Assalamu alekom

This last month I've been listening to "Sami Yusuf" a lot, and I really liked a number of what I heard, mostly "My Ummah", "Ya rasul Allah" and "free".

The last one really got to me, it talks about HEJAB:

What goes through your mind?
As you sit there looking at me
Well I can tell from your looks
That you think I’m so oppressed
But I don’t need for you to liberate me

My head is not bare
And you can’t see my covered hair
So you sit there and you stare
And you judge me with your glare
You’re sure I’m in despair
But are you not aware
Under this scarf that I wear
I have feelings, and I do care

CHORUS:
So don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
This piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
To preserve my dignity...

My modesty
My integrity
So don’t judge me
Open your eyes and see...
“Why can’t you just accept me?” she says
“Why can’t I just be me?” she says
Time and time again
You speak of democracy
Yet you rob me of my liberty
And all I want is equality
Why can’t you just let me be free?

For you I sing this song
My sister, may you always be strong
From you I’ve learnt so much
How you suffer so much
Yet you forgive those who laugh at you
You walk with no fear
Through the insults you hear
Your wish so sincere
That they’d understand you
But before you walk away
This time you turn and say:

But don’t you see?
That I’m truly free
this piece of scarf on me
I wear so proudly
to preserve my dignity
my modesty
my integrity
so let me be
She says with a smile
I’m the one who’s free

================

It really got me thinking about my sisters in other countries that have difficulty wearing there "hejab" in public where every one sees them as terrorists or may be under sever pressure from Islam that they cant even walk down the street with out this scarf on top of their head?

It's really disturbing that people think of us this way? Do I have to walk down the street naked to be free? Or what ever you define that to be?

For me freedom is to do what ever makes you happy and keeps you well!

If freedom is for me to walk naked in front of all the people in the world, and have every single man scan my body from top to bottom, having disturbing images in his head…. I don’t need that kind of freedom!

What I want is for people to respect me, and look at me as a respectable part of this community, I don’t need men throwing words at me as I pass by?!

What's funny is that they want us to take of our hejab coz they think we are locked up in some kind of –what's the word- prison, and we need some foreign country to free our minds and our women, our whole coulter – if they could-

What I want to know is WHY?

What is bothering them so much in Muslim women that wear their hejab? Those Muslim doctors and reporters, that appear to the world in there hejab? What gets on there nerves so much?

I mean we all hear of the thing they call "personal freedom" and how much it's so important for everyone to respect it, you cant fire someone coz he's bold, or coz he likes to eat chilly? You can't even do it if that person dresses funny!

Then why is hejab so different?

Hejab, in general is for women protection, its not only the scarf on our heads its to be well dressed not showing what men would – you know what I mean- well as a women when I see any female walk in mini skirts with tops that cover nothing! I have to look at her, what happens to a MAN?

And they don’t really know why they have really high numbers of sexual crimes!! Well umm maybe we need to think about how women dress? Even with our hejab we look good, it's not like we don’t dress up? But when I walk in the street I don’t wear my tight top with the extra tight pants? I can wear that at home or at a party, not in the middle of the street where every one can see me?!

-Ya we do dress up under the "abaya" that black jacket like thing we wear with the hejab all the time.-

I won't say that in Saudi Arabia we are all angles, coz were not! We are human beings living in this country of ours, and hejab is a blessing for all of us, as a women I feel respected and I feel that Allah ordered me to wear this for my own good, so what if I don’t drive, A QUEEN NEVER DRIVES, that what I know, I've never seen one drive unless the queen of England dose?  – That's another story I should talk about later-

My hejab is something I'm proud of, and I will not take it off for NO ONE, its part of me and it's what makes me….ME!