Jehron Muhammad: Muslim Women Say Wearing Modest Attire Brings Respect
A woman approached Prophet Muhammad, wearing clothing through which the form of her body could be seen. He immediately turned away and said, "O Asma! When the woman attains her majority, it is not proper that any part of her body should be seen except this or this," pointing to his face and his hands.
Giving substance to Prophet Muhammad's response, the Holy Quran, the book of scripture of the Muslims, obliges women to "not display their adornment except what appears thereof." The Quran also includes preventative measures, or how one should act in public, encouraging the believer to "lower their gaze," to turn away from the possibility of being tempted by the physical attributes of the opposite sex.
A similar response came from Nation of Islam leader, Minister Louis Farrakhan. During an interview conducted during his recent stop in Philadelphia promoting the Justice Or Else-themed 20th anniversary of the Million Man March, the 82-year-old Muslim leader said that in the past he had refused to allow himself to look at a billboard of the naked wife of his good friend hip-hop icon Russell Simmons.
Later in the interview, Farrakhan asked rhetorically, "How do you rule a man?" He then replied to his female interviewer, "By the beauty of your body and the suggestion of sex. You don't make him a man, you make him to treat you like an object of sex rather than the creative genius that you are."
Niisa Muhamad, fashion editor of Azizah Magazine, the largest Muslim women's magazine in the U.S., hardily agreed with Farrakhan's comments.
"We don't want to be considered because of our bodies," she said. "Nearly 75% of what we do is presentation. How do we present ourselves in the world? Are we presenting ourselves as serious women, ready to be dealt with as a result of our minds and not our bodies? That is our goal."
Similar goals are addressed in the pages of another U.S.-based women's magazine called Virtue. According to the magazine's Muslim publisher, Audrey Muhammad, "There is a moral decay that we see in this country and a mind-set of how men view women because we're constantly getting these [provocative] images of women."
During the phone interview from her home in Raleigh, North Carolina, she said that is one of the main reasons she created Virtue, "to replace negative images of women with uplifting, positive, beautiful images of women."
The current cover of Virtue features a beautiful, modestly dressed model with two handsomely dressed men on either side. The publisher said this reminded her of growing up with three brothers. She said, they were always there to protect her from guys that didn't always have the best of intentions.
She said Farrakhan's recent message to Jay Z was in a similar vein, to protect Beyonce by "beautifully covering her." Audrey feels her provocative attire is suggestive and gives the wrong message. She mentioned a Beyonce concert where a guy got close to the stage and grabbed her behind.
Giving further clarity and referencing the Quran's prescription for men and women, she said, "We are an apparel for one another in terms of husband and wife," meaning the spouse "always" has his or her interest and "safety" in mind.
Farrakhan's words concerning Jay Z, Beyonce, the disrobing of female entertainers, and modesty in women's attire have gone viral, appearing in over 30 online publications and generating "hundreds of thousands of tweets and comments."
To counter the negative comments, Muslim women held a Twitter chat with the hashtag "#CoveredGirl." Some of the tweets included photos of Muslim women fashionably dressed in modest attired, with the caption, "Do we look Oppressed?!"
Maryam K tweeted, "I use to get cheap attention. Like, 'Can I touch you or sleep with you?' Now heads bow, the language has changed."