With President Obama’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia to pay respects to the late King Abdullah, the Islamic practice of women wearing hijabs has received attention from Washington Post, Time Magazine and several other media outlets. First Lady Michelle Obama came under fire from many observers for her choice not to wear a hijab, a religious expectation for women within the region.
The first response I had to the news of the First Lady’s decision was one of slight confusion — a woman of her standing would know that this is a cultural practice of the host country. Regardless of her personal opinions, her responsibility as a politically and socially prominent individual should have been to respect the local culture and customs. After looking into the controversy further, however, I found that many stood by her decision. Ted Cruz went on to praise her on his Facebook “for standing up for women worldwide and refusing to wearing a Sharia-mandated headscarf in Saudi Arabia.”
As an international student that was brought up in Indonesia — a Muslim-majority nation — and Singapore — another South East Asian nation with a large Muslim presence — my perceptions are influenced by my background. I am not Muslim, but I grew up around those who were. I had friends who wore long sleeves under their school uniforms in the scorching 89-degree heat and wore headscarves to school.
Many consider these items of clothing to be symbols of oppression, and I did too, until I had a conversation about it with a girl who wore them. She told me that no matter how those outside of her religion perceived her clothing, to her they were symbols of empowerment. The joke, she said, was on those who criticized them. She believed the need to reveal skin to show one was “sexually liberated” was the very sign of a patriarchal society. She was confident in her sexuality and femininity when wearing her headscarf and modest clothing, and that was that.
Of course, it’s not that simple. A widespread religious and cultural practice of making women cover themselves is, I believe, based on an ideal that fundamentally contradicts female empowerment. Wearing those items of clothing presents physical and mental obstacles, such as arbitrary stops at airport security points or harassment at school for alleged violations of uniform rules. Where I come from, it was harder for girls to participate in P.E. class. Seeing my friends run the track in tight, black long-sleeve shirts under the burning tropical sun was concerning.
For Muslim women in sports, it is unfortunately very difficult to compete without political controversy. In the 2012 London Olympics, the world’s attention was drawn to Wojdan Ali Seraj Abdulrahim Shaherkani, a Saudi female judo competitor, who was initially barred from competing in a headscarf by the International Judo Federation. After sizzling debate and protest, the Judoka was allowed to compete with her hair covered. And just last year the Qatari women’s basketball team was forced to withdraw from the Asian Games as hijabs were “uniforms that did not conform to official basketball rules.”
The problem, though, is that such obstacles come from external pressures rather than the practice of wearing a hijab itself. Some women who wear a hijab state that their choice to do so was often judged by others and dismissed as a symptom of oppression and submission.
I can only offer my own personal take on the issue, based as it is on my experience of living in a Muslim nation, conversing and living with those who are Muslim. Muslim customs and religious practices can cause controversy, but the bottom line is that we should not judge those who practice the religion in peace with hostility. We have no right impose our own perceptions of what is right and what is wrong onto these women. After all, isn’t that the spirit of personal freedom for which America stands? I respect Michelle Obama’s decision not just because she chose not to wear the headscarf, but because she also chose not to make rash and generalized statements about those who did. That is cultural sensitivity, and that is what we should strive towards.
