In a letter to the Egyptian weekly "Akhbar al-Yum", an Egyptian woman describes her life, covered from head to toe in the "Naqab", imprisoned in her home, cut off from the outside world and a stranger to her children, whose education has produced ignorance and violence. She wonders why the Egyptian media is focusing on the release of the Afghan woman
Photo: Reuters
The market in Cairo. Egyptian women live up to this moment exactly as the Afghan woman lived
The editor of the established Egyptian weekly, "Akhbar al-Yum", Ibrahim Saada, published on December 29 a long letter that came to him from an Egyptian woman who used the pen name. In the introduction to the letter, Saada tells us that he decided to publish it after consulting with some of his colleagues, who told him that they knew similar and even more difficult stories. Below are excerpts from the letter.
Al Ibrahim Saada,
You are the owners of the columns behind you, each according to his own way and according to his courage, for the imminent rescue of the Afghan people from the tortures of the Jahiliyyah (the pre-Islamic period) from which they have been suffering for many years. The press and the Arab and Western satellite channels broadcast the images of joy that flooded Afghanistan after the Afghan people were saved from the fire of ignorance and blind fanaticism, and after the Afghan woman was saved from the harshness of the government and its insistence on humiliating, persecuting, demeaning and denying her everything that Allah has permitted her.
Your media mouthpieces did not stop praising the release of the Afghan woman. You, the masters of the media in Egypt and other Arab countries, present what is happening in other countries, but not what is happening in the local arena. From your ivory tower you neither see nor hear what is happening under your nose, and it is like a volcano waiting for the first opportunity to erupt and set the whole earth on fire.
I had a normal life and a happy childhood in a simple and religious family that adheres to the instructions of our tolerant religion. I fear my fate and I am not beautiful; Despite this, I wasn't sad and I wasn't jealous of my beautiful friends. My family encouraged me to work in a job that matches my education. All members of my family do not distinguish between boys and girls, especially when it comes to the right to work.
A young man asked for my hand. I followed his personality and his decency. He was religious but not fanatical. He did not object to me continuing my humble job in one of the companies in the private sector, alongside dozens of men. However, before the so-called "honeymoon" ended, I was surprised to discover a different man that I did not know. The smile that never left his lips became rare. His tolerance turned overnight into rigidity, authoritarianism and dictatorship. A week after the marriage, he asked me to sit in front of him to listen to his instructions: "First, you must sever all ties with your workplace definitively. You are not required to submit your resignation, all that is required of you is not to go to work anymore, and then you will be fired after 15 days in accordance with the law , without getting any rights, because you don't need them.
"Secondly, it is clear that you have not been blessed with any kind of beauty and you must admit that the artificial make-up does not improve the appearance of your face. Content yourself with the fact that I agreed to accept you in your condition. You are required to immediately get rid of all these sins - that is, the make-up tools.
"Third, I know that your face does not attract men, but the possibility cannot be ruled out that among the men there are those who are thirsty for any woman. You are forbidden to whet their appetite. The only way to achieve this is to wear clothes that will hide you from their adulterous eyes.
"Fourth, during your childhood your face was exposed and your hair uncovered. This is a grave sin that Allah will reckon with your father, mother and brother, even before he comes to reckon with your people. Fortunately for you, Allah gave you the opportunity of your life by asking for your hand, so that I could save you from the tortures of hell that was destined for you From now on you are required to tear all your clothes and burn all your undergarments The only clothing that a Muslim woman should wear inside her house, which covers the woman's body from head to toe. I will not be satisfied with the veil, which arouses the passions (of the woman), and I will not accept colored clothes; I will not accept bare hands. The Islamic garment does not permit more than the 'Moshe's scourge' (Darbat Musa - a nickname for the rectangular window in the 'Naqab'), which is as wide as the width of the eyes."
I refused these "orders" and returned to my family's house and complained to them about the surprising things I heard. My father and my older brother met with my husband and told him what I did not dare to tell him. After the meeting, my father told me that my husband was surprised by our opposition, behaved with moderation and said that his only goal was to protect me and my religious faith.
I ask you not to be angry with me if I confess, because after I returned to his house I took upon myself the four commandments. My husband brought a seamstress for a niqab dress, whose face I have not seen until this moment, even though she has been coming and going in my house for twenty years. I have many clothes, all in the form of a cloak that hides every inch of my body, except for the "Darbat Musa", for the eyes, in two colors: black to go out of the house and white to walk around in my house.
I lived with my husband for almost a quarter of a century and I swear that in all that time I have never known happiness for more than one week. I am a mother of six children, four girls and two boys. My husband believes that the only justification for marriage is to increase the birth rate in Muhammad's nation. If I hadn't already been 53, he wouldn't have been satisfied with six children.
My husband, may God forgive him, issued another "edict" after the honeymoon, according to which no laughing is allowed in our house. Laughter, he told me, is one of the devil's attributes. Imagine, sir, what a house full of children would look like in which it was forbidden to laugh or play. He brought a blind sheikh who memorized the Koran for the children all morning. When my daughter turned four, my husband demanded that I cover her hair. When she turned seven, I had to wear a niqab.
^^Why should I wear a niqab?^^
There is no television or radio in our home because these are forbidden in religion, confusing the children and diverting them from the only purpose for which they were created. In our house there were only tape recorders that worked at all hours of the day and played Koran verses and sermons by religious scholars. We have hundreds of tapes.
My husband believes that education in all its stages is suitable for boys, but it has no benefit for girls. He agreed that our sons would study at school and university, but for our four daughters he chose a religious institute close to our home so that they could learn things, which neither of us had a clue of, about religion and Sharia. This institute is a kind of apartment on the ground floor and only accepts young girls. His curriculum has nothing to do with the government curriculum and therefore the matriculation certificate he awards is not recognized.
My daughters are completely ignorant of all subjects in the government curriculum. They know how to read and write, and recite Koranic verses and hadiths (Oral Torah commandments). Our sons, on the other hand, continue to excel in the government schools and the university. As for me, I know nothing of what happens outside the walls of our apartment except what my brothers and sisters tell me. I have no possibility to call them and I have to wait for their visits, which require prior approval from my husband.
He often commanded us to do everything in our power to direct our relatives and neighbors (to the path of the best), so that their right will prevail on the Day of Judgment. One day he said to me upon his return home: "I saw your neighbor in front of the door of her house half naked, talking to a man! Go to her tomorrow and do everything you can to direct her (to the best path) and save her."
The next day I sent my little girls wearing a veil to ask the neighbor to let me visit for a few minutes. I was surprised to find that she was wearing a respectable regular dress, the same dress she had worn the day before when she opened the door of her house to pay the electricity bill to the Ministry of Energy official. I looked at my neighbor's body but did not find any naked body parts, except for her face and hands. I asked my neighbor: "Why don't you wear a niqab?" Instead of answering my question, she hastened to ask me: "Why should I wear a niqab? Show me one verse from the Koran or one hadith that requires a believing Muslim woman to wear what is known as a niqab?" My neighbor wasn't satisfied with that and added: "I don't know why you agree that the most basic rights will be denied to your children."
Following this visit I decided to do what I intended to do dozens of times, but each time I was afraid of Allah's wrath. I took advantage of the opportunity that my husband and the children went out to pray in the "Zawiya" (an unofficial place of prayer), I took a sharp knife and cut the veins in my hand. I sat on a small wooden chair and observed the feeling of relief, the like of which I had not known for a quarter of a century, in the bloodstream. I began to silently mumble requests for forgiveness from Allah. Allah wanted me to come back to life after I already thought I managed to get rid of them.
My children and family members gathered around my bed and their faces expressed joy at my return to them. On the other hand, the executioner's face was, as always, frozen, angry and furious. He insisted on humiliating me and hurting the feelings of my brother, sisters and daughters when he said: "You committed a crime that cannot be forgiven. Do not think that Allah has forgiven you by bringing you back to life. The purpose of bringing you back to life is for you to spend the rest of your life trying to atone for your great sin."
Dangerous car ride
I was not angry at his words, because there was nothing new in them. There is not a word of what he says that is worth thinking about or being angry about. I returned to my hell and my prison. The strange thing is that my executioner thought, for the first time in a quarter of a century, that he needed to "improve my mood." He entered the room and said: "I know you were angry when, after our marriage, I forbade you to drive a car, in order to protect you and observe the instructions of the Creator of Heaven and Earth. Now you are allowed to drive a car after I heard a halachic ruling that permits it under several conditions, the most important of which is that there must be an overseer next to you in the car , for example, one of our sons. I bought you a new car and it's standing in front of the house, let's go down and try it."
I didn't respond to his words, and I just wondered in my heart about this person who thinks that when he allows me to drive the car again, he is making a big concession and showing tremendous tolerance. Or maybe he believes that I wanted to die because I was denied the right to drive a car and not because of the poison he spread in my life and the lives of my children.
I went down with him to drive in the new car. When he asked me to sit at the wheel, I protested and said: "How can I drive a car while wearing a niqab. You know my eyesight is weak and if I put glasses under the niqab I won't see anything." My husband didn't react, he just sat down next to me and ordered me to drive.
We drove one or two blocks. I collided with people and cars from all directions. The amazing thing is that we passed by the traffic police and officers, and none of them protested that I was driving wearing a headscarf or that I was endangering the lives of passers-by and their property, not to mention my life and the lives of those sitting next to me. On the contrary, the traffic police looked at us with satisfaction, appreciation and encouragement.
Whether we want it or not, the nakab is appreciated and supported by many people. No one dares to ban the niqab, not even in places where it is mandatory to reveal the face, in order to identify oneself. It is no secret that women who come to be tested at school and university wear a niqab and no one knows their identity, because they refuse to reveal their faces. What is valid regarding the exams, is also valid regarding the checking of passports at the airports. The officers do not object to the passage of veiled women, having despaired of the futile argument.
I stopped the car, got out of it, and asked my husband to drive it and take me home. It was the last time I drove a car, so as not to endanger human life.
^^Violence virus^^
The most difficult problem was with my two sons. I was surprised to find that they had become imitations of their father. They believe in the ideas he believes in. My son studying at the university became even more extreme, all passionate about saving the earth from the sins and heresy of its inhabitants.
I cried for long hours when my son came home from university and praised what happened on September 11 in New York. My son "told" us that hundreds of his friends praised (the attacks) just like him. They saw them as the beginning of a war that would burn all non-Muslims like them.
I state with certainty that (this approach) is not limited to the poor neighborhoods hit by unemployment. My house is in a good neighborhood and my husband is not interested in anything except hoarding money from his stores. That religious, reliable, decent person does not pay taxes to the state despite his large profits and falsifies his documents to prove that he has incurred losses and is close to bankruptcy. My children attend school and university, and they are expected to inherit a lot of money from their father tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, so that they can hurry up and get married and have children in order to spread in their minds and hearts the most violent ideas that their father planted in them.
The phenomenon of women hangmen is spreading in Egyptian society. It stems, in my opinion, from the spread of the virus of violence masquerading as religious, which destroys the minds of our young people after they allowed the preachers to spread their ideas and after the newspapers, books, microphones, schools, mosques, "corners" and homes were opened to them, so that they could brainwash the young. What hurt me and my children is a natural result of what is happening in our country in the eyes of all the defenders of women's rights.
Thus we praise the liberation of the Afghan woman from the world of the executioners of the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda organization, but at the same time we foolishly ignore the women of Egypt, who live to this day exactly as the Afghan woman lived.
Translation: Mamari, "Middle East Communication Research Institute"
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One response
Excellent article!!