I came across this post on website by a devout Christian woman in which she discusses what she thinks about the Hijab. Please read it and it's weird reading it as a guy but I learnt something too. Give this letter to any sisters that refuse to wear the Hijab.
" Between the Israeli assault on Lebanon and the Zionist “war on terror,” the Muslim world is now center stage in every American home. I see the carnage, death and destruction that have befallen Lebanon, but I also see something else: I see you. I can’t help but notice that almost every woman I see is carrying a baby or has children around her. I see that though they are dressed modestly, their beauty still shines through. But it’s not just outer beauty that I notice. I also notice that I feel something strange inside me: I feel envy. I feel terrible for the horrible experiences and war crimes that the Lebanese people have suffered, being targeted by our common enemy. But I can’t help but admire your strength, your beauty, your modesty, and most of all, your happiness. Yes, it’s strange, but it occurred to me that even under constant bombardment, you still seemed happier than we are, because you were still living the natural lives of women. The way women have always lived since the beginning of time. It used to be that way in the West until the 1960s, when we were bombarded by the same enemy. Only we were not bombarded with actual munitions, but with subtle trickery and moral corruption.
They bombarded us Americans from Hollywood, instead of from fighter jets or with our own American-made tanks. They would like to bomb you in this way too, after they’ve finished bombing the infrastructure of your countries. I do not want this to happen to you. You will feel degraded, just like we do. You can avoid this kind of bombing if you will kindly listen to those of us who have already suffered serious casualties from their evil influence. Because everything you see coming out of Hollywood is a pack of lies, a distortion of reality, smoke and mirrors. They present casual sex as harmless recreation because they aim to destroy the moral fabric of the societies into which they beam their poisonous programming. I beg you not to drink their poison. There is no antidote for it once you have consumed it. You may recover partially, but you will never be the same. Better to avoid the poison altogether than to try to heal from the damage it causes.
They will try to tempt you with their titillating movies and music videos, falsely portraying us American women as happy and satisfied, proud of dressing like prostitutes, and content without families. Most of us are not happy, trust me. Millions of us are on anti-depressant medication, hate our jobs, and cry at night over the men who told us they loved us, then greedily used us and walked away. They would like to destroy your families and convince you to have fewer children. They do this by presenting marriage as a form of slavery, motherhood as a curse, and being modest and pure as old-fashioned. They want you to cheapen yourself and lose your faith. They are like the Serpent tempting Eve with the apple. Don’t bite.
I see you as precious gems, pure gold, or the “pearl of great value” spoken of in the Bible (Matthew 13: 45). All women are pearls of great value, but some of us have been deceived into doubting the value of our purity. Jesus said: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you” (Matthew 7: 6). Our pearls are priceless, but they convince us that they’re cheap. But trust me; there is no substitute for being able to look in the mirror and seeing purity, innocence and self-respect staring back at you. The fashions coming out of the Western sewer are designed to make you believe that your most valuable asset is your sexuality. But your beautiful dresses and veils are actually sexier than any Western fashion, because they cloak you in mystery and show self-respect and confidence. A woman’s sexuality should be guarded from unworthy eyes, since it should be your gift to the man who loves and respects you enough to marry you. And since your men are still manly warriors, they deserve no less than your best. Our men don’t even want purity anymore. They don’t recognize the pearl of great value, opting for the flashy rhinestone instead. Only to leave her too.
Your most valuable assets are your inner beauty, your innocence, and everything that makes you who you are. But I notice that some Muslim women push the limit and try to be as Western as possible, even while wearing a veil (with some of their hair showing). Why imitate women who already regret, or will soon regret, their lost virtue? There is no compensation for that loss. You are flawless diamonds. Don’t let them trick you into becoming rhinestones. Because everything you see in the fashion magazines and on Western television is a lie. It is Satan’s trap. It is fool’s gold.
I’ll let you in on a little secret, just in case you’re curious: pre-marital sex is not even that great. We gave our bodies to the men we were in love with, believing that that was the way to make them love us and want to marry us. Just as we had seen on television growing up. But without the security of marriage and the sure knowledge that he will always stay with us, it’s not even enjoyable! That’s the irony. It was just a waste. It leaves you in tears. Speaking as one woman to another, I believe that you understand that already. Because only a woman can truly understand what’s in another woman’s heart. We really are all alike. Our race, religion or nationalities do not matter. A woman’s heart is the same everywhere. We love. That’s what we do best. We nurture our families and give comfort and strength to the men we love. But we American women have been fooled into believing that we are happiest having careers, our own homes in which to live alone, and freedom to give our love away to whomever we choose. That is not freedom. And that is not love. Only in the safe haven of marriage can a woman’s body and heart be safe to love. Don’t settle for anything less. It’s not worth it. You won’t even like it and you’ll like yourself even less afterwards. Then he’ll leave you.
Sin never pays. It always cheats you. Even though I have reclaimed my honor, there’s still no substitute for having never been dishonored in the first place. We Western women have been brainwashed into thinking that you Muslim women are oppressed. But truly, we are the ones who are oppressed; slaves to fashions that degrade us, obsessed with our weight, begging for love from men who do not want to grow up. Deep down inside, we know that we have been cheated. We secretly admire and envy you, although some of us will not admit it. Please do not look down on us or think that we like things the way they are. It’s not our fault. Most of us did not have fathers to protect us when we were young because our families have been destroyed. You know who is behind this plot. Don’t be fooled, my sisters. Don’t let them get you too. Stay innocent and pure. We Christian women need to see what life is really supposed to be like for women. We need you to set the example for us, because we are lost. Hold onto your purity. Remember: you can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube. So guard your “toothpaste” carefully!
I hope you receive this advice in the spirit in which it is intended: the spirit of friendship, respect, and admiration. From your Christian sister – with love."
This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. It really really touched me. I am still doing some soul searching regarding religion, but I am certain that I will NEVER go back to living "like a western woman" again (I know you cannot generalize about all western women but you know what I mean). After just a few months of studying Islam I have gotten to the point where I rarely listen to the radio and watch TV...the complete exploitation of women just disgusts me
I volunteer at an excercise group with young children and sometimes the leader puts on the radio...and to think what these children, who are 9 and 10, are listening to is awful...99% of songs they hear about women are degrading...how can we expect them to grow up and think otherwise?
It is my belief that somewhere between the degradation of women in the West, and the oppression of women in some Muslim countries, we can find the true way women were meant to be treated.
This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. It really really touched me. I am still doing some soul searching regarding religion, but I am certain that I will NEVER go back to living "like a western woman" again (I know you cannot generalize about all western women but you know what I mean). After just a few months of studying Islam I have gotten to the point where I rarely listen to the radio and watch TV...the complete exploitation of women just disgusts me
I volunteer at an excercise group with young children and sometimes the leader puts on the radio...and to think what these children, who are 9 and 10, are listening to is awful...99% of songs they hear about women are degrading...how can we expect them to grow up and think otherwise?
It is my belief that somewhere between the degradation of women in the West, and the oppression of women in some Muslim countries, we can find the true way women were meant to be treated.
A lot of what this woman writes is pretty amazing. There is a group of them, Christians and Muslims, who post dialogues regarding their religions, Israeli atrocities and what they have done to the Muslim and Christian world. It's like some sort of peace exchange. Very inspiring!
This is one of my favourites:
Israel We Bless Thee
Today, while driving through town, I wound up behind a minivan that had a big sticker on the back. The sticker had an Israeli flag in the middle of it, and under it the quotation from the book of Genesis that reads “I will bless those who bless thee.”
I would like to take this time to list my own reasons for thanking and blessing Israel, our lone ally in the Middle East, for everything she has done for us, since I am quite sure most Americans are unaware of just what kind of friend she has been to us.
For extorting from me and my fellow Americans $4,000,000,000.00 a year for the last 4 decades, we bless thee.
For taking our most sophisticated weapons technology and stealing it for yourself without paying the American patent holders, we bless thee.
For taking that high-tech military technology and selling it to our enemies, such as the Russians and Chinese, thus further endangering us, we bless thee.
For using that weaponry in a sustained attack against a United States ship, the USS Liberty, in an attempt to sink her, thus preventing US servicemen from revealing to the rest of the world information concerning the war crimes they witnessed you commit against Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai Desert during the Six Day War, we bless thee.
For killing 35 and wounding 170 American sailors aboard the USS Liberty, we bless thee.
For bribing the United States government into covering it up, preventing any justice from being done for the benefit of the families of the lost sailors - as well as the American People, we bless thee.
For sending your agents into Egypt and blowing up American buildings for the purpose of blaming the Arabs in an event known as the Lavon Affair, we bless thee.
For sending your agents into Libya during the Reagan administration, and broadcasting radio messages in Arabic that were designed to sound like “terrorist cell planning” so that the US would initiate military strikes against Khadafi in an event known as Operation Trojan Horse, we bless thee.
For withholding information from us concerning the planned attacks against the US Marine barracks in Lebanon, attacks you knew about through your moles in the Islamic world and about which you deliberately refused to warn us in order to further your interests against the Arabs, we bless thee.
For employing Jonathon Pollard, an American serviceman paid to spy for Israel in order to steal even more of our National Security secrets for your parasitic purposes, we bless thee.
For blackmailing President Clinton through one of your sayanim, Monica Lewinsky, in order to prevent a coherent peace program from being pushed forward between yourself and the Palestinian people whom you have brutalized and murdered for the last 50 years, we bless thee.
For breaking every agreement you have made with your Arab neighbors, stealing their land, displacing, murdering, and treating them like the animals you see them as, we bless thee.
For using your agents within the first Bush administration to involve us in the first Gulf War, causing the deaths of American men and women, and exposing our servicemen to whatever bioweapons were and are responsible which have led to Gulf War Syndrome, we bless thee.
For your role in the September 11 attacks in this country, and for blackmailing and bribing the US government into deporting back to Israel the 100 or more intelligence agents that were arrested after the attacks, we bless thee.
For supressing the information from the American people of your involvement in the September 11 attacks and sending us in the wrong direction in search of answers, we bless thee.
For using one of your agents in the US Army Weapons Lab to steal anthrax and distribute it into our mail system, terrorizing US citizens and killing several in order to blame the Arabs, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the US Government, namely, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams, and the rest into initiating this war in the Middle East so that you could bring to heel all the enemies you have made during the last 50 years, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the media to lie to us on a minute by minute basis about the war, lying to us as to how “just” this cause is, and what the real reasons behind it are, we bless thee.
For using your agents in the Christian Evangelical community, such as Falwell, Graham, Swaggert, Robertson and the rest who praise you as God’s chosen people and further keep Americans in the dark about who you really are what you have done, and what you are truly about, we bless thee.
For bringing idiots like Limbaugh, Liddy, Hannity, Beck, O’Reilly and Savage to the forefront as paid liars who will support you and further lead Americans astray, we bless thee.
For making America your attack dog, and for sending her sons and daughters to fight and die in all your future wars, we bless thee.
For using your influence in the media to hide the real statistics about the war, the dead and wounded on both sides, we bless thee.
For using us in such a way that not only further inflames the Arab world against us, but as well has succeeded in our alienating ourselves against those nations with whom we have been friendly for over a century, we bless thee.
And finally, for using your influence in our media and academia to flood our minds with pornography and lies, as well as inculcating in us a hatred for our history, religion, and culture, for dividing our nation between races and sexes, and for releasing into our society all of your plagues and filth that have left us a rotted out corpse of a once great nation, oh Israel, our friend,
we bless thee.
We have discussed this article in the mixed female section, and I will share a little of my views here ...
Like chris, I share much with it's sentiment. Personally I despise the materialism of the Western culture, the 'must wear' and 'must have' attitude!
I dislike anything which dictates to us what we should or should not wear, what's fashionable and what isn't, what's modest and what isn't ...!
Whilst I agree with much of the article's content with regards to morals and modesty, I disagree with the author's assumption that she is speaking on behalf of what seems to most Western women.
I don't think she is. She certainly isn't speaking on my behalf.
Statements such as "Most of us are not happy, trust me", "Millions of us hate our jobs, and cry at night over the men who told us they loved us, then greedily used us and walked away" and "Most of us did not have fathers to protect us when we were young" (to name just a few) are blatantly sweeping generalisations with a strong emotional bias, giving the impression that Western women (in general) are unhappy.
That is not the case!
I know many Western women, who exercise their Western rights of freedom (in a way which some - myself included - may not agree with, or even find immoral!) ... but they are neither unhappy, nor depressed, nor envying other women with different lifestyles.
As a personal opinion, I agree with much of the article.
But by making such sweeping stereotypical comments - in my personal opinion - the author turns it into nothing but propaganda and loses much of her credibility.
Peace
Peace glo
Here I stand.
I can do no other.
May God help me.
Amen.
Come, let us worship and bow down •
and kneel before the Lord our Maker
[Psalm 95]
I think the article was an eye opener... but maybe she should have just stated that it was her opinion alone I guess..But all the same, I have seen at uni where the girls that dress ridiculously (following some form of fashion i guess), seem to be on edge most of the time, they're quick at giving extremely offensive comments on the way someone dresses or acts or whether or not the look is 'this season' :confused: ..
So what kind o existence is that? .. though they don't really care about what goes on in other countries..so long as it's not affecting them...
But..bear in mind I am not generalising, I just wish people would take the time to have an interest in what's going on in the world around them, and not merely care about their own emotions and feelings..
I think the article was an eye opener... but maybe she should have just stated that it was her opinion alone I guess..But all the same, I have seen at uni where the girls that dress ridiculously (following some form of fashion i guess), seem to be on edge most of the time, they're quick at giving extremely offensive comments on the way someone dresses or acts or whether or not the look is 'this season' :confused: ..
So what kind o existence is that? .. though they don't really care about what goes on in other countries..so long as it's not affecting them...
But..bear in mind I am not generalising, I just wish people would take the time to have an interest in what's going on in the world around them, and not merely care about their own emotions and feelings..
I much agree, Musaafir.
We are surrounded by so many distractions and temptations ... sometimes it seems too easy to forget about charity and compassion for other people.
For many people I know the main focus is on fulfilling one's own needs/desires before anybody else's.
I wonder whether in a secular society we are becoming more self-centred rather than God-centred (if that makes sense) ...
As a mother of two children I am painfully aware how hard it is to teach our children what we believe to be the right values.
Peace
Peace glo
Here I stand.
I can do no other.
May God help me.
Amen.
Come, let us worship and bow down •
and kneel before the Lord our Maker
[Psalm 95]
I think their is a increase in the Me! Me! Me! group. The society ake's it easier for people to focus towards themselve for a tight sum of money.
It's so easy to get a Credit Card.
I agree, Skillganon
Bringing up a family on a tight budget has taught be to turn my back firmly on any unnecessary temptations.
But I guess it's much harder for young people ...
If I see something I like, I usually ask myself 'Do I need this?' If the answer is no I might ask 'But do I really, really want it?' If the answer is no to both questions (which it usually is), I just walk away!
My daughter is 12, and 'she likes shiney things' (as my husband puts it! )
When she wants something, we often say 'If you still want it in two weeks time, we'll think about it.'
Usually by then she has forgotten about it - which to our mind demonstrates that she didn't want it badly enough!
Peace glo
Here I stand.
I can do no other.
May God help me.
Amen.
Come, let us worship and bow down •
and kneel before the Lord our Maker
[Psalm 95]
Glo, I agree that she was making generalisations, but I think it's fair to say that even in the post-feminist 21st century secular West, women are still being objectified.
I'm not saying objectification of women solely occurs in this environment, but it annoys me how certain people insist that it doesn't, and that women are completely and utterly free, as if they are not constantly pressured by models and celebrities (themselves a form of objectification) in order to meet an artificial standard of 'beauty', which, rather than empowering, is simply pandering to men.
Glo, I agree that she was making generalisations, but I think it's fair to say that even in the post-feminist 21st century secular West, women are still being objectified.
I'm not saying objectification of women solely occurs in this environment, but it annoys me how certain people insist that it doesn't, and that women are completely and utterly free, as if they are not constantly pressured by models and celebrities (themselves a form of objectification) in order to meet an artificial standard of 'beauty', which, rather than empowering, is simply pandering to men.
I agree with you on all counts, Muezzin.
Peace glo
Here I stand.
I can do no other.
May God help me.
Amen.
Come, let us worship and bow down •
and kneel before the Lord our Maker
[Psalm 95]
How come men don't get objectified? Or is the 'Being a man thing' supposed to be a form of objectification? Have you noticed that in most adverts men are fully covered, whereas the women wear hardly anything?
It's tough being a woman ..we jus gotta make sure it don't get to us I guess..
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Hijab - argument from an interesting source
Don't develop religious tunnel vision. Investigate. 
This is one of the best articles I have read in a long time. It really really touched me. I am still doing some soul searching regarding religion, but I am certain that I will NEVER go back to living "like a western woman" again (I know you cannot generalize about all western women but you know what I mean). After just a few months of studying Islam I have gotten to the point where I rarely listen to the radio and watch TV...the complete exploitation of women just disgusts me
.. though they don't really care about what goes on in other countries..so long as it's not affecting them...
ill read it l8a
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