Germany, 2004 - 2011:
As I am reading the newspaper, turning on the television, checking news feeds online I am seeing headlines stating "The Islamic Veil across Europe" "The Muslim Veil and the Law in Europe" "German Court upholds ban on Hijab" "In Germany, Debate over Muslim Headscarf Rages On" etc. (You get my point!)
I decide to stop my busy day and read these articles, one after the other.
The issue appeared to have started with a Muslim teacher who happened to be a woman, who was wearing a Hijab to class. Supposedly parents didn't like it, other teachers didn't like it, school district didn't like etc. The woman, of course, stuck up for her belief and refused to take her veil off, saying it is on her person and has nothing to do with her methods of teaching her class etc. As this story went on and on, went to court etc more stories all around Germany and then Europe wide started popping up. Schools that made an issue about the the same things, Companies that had problems with the Muslim veil, Kinder gardens and even Universities. It drug on over years actually and during the same time I remember the next issue being that European Governments didn't want to build Mosques either, fearing that their own culture would go under. Don't even get me started on that one. There are CHRISTIAN CHURCHES in Egypt for crying out loud!! Long story short there was a large argument over moronic crap that could have been avoided if everyone would stick their nose in their own damn business in the first place discrimination of the Muslim Community.
End of today's History lesson and back to the future *ehem* I mean, the now:
I was shocked to say the least, I didn't even realize this was a thing! I never would have thought of this even being a problem, because really...Who cares what someone else does with their body parts, be it hair, legs, arms, face!? After all I am not being forced to do something I don't want, so live and let live. Yeah, well apparently I'm the only decent human being left around this forsaken place!
After further digging and researching I came to the conclusion that this had nothing to do with supposed influence of children in class, nor any of the other issues that were at claim here. There was evidence clear as day that this indeed, in my opinion, was nothing but another countless discrimination case towards Muslims in general.
First off, other religious symbols like cross wearing around the neck -> not forbidden. Symbolizes a religion, could possibly influence people, right?! The Kippa, seen on Jewish men didn't seem to be an offense either. Not at all to be exact. Also Roman Catholic Nuns are indeed allowed to wear their head coverings to schools, no issue there.
Rant Begin
Now folks, a little something about myself and I will be quite frank here. There ain't anything I dislike more than a bunch of Hypocrite liars. I can't stand the fact that it's OK for one person to do 'A' when another person who happens to be African American/Asian/Christian/Muslim/what the fuck ever can't do 'A' because they are Hispanic/homosexual/Catholic/orange/green/black/blue. This is nonsense. When are people going to wake the heck up and see that the way things are going this entire planet is going to fucking hell in a hand basket?! People just need to learn to be tolerant of other cultures! Learn to be tolerant in general towards other humans! We are talking about HUMAN BEINGS here!! Not vermin...When did we start treating each other like pests, frikken rats or roaches?!?! Seriously w.t.f. ?!
- to be continued -
Where was I...Aaahhhh yes! So other Religions oddly enough were given no difficulty what so ever in expressing themselves as long as the symbol was carried on one's self. Be it a necklace or a bracelet or a head covering... You see where this is going.
Now of course I was left to wonder why it was such a big deal for Muslim women and why they are running into so many issues. The only logical explanation I was able to come up with, after hours of reading and researching, is the simple fact that the overall opinion of Muslims here in Germany, can't speak for other places, in general is a little fishy. The Religion is very misunderstood and there are a ton of rumors out there about these people to begin with. The biggest and utmost important one that plays a huge role in this specific case is the oppressing of women. What people like to confuse is this:
"The Oppressing of Women in Muslim COUNTRIES" = "The Oppressing of Women in ISLAM"
There is a gigantic difference here. Well for one the latter doesn't exist, hence Islam does not oppress women, people oppress women. I get the mix up though, which comes from the word Muslim in my first statement, hence when you're Muslim you are a follower of Islam. Which is precisely when the mistake happens. The only reason why we call Muslim Countries "Muslim Countries" is simply because the majority of the country folk are Muslim, this doesn't automatically mean that the Iraqi, Syrian, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Turkish etc. pp. CULTURE is equal to Islam.
Meaning that even though women are oppressed in certain Arabic speaking countries, does not automatically mean that it is represented in Islam. Religion and Culture do NOT go hand in hand when it comes to every single factor of behavior.
Since the Hijab is only worn by Muslim women and Islam in general is very restricting of what the woman can show of herself, opposed to Muslim men who are apparently not covering anything out of the ordinary, people seem to get the impression that Muslim men can do whatever the hell they please and the women can't. Hence this sets off a chain reaction by alarming for example Feminist Groups -ALERT ALERT Women being oppressed by MEN ALERT ALERT- that there is an offensive matter at hand, people get ticked off, shit hits the fan. It is all only because of a false stereotype that is embedded into societies very skulls. Here for instance a quote from one of the Muslim female lawyers that were handling one of the cases:
"Es ist leicht, aus der Ferne und ohne eigene Betroffenheit das Kopftuch zu tolerieren. Für mich ist das jedoch keine Toleranz, sondern Ignoranz. Das Kopftuch und der Tschador symbolisieren in meinen Augen die Unterwerfung der Frau. Aber solange das Kopftuch fremdbestimmt, also vom Mann bestimmt ist, werde ich mich mit den Frauen solidarisieren, die endlich das Kopftuch oder den Tschador ablegen wollen."
As an original text from a German Interview it is in the German language. Here the translation for my English reading folks:
"It is easy to tolerate from a distance and without personal impact the headscarf. For me however, this is not tolerance but ignorance. The headscarf and chador in my eyes symbolize the subjugation of women. But as long as the headscarf is externally determined, so determined by the man, I'm going to show solidarity with the women who want to finally quit the headscarf or the chador."
These kinds of statements from a MUSLIM WOMAN of course don't help. Hence a woman who follows Islam would know what she is talking about. Right?! Wrong. Depending on how her parents were educated about Islam, and their parents parents and so on and so on, there could well be false education at hand. Which again proves the only way to get rid of these issues is self education.
-Continuation of Rant-
Read the Quaran, research Islam and the different cultures before you go making a big stink out of something that only exists in the depth of your own mind. It is unnecessary and quite frankly I think hearing about ONE thing for 7 YEARS in the news proves that people should frikken educate themselves. Seriously, what is this Madness?! 7 YEARS people!!!
Last but not least, who's business is it if a woman wants to cover her hair anyway?! No one comes up to me saying "Heidi you're not allowed to wear pants!" "I feel offended when you wear pants, I'd rather have you not wear them...it could influence something" (actually I can think of someone who would say this to me...but that's a different story >_>)
Anyway, no one says this to me, you know why? Because they don't have the right to tell me how much to wear and how much not to wear. That would be an Outrage! Where the hell do people get off telling other people what the hell to wear?! If I only want to show my hair that happens to be ultra sexy to only my Husband then that's my damned choice and no one else's fucking business. To all women who wear the Hijab for that reason and that reason only, you go girls! Tell them all to shut the eff up!
-Rant End-
Man I feel so much better getting that out there. Stuff like this just truly annoys the heck out of me. Thankfully things about the head covering calmed down a while back and things are seemingly back to "normal", which of course still doesn't cover a wide span of fairness. Such is Society and the Government I guess. But at least it calmed down and as far as I know in most places in Germany the ban was lifted. Emphasis on most.
With my new found interest in this religion (through certain special significant others *wink*) and my general hatred for unfairness and hypocrisy towards people; I am going to take one bad myth, about Islam, per week and bust it! I will be posting the myth/rumor itself , if there is any idea on how it most likely came to be that will also be mentioned and last but not least proof of it's falseness. I am not saying that Islam has nothing about it that people could maybe not like or not agree with. By all means, it's not for everyone, what I do not like though is a whole group of people being looked down upon for something that doesn't even exist.
On that note, I'm off to yet another trip to the grocery store with the Rugrat ... Yippiiii! Not! -_-
Until next time!!
PS: In case there is any interest in further reading, I used Google searches and actual old articles I still had in my home. Also this Wikipedia post was quite interesting to read.
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