnant Jordanian women of reproductive age."
"Prevalence of deficiency was 1.60 times higher for women who covered with a scarf/hijab (95% CI: 1.06-2.40, P = 0.024) and 1.87 times higher for women who wore full cover, or a niqab (95% CI: 1.20-2.93, P = 0.006), compared with the women who did not wear a scarf/hijab or niqab. "

I do think it's really sad to sexualise little girls, whether that's by covering them up (because otherwise they're immodest???) or by dressing them like mini lap dancers.

YANBU, it's absolutely daft IMO.

My 6 year old dd is in a very diverse London primary. There are at least 5 girls in each year of the school from nursery class to year 6 who wear the Hijab. Some of the girls also wear a floor length robe. Almost all of them are from the Somali or Yemeni communities. In my opinion it is their parents expressing cultural identity as much as religious affiliation.

I saw two little girls around 3 and 5 in hojabs the other day and I thought it was sad. If the sight of a female's hair is supposed to be slightly indecent and to drive men wild and beyond control then what does that say about men who can't control themselves around very small girls?

It is supposed to be about modesty but actually putting a small child in a hijab is no better than putting her in a push-up bra from where I am standing. It is saying that she is a sexualised woman, not an innocent child.

YANBU

I have muslim friends and my understanding is that the wearing of a hijab is to reduce/eliminate temptation (for a male) I might be wrong about this but im not muslim so cant say for sure ... If that is the case ... cat among the pigeons here but is that why so many muslim men jump and prey on "western girls" - they see a bit of flesh and turn into the animals we have seen on the news?

That is interesting Nick and I wonder how young it is culturally acceptable to marry little girls off?