From: gagrawal@cs.tamu.edu (Gopal Agrawal)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.pakistan
Subject: Re: Women and Burqa: Analyzing the recent discussion
Date: 15 Apr 92 16:55:45 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University

In article <1992Apr13.094709.30010@davidsys.com> merchant@davidsys.com writes:
>> 
>>>> 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. 
>>>
>Perhaps you could explain it again.  I cannot clearly grasp what it is
>you are saying.
>
>> 

Ok, I'll try again. When I read the arguments of Ms. Yasmin against the 
Burqa, I found one common element in all of them => that there is no 
conclusive evidence in any Islamic scripture of burqa being the only
allowed dress code for women; for all times to come. I think she accepted
the fact that it may have been necessary for women to wear the burqa in those
midieval ages ( for reasons not yet fully known ) but that does not imply
that the same holds true even now since the social conditions have changed 
so much. Another argument given by her was that some of the hadiths/verses
etc. applied only to the prophet (and his associates) wifes but has been 
wrongly interpolated by the maulvis to mean that they apply to all women.

On these basis alone, she seemed to have rejected the Burqa (now that she 
has replied to the questions in my original post, I don't think that this 
was the sole basis for her rejection of the burqa). Had I been a muslim 
woman, there might have been at least 2 ways in which I could reject the
burqa.

1) Accept the burqa first. Study Islam properly. And when I find that there
is no proper justification for it in the scriptures, I curse the fundamentalists
for wrong interpretation and then discard the burqa. Note that I will seek to
find non-justification for the burqa only because I feel there might be 
something inconvenient or wrong about it. 

2) The other way is to reject the burqa first (for reasons like - fashion,
social acceptance in the US environment, ease of movement perhaps, etc.).
Then, when someone tells me I am not following Islam, I tell that person 
I am 'innocent until proven guilty'. 

People question their faith only when they believe that their progress is 
being hindered by its tenets. I believe you (or Yasmin or Salman etc.) would
not have questioned it if you did not believe that there is a benefit to be
gained by rejecting the burqa. In the real world Economics precede Ideology. 
That is why I wanted to question netters on their stand, i.e., do they think
muslim women are rejecting the burqa only becuase they think that the ideology
was wrongly(?) preached or are there any economic factors to consider as well. 

I think this is as much as I can elaborate. Can't make it more clear.

regards,
--
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