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Hijab Politics, Policing, etc.

musaafer:

For those genuinely curious. I’m not interested in polemics. If you’re not interested in understanding, don’t bother coming to me to argue. I won’t engage in discussions in which the only purpose is proving the other wrong. 

  • “That’s not Hijab!” 
    As a matter of fact, “Hijab” as the physical concept is not defined in cultural terms. What I mean by that is someone can cover their body in a way that doesn’t conform to the Arab-centric way of covering. If you’re covered, you’re covered. Islam is a universalist religion and doesn’t impose cultural standards of one region on the other. Regardless, why does it matter if it’s Hijab or not? She will answer, not you. I promise. 
  • “But Hijabis are better than non-Hijabis!” 
    I really shouldn’t have to refute this, but, alas, the mindset is prevalent. How you dress doesn’t define you as a person, I’m sorry. Of course the dichotomy between “Hypocritical Hijabi who wears Hijab but does everything else wrong” and “Noble non-Hijabi who doesn’t wear hijab but does everything else right” is false. But Hijab can never be the sole identifying factor of assessing a person’s character or eligibility. 
  • “But why can’t I as a man give my opinion on how Hijab should be worn?” 
    You can. But you have to understand that unless it is a woman who is extremely close to you, your opinion will likely not be valued because you’re unaware of her particular circumstances. Regardless, while you can have your own opinions, please understand that as a man, you will never understand what it is like to be a woman, to be reduced to your appearance and to then be expected to hide most of it. Just the way I wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be a man and hence shouldn’t comment on how a man is to deal with expectations of hypermasculinity etc. Just remember that your opinions will always merely be based on observations, never experiences and that hence, they have little merit to those who constantly undergo the female experience. 
    Also, please keep in mind that we, as women, face constant policing for how we should handle our bodies. It’s just so draining to come to your own community and face the same sort of scrutiny   So, it would be nice of you to allow women to have control over this discourse; that is empowering in itself.
  • “But the Prophet (pbuh) was a man why can’t I as a man police how women should wear the Hijab?”
    Because you’re not the Prophet (pbuh). He was infallible, you’re not. He is one of the two major sources for Islamic jurisprudence. You are a fellow Muslim, just like me. 
  • “But I only say it because I care about my sister in Islam!” 
    That’s nice. But realize that your “care” is part of a patriarchal construct. The concern with the female body stems from an entitlement to control it. If you cared, you’d also care about other aspects of faith, still, I’m yet to see any concern of equal proportions when a prayer is missed, or Zakat is not paid, or a woman is domestically abused, or a Hajj not performed, or a Muslim is publicly slandered, or women are deprived of their God-given rights etc. etc. etc. Oh, what is that? That’s a private matter? They answer to God, not you? So how is Hijab any different then? 
  • “All I wanna do is help my sisters!” 
    That is noble of you. Realize that shaming and pressuring them to do as you please won’t achieve that. Constant nagging and “Why aren’t you wearing Hijab?” inquiries only achieved one thing for me: Push me further away from Hijab. So don’t feel like you are in some sort of superior position from which you can “save your Muslim sister from the darkness of not being a Hijabi” by pressuring her into wearing Hijab. It has to come with conviction — if it doesn’t, the ramifications will be severe. (e.g. if she wears it because people are pressuring her to and then faces a lot of hostility and racism while wearing it, you will be blamed; if it’s done out of conviction,  nothing can shake the core). 
  • “I know this girl who took off her Hijab and that’s so wrong because Hijab is a life time commitment, I just don’t understand why she can’t keep it on” 
    Chances are she took it off because she was pressured into wearing it in the first place. Or because she was facing negative repercussions from her surroundings (believe it or not, many Muslim families are against their daughters wearing Hijab; let alone non-Muslim families). Or because the pressure from the community to be perfect in outward actions took away her focus on improving inwardly (e.g. concern with making the community shut up about her outfit choices outweighing the concern with pleasing her Creator etc). Or maybe because she realized she’s wearing it for the wrong reasons. Or maybe for other reasons. I don’t know. But good for her, she doesn’t owe you an explanation. People develop, people go through phases in their lives. They answer to God, and He ‘azza wa jal knows. 
  • “She doesn’t deserve to wear Hijab because she does X, Y and Z and that’s wrong so she might as well not wear Hijab at all!” 
    Hijab isn’t a trophy you get once you’ve achieved perfect-Muslim-status. Also, sinning in one way doesn’t disqualify you from following God’s commandments in other ways. So if you think that wearing Hijab is obligatory, your statement of “She shouldn’t wear hijab because she does X” is the equivalent of “She shouldn’t pray her five daily prayers because she does X”. Exactly. It doesn’t make sense. And it’s not up to you to decide how people are allowed to follow God’s commandments. So while a woman sinning while in Hijab might not be aesthetically pleasing to you, remember that everyone struggles in different ways and that just because your struggles differ, it doesn’t mean that one of you is inferior to the other. 

I’ve also written about this here. 

mimicryisnotmastery: zenjamaican: marelunae: israelfacts: A Health Ministry inspector poured bleach over pots full of food in a Sudanese restaurant in Tel Aviv Sunday night. The inspector, from the ministry’s district office for Tel Aviv, was participating in a raid by police and municipal inspectors on illegal businesses owned by African migrants. Altogether, the raid shut down 10 businesses in the city’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood, confiscating their equipment and welding the doors shut. The equipment was then loaded onto vans by other African migrants who had been hired as contract workers. Many diners saw the inspector pouring bleach on the food, and one, asylum-seeker Aladin Abaker from Sudan’s Darfur region, posted photos of the incident on his Facebook page. He also described his feelings of humiliation. “Everyone − except the destroyers − was in tears from the humiliation,” he wrote. “The waitress told us, ‘I’ve seen very harsh things in my life, like torture in Sinai, but this humiliated me more than what happened to me in Sinai.” Abaker accused the inspector of “insensitivity to people and their culture, which sees food as a sacred thing that must be respected,” and said the raid was aimed at “embittering our lives so we’ll return to Africa ‘voluntarily.’” Altogether, he said, more than 200 kilograms of meat, chicken and fish and over 500 prepared meals were destroyed. The inspectors said they didn’t know where the meat came from and therefore feared for the diners’ health, Abaker wrote. “We told them: But this is the only place we’ve eaten all our meals for four years now, and none of us ever had stomach problems. Even whites eat here.” The Health Ministry responded that inspectors had discovered “deplorable sanitary conditions, food stored under unsuitable conditions and temperatures, and food from unknown sources. In order to preserve the public’s health and that of the diners themselves, it was decided to destroy the food immediately. As part of the process of destroying the food, chemicals suitable to this purpose are used. It should be noted that this was a routine process of food destruction that is no different from other destructions of food/meat.” Tel Aviv’s deputy city manager, Ruby Zelof, said the raids were carried out “to eradicate the undesirable phenomenon of businesses operating illegally, with sanitation and safety problems and illegal connections to electricity and water, and sales of alcoholic beverages without permits.” Haaretz | Photo credit: Aladin Abaker Israel is deporting Africans and also planning to put tens of thousands into detention camps. Knesset Member Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also a Likud Knesset Member — wrote on his Facebook page referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.” See also: Why is the birth rate in Israel’s Ethiopian community declining? Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel were coaxed into agreeing to injections of long-acting birth control drugs, or told they would not be allowed into the country Israeli woman has her photo taken with Africans, titles the Facebook album: “Late night tour of the Tel Aviv Safari”, captions the photo: “There are no signs forbidding taking pictures with the animals. There were no signs that forbid feeding, but we passed on that.” Stupid fucks Looks like Israel’s got their own version of Jim Crow. -_- Israel stay fuckin up.
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mimicryisnotmastery: zenjamaican: marelunae: israelfacts: A Health Ministry inspector poured bleach over pots full of food in a Sudanese restaurant in Tel Aviv Sunday night. The inspector, from the ministry’s district office for Tel Aviv, was participating in a raid by police and municipal inspectors on illegal businesses owned by African migrants. Altogether, the raid shut down 10 businesses in the city’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood, confiscating their equipment and welding the doors shut. The equipment was then loaded onto vans by other African migrants who had been hired as contract workers. Many diners saw the inspector pouring bleach on the food, and one, asylum-seeker Aladin Abaker from Sudan’s Darfur region, posted photos of the incident on his Facebook page. He also described his feelings of humiliation. “Everyone − except the destroyers − was in tears from the humiliation,” he wrote. “The waitress told us, ‘I’ve seen very harsh things in my life, like torture in Sinai, but this humiliated me more than what happened to me in Sinai.” Abaker accused the inspector of “insensitivity to people and their culture, which sees food as a sacred thing that must be respected,” and said the raid was aimed at “embittering our lives so we’ll return to Africa ‘voluntarily.’” Altogether, he said, more than 200 kilograms of meat, chicken and fish and over 500 prepared meals were destroyed. The inspectors said they didn’t know where the meat came from and therefore feared for the diners’ health, Abaker wrote. “We told them: But this is the only place we’ve eaten all our meals for four years now, and none of us ever had stomach problems. Even whites eat here.” The Health Ministry responded that inspectors had discovered “deplorable sanitary conditions, food stored under unsuitable conditions and temperatures, and food from unknown sources. In order to preserve the public’s health and that of the diners themselves, it was decided to destroy the food immediately. As part of the process of destroying the food, chemicals suitable to this purpose are used. It should be noted that this was a routine process of food destruction that is no different from other destructions of food/meat.” Tel Aviv’s deputy city manager, Ruby Zelof, said the raids were carried out “to eradicate the undesirable phenomenon of businesses operating illegally, with sanitation and safety problems and illegal connections to electricity and water, and sales of alcoholic beverages without permits.” Haaretz | Photo credit: Aladin Abaker Israel is deporting Africans and also planning to put tens of thousands into detention camps. Knesset Member Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also a Likud Knesset Member — wrote on his Facebook page referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.” See also: Why is the birth rate in Israel’s Ethiopian community declining? Ethiopian women who immigrated to Israel were coaxed into agreeing to injections of long-acting birth control drugs, or told they would not be allowed into the country Israeli woman has her photo taken with Africans, titles the Facebook album: “Late night tour of the Tel Aviv Safari”, captions the photo: “There are no signs forbidding taking pictures with the animals. There were no signs that forbid feeding, but we passed on that.” Stupid fucks Looks like Israel’s got their own version of Jim Crow. -_- Israel stay fuckin up.
Zoom

mimicryisnotmastery:

zenjamaican:

marelunae:

israelfacts:

A Health Ministry inspector poured bleach over pots full of food in a Sudanese restaurant in Tel Aviv Sunday night.

The inspector, from the ministry’s district office for Tel Aviv, was participating in a raid by police and municipal inspectors on illegal businesses owned by African migrants. Altogether, the raid shut down 10 businesses in the city’s Neveh Sha’anan neighborhood, confiscating their equipment and welding the doors shut. The equipment was then loaded onto vans by other African migrants who had been hired as contract workers.

Many diners saw the inspector pouring bleach on the food, and one, asylum-seeker Aladin Abaker from Sudan’s Darfur region, posted photos of the incident on his Facebook page. He also described his feelings of humiliation.

“Everyone − except the destroyers − was in tears from the humiliation,” he wrote. “The waitress told us, ‘I’ve seen very harsh things in my life, like torture in Sinai, but this humiliated me more than what happened to me in Sinai.”

Abaker accused the inspector of “insensitivity to people and their culture, which sees food as a sacred thing that must be respected,” and said the raid was aimed at “embittering our lives so we’ll return to Africa ‘voluntarily.’”

Altogether, he said, more than 200 kilograms of meat, chicken and fish and over 500 prepared meals were destroyed.

The inspectors said they didn’t know where the meat came from and therefore feared for the diners’ health, Abaker wrote. “We told them: But this is the only place we’ve eaten all our meals for four years now, and none of us ever had stomach problems. Even whites eat here.”

The Health Ministry responded that inspectors had discovered “deplorable sanitary conditions, food stored under unsuitable conditions and temperatures, and food from unknown sources. In order to preserve the public’s health and that of the diners themselves, it was decided to destroy the food immediately. As part of the process of destroying the food, chemicals suitable to this purpose are used. It should be noted that this was a routine process of food destruction that is no different from other destructions of food/meat.”

Tel Aviv’s deputy city manager, Ruby Zelof, said the raids were carried out “to eradicate the undesirable phenomenon of businesses operating illegally, with sanitation and safety problems and illegal connections to electricity and water, and sales of alcoholic beverages without permits.”

Haaretz | Photo credit: Aladin Abaker

Israel is deporting Africans and also planning to put tens of thousands into detention camps.

Knesset Member Miri Regev — a member of Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Likud Party — called the refugees “a cancer in our body” and Danny Danon — also a Likud Knesset Member — wrote on his Facebook page referring to the Africans as “infiltrators”. Interior Minister Eli Yishai said the African asylum seekers threaten “the Zionist dream,” adding, “Jobs will root them here.”

See also:

Stupid fucks

Looks like Israel’s got their own version of Jim Crow.

-_-

Israel stay fuckin up.

  • Islamophobe:

    their Koran permits them to beat their wives...

  • Me:

    Yes it does but could you tell me what with?

  • Islamophobe:

    ...

  • Me:

    A blade of grass, I don't know the last time you tried to beat someone with a blade of grass but it is pretty damn impossible, you must look at the people the Qur'an was revealed to, the Arabs at that time (just like most of the world) would beat their wives brutally. To tell them they couldn't beat their wives would have caused rebellion, so Allah (swt) being the greatest of planners, revealed it in a way that was so clever. It permitted them to beat their wives (as not to cause rebellion) however only with a blade of grass (which we all know to be impossible). Then the most beautiful line came saying but surely it is better for you to forgive, do you see now that the Qur'an does not permit the brutal beating of wives which in that time would have saved the lives of many women. Also I suggest you look at the rights of a wife over her husband, then tell me my religion is sexist.

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