Author: (---)
Date: 08-22-04 18:52 PDT
Wow. good question. The thing is female converts to Islam
find LIBERATION in the religion, they don't see it as jumping
into a religion w/ restrictions. half of the restrictions
you see in El Clon by the way is NOT Islam at all. Like the
traveling thing doesn't have anything to do w/ Islam.
And there are many female converts, not just a handful.
I'm not a convert, so I can't explain it to you that thoroughly.
BUT Here's an article that a convert wrote: Read it.
When I Covered My Head I Opened My Mind
(by Shariffa Carlo)
As a non-Muslim living in Western society, the idea of modesty
was not exactly foremost in my mind. Like all other women
of my generation and mind-set, I thought such ideas were antiquated
and excessive. I felt pity for the poor Muslim woman who had
to "wear all that junk," or "walk around in
bed - sheets" as I used to call it
I was a modern woman, educated and liberated. Little did I
know the awful truth. I was more oppressed than any Muslim
woman in the most culturally oppressive village in the Muslim
world. I was oppressed not by an inability to choose my clothing
or to choose my life-style, I was oppressed by an inability
to see my society for what it really was. I was oppressed
by the idea that a woman's beauty was public, and that lustful
admiration was equal to respect.
It was when Allah guided me to Islam, and I put on the hijab,
that I was finally able to step out of the society in which
I lived and see it for what it really is. I could see how
the highest paid women were those who exposed themselves to
public display, like actresses, models and even strip-tease
dancers. I was able to see that the relationship between men
and women was unfairly stacked in the man's direction. I knew
I used o dress to attract men. I tried to fool myself by saying
I did it to please myself, but the painful reality was that
what pleased me was when I was admired by a man I considered
attractive.
I now know that there is no way for a person to know that
he is dirty if he has never been clean. Similarly, I was not
able to see that I was oppressed until I stepped out of the
darkness of this oppressive society into the light of Islam.
With that light shined on the truth, I was finally able to
see the shadows that had been so obscured by my Western philosophies.
It is not oppression to protect yourself and society; it is
oppression to voluntarily throw yourself into the quagmire
while denying it is dirty.
I am grateful to Allah that He allowed me to recognize that
when I covered my head, I was taking away from people any
means for judging me other than my mind, my soul and my heart.
When I covered my head, I took away the incentive for exploitation
based on beauty. When I covered my head, I made people respect
me because they saw that I respected myself, and when I covered
my head, I finally opened my mind to the truth.
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