From: gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Women and Burqa: Analyzing the recent discussion
Date: 13 Apr 92 00:55:18 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept., Texas A&M University

In article <1992Apr11.133825.30008@davidsys.com> merchant@davidsys.com writes:
>In article <12047@tamsun.tamu.edu>, gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal) writes:
>> 
>> I see that you have been waging a constant war against the Purdah (hijab)
>
>I don't believe Ms. Yasmin has been waging a constant war
>against the Hijab.  She has stated that it is up to the
>person to follow her choice and she has given her
>viewpoint.  There have been other(s) who have waged
>a war in favor of the Purdah, more specifically the burqa.

Yes, you are quite right about that. Thanks for pointing it out. 


>> system for quite some time. Being an anti-purdah-ist myself, I should 
>
>Well since you have claimed to be athesist, therefore not a muslim, I
>don't think your viewpoint of anit-purdah-ist comes it to play.
>The other factor is that you are not a woman so it does not
>affect you specifically at all.             ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
NO?! You think I feel happy when some of my relatives in the rural 
areas still stick to the purdah. You think I shouldn't give a damn
when someone accuses me of permitting my sister to play badminton 
with males. Or when I hear the parents of my cousins saying 
"Aur padke kya karegee ? Ghar mein baeth".  

>> I think the underlined sentences in the above posts should indicate what 
>> I am getting at. All your arguments seem to be based on the fact that there
>> is no clear evidence that Islam forbids women from discarding purdah in any
>> given era. Hence it is ok for you to not wear the purdah these days. 
>
>The two last statements seem contradictory.
>

I'm not quite sure how it is contradictory. I'm not very good in semantics.
But I think its clear what I wanted to say.

>> 
>> I have once posted a similar question on the net. The kind of response
>> I got was "But its not conceivable that the Quran will say such a thing
>> because it doesn't.... Its illogical to imagine things about what the 
>> Quran says if it does not say it... Since it does not say this, your 
>> question is invalid" etc. 
>
>Exactly! :-)
>>

I'm speechless.

>> Clearly they did not understand the meaning of 'thought experiment'. 
>> I hope you do. Or if you feel this is offending to Quran, maybe you 
>> could assume that you belong to some religion X (not Islam) and your 
>> faith in X is just as strong as it is now in Islam. Then assume that 
>> the holy book of X says the above thing.  (Is it too unimaginable
>> for you as being born in another religion?).  
>
>Yes, we are muslims by birth or by choice and it is unimaginable to
>belong to another religion.

Ok. I guess I see your point too. 

>On the subject of hijab, I believe that all the verses and evaluation
>of Ms. Yasmin seem relevant.   I believe there is an hadith, the gist
>of which says that Prophet Muhammed (pbuh) stated that the woman should
>be covered except for the face, the hands and the feet.  I can look up
>the referred hadith and post it.  I'm sorry about not having the exact
>words by heart.

Yes, I have read one of the translations of some verse that goes like this:
"And tell the believeing women-folk to be chaste in their looking and to keep
their sexual instincts under control and not parading their charms beyond what
is chastely seen but drawing their veils over their bosoms. Let them not
display their charms except to ...(a whole lot relations mentioned here...)
Let them not draw attention to theirr hidden charms by the way they tap their
legs..."   -- surah 24.27-33 (I'm not sure what this means). 

I didn't see anything that mentions exactly how much is to be 
covered/uncovered. But other verses may exist that do that. 

>I am replying as a female netter on SCP, even though probably most of this
>issue can be better discussed on SRI.  I may be incorrect in my 
>understanding of this issue, so, Insha Allah, someone can state the
>issue and understanding in a better light.
>
>-Rukhsana [ A servant of Allah ] Merchant

I think I understand your point well enough. Its interesting 
to see how people can come to the *same* conclusions through 
widely disparate routes. 

regards,
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