Can any Muslim DUers explain to me the difference between

[KitchenWitch]

a burqa and a hijab, other than the fact that in a hijab, the wearer's eyes are visible.

Is a woman wearing a burqa demonstrating more committment to her faith than a woman wearing a hijab?

[darkmaestro019]

1. I'm waiting for this one too.

I've never even heard of a hijab, even with much reading on various news, info, religious tolerance, and political sites. : )

[Starbucks Anarchist]

2. This is a hijab:

[magellan]

3. I'm not Muslim, but I did some research on this the other night

A hijab is the head covering, like a scarf, that still allows the face to be seen. Hijab also seems to be used to refer to modest attire.

I think the difference between how much of the face is exposed is sectarian, which in some circles can be interpreted as having more or less committment to their faith.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

4. Might want to ask PsychoDad.

He's a Muslim and very knowledgeable about the subject.

[KitchenWitch]

5. Will do!

Thought I would put this thread up so we could all get edumacated!

:hi:

[KitchenWitch]

6. I have PM'd him and linked to this thread!

:hi:

Thanks!

[Starbucks Anarchist]

7. No prob, KW!

:hi:

There's also an Islam forum that could help you out more.

[Binka]

8. The Black Garment Worn Over Clothes Is An Abaya Not A Burqa

The burqa is usually light blue, very heavy fabric (think tent material), and has a head covering that looks like a bee keepers mask. It is worn in Afghanistan primarily at the edict of the Taliban. The fucking things weigh around 20 pounds. The burqa has NOTHING to do with faith it is a form of punishnment for the sin of being female. The abaya is plain black/ or solid color it can have trim and does not come with an attached head covering. Here is a website that sells Islamic apparel.

http://www.alhediya.com/jilbobs1.html

[KitchenWitch]

9. Thank you Binka!

How is Ben doing?

[Binka]

10. He Is Good! Thank You For Asking!

[KitchenWitch]

11. I am so glad!

You have such strength and courage, I admire you for that!

:hug:

[PsychoDad]

12. Although many in the west....

tend to refer to an entire style of garment worn in some parts of the middle east and Afghanistan as a Burqa, the term burqa really refers to the covering that is sometimes worn in addition to the Hijab.

An example of what is most often termed in the west as a burqa...


The term Hijab simply means "covering" and can be any head covering.

So, these can all be Hijab





While this is a burqa, which covers the eyes as well as the face...


This is an example of a combination Hijab/burqa as worn in Afghanistan or Pakistan...


While a niqab doesn't cover the eyes...


If interested, some other forms of Muslim and Middle eastern clothing can be found here-
http://www.alhannah.com

Often the choice of what is worn is dependant upon the culture. Most Muslim women the world over only wear the Hijab, and hijab styles do differ some the world over.

As for commitment to one's faith, Islam does teach the importance of modesty, in both men and women. So, if a sister felt that by wearing burqa she was being more modest and closer to Allah by doing so, then yes it would show a greater commitment, but it is not a requirement. Let me also add that I know Sisters who are greatly committed to Islam but do not wear any head covering.

Commitment to the faith can also be shown by adherence to the five pillars of Islam: The testimony of the Oneness of God, Prayer, Charity, Fasting and the Pilgrimage once in their life. The Prophet (pbuh) stressed that our greatest testimony to our belief was in serving and aiding our fellow man.

Hope this helps :)
Peace.

[radwriter0555]

13. Note the similiarities between christian nun's habits and the muslims

women's garb.



Also note that western women traditionally wear veils when they get married.

[gkhouston]

14. but this is historical, is it not?

I was under the impression that nun's habits were not that dissimilar to what an ordinary housewife might have worn hundreds of years ago.

[radwriter0555]

16. where?

would women have worn this?

[Bridget Burke]

18. I believe these ladies are Orthodox nuns....

Nuns' habits generally reflect the period when the order was founded. Medieval? 19th Century? Modern day? Mother Teresa's order wears simple white cotton.

Some cloistered nuns still wear traditional habits, but many have either adapted their habits to modern times or abandoned them entirely.

There's a series of Holy Habits Traditional Nun Paper Dolls! (Yes, I'm tempted.)

http://www.holy-habits.com/indexnewnun.htm

[radwriter0555]

19. No. I meant what housewife would have worn such clothing? And where

would they have done this? When?

[liberalpragmatist]

20. The history of veiling actually began with the Roman Empire

In the waning days of Rome, especially in the Eastern sector of the empire, veiling and head covering was a sign of purity and was common among the upper classes. People who were lower-class did not veil their face or cover their head. Veiling thus took on connotations of purity, as lower-class women were seen as "unpure" and "unchaste" compared with upper-class women.

That's why Roman Catholic nuns are veiled. And if you look back historically, upper-class women in Europe wore head coverings well into the 16th century.

The tradition crossed over to Islamic societies probably through the Eastern Roman Empire, later the Byzantine Empire. Syria was of course part of the Roman Empire and later the Byzantine Empire. Veiling was not a tradition in pre-Islamic Arabia, even among Bedouin tribes and veiling/head-covering is never specifically mentioned by the Qu'ran. Through the Byzantine Empire, it came to be a custom of Syria, the Levant, and Egypt, and when the early Islamic empire reached those areas and as those areas came to be the center of the Islamic empire, veiling became a custom that was associate with the ruling classes of the Islamic empires. It has remained a custom up until this day.

Until recently, the hijab and the niqab were not generally worn by lower-class women or rural women or in Southeast Asia. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, as Islamic societies moved to modernize, the hijab came to be a symbol of one's cultural heritage. Moreover, rural women whose families were seeking a new life in the city and women whose families were scaling the economic ladder or wanted to scale the economic ladder adopted the hijab with some frequency. Wearing of the hijab became more widespread. In the 1950s and 1960s, wearing of the hijab declined greatly in Egypt, Syria, the Palestinian territories, and Iraq. As Islamist movements have became more popular and as opposition to the West has grown, Muslim women in several countries have taken to wearing the hijab with more frequency.

[Bridget Burke]

15. And I remember when we had to cover our heads in Church.

(Roman Catholic, that is.)

Often a "symbolic" covering would do--like a piece of lace attached with bobbie pins.

[radwriter0555]

17. You still have to in many churches. No revealing clothing in the churches

of europe, especially St. Peter's in Rome. We had to at LEAST cover our shoulders, last summer.

In the smaller churches around italy we were unable to enter because our heads weren't covered a couple years ago. We were shooed away.

[clyrc]

21. I've seen just about every interpretation of modest clothing for women

I've seen women wearing the hijab, but western style clothing, only an abaya but no hijab, abaya and hijab, abaya and headscarf with only the eyes showing, and the full cover, but I've never seen a woman wearing a burka in person. Once, I saw a girl wearing an abaya and hijab, but with a bright red bustier over the abaya! There are also some Emirati women who wear a scarf over their heads, but they put it far enough back so it keeps falling and they make a big show of rearranging it. The abayas can be quite gorgeous, too, with embroidery and panels of sheer material, kind of making the modesty bit pointless.

It's best not to make assumptions about devotion based on clothing, though. Some Muslim women I know who do not wear any of the clothing we associate with Muslims are very devout. It's a lot cultural.