May 30, 2007 

Muslim Women – Hijab vs. Niqab, Plans for Peace, NYC

Today, I learned the difference between hijab and niqab. For Muslim women a Hijab is a headcovering or modesty. A niqab covers the whole face (except for the eyes). A women sitting on the subway next to me was dressed in full niqab. Her face was covered except for her pretty eyes. (I think people will fetishize what they cannot see, her eyes were a heck of a lot more intriguing than Britney Spears; and it is not a common choice in NYC.) She wore long sleeves and also gloves…fyi nyc summer has begun.

By furtive glances, I noticed her eyes and that she was dozing a bit as I do in the mornings with her bags in her lap. Her two gloves were mismatched colors (dark blue and black) and underneath her long dress as she got off the train I noticed she had on white socks.

Told my Israeli coworker Naomi about this….her response: they’re crazy….I said it was similar to religious Jewish women covering up….she agreed but retorted….they’re crazy too….they are alike….

So we just have to get people to see their similarities…or an ingenius plan I heard in a recent documentary I went to see Encounter Point about workers for Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict….make all the smokers get their cigarettes from either the territories or Israel whichever is the home of The Other and people will get along in service of their nic fits…

I think it’s neat that except for a glance or two, at the odd sight of it, people went about their business. It’s one of the things I like about NYC…The countdown to leaving has begun so of course I have to appreciate it before I go.

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  • Khadijah

    Salaam alaykum (Peace be upon you) Yaffa. I have seen many blogs about women in niqab. Often they are closed minded, saying something that comes across with \I don’t like this so it should be made illegal.\ I really appreciate your thoughtful approach to the subject. I have read a lot of blogs…mostly full of snipes about the niqab wearers intelligence or social skills, to downright prejudice about the wearers motivation for wearing it…namely that the wearer represents an inexcusible \security risk.\ However, I should point out that I do not have an inability to recognize a sister who is wearing a niqab. Let me give a real life example. I went to a restarant once before I started wearing niqab. ONE TIME ONLY!!! Then several months elapsed, I had started wearing the niqab and several months after this one time I was there, I came back. The sister who owns the restaurant IMMEDIATELY recognized me. She smiled and said \Oh sister, you are wearing niqab now!\ This was only my second time visiting this restarant. People who know me can recognize me. Children in countries where all the women wear niqab will walk right up to their mom…because they recognize her. People with whom I do business recognize me on sight.

    In short, I really appreciate your thoughtful and non judgemental remarks. BTW, summer can be hot, but I handle it by staying hydrated. And contrary to popular opinions, anyone who actually has taken even 5 secounds to get to know me will tell you…I’m quite friendly, and I really think I am speaking for the vast majority of niqabis.

  • Yaffa

    Alaykum Salaam Khadijah. Thank you for taking the time to comment. I find the hijab and niqab similar to Jewish Orthodox women who cover their hair or whose custom it is to wearr stockings even in summer or some Orthodox Jewish men who wear dark suits even in summer as it is their custom.

    This blog post was mostly an ode to tolerance and diversity in NYC. People get on with their business. A woman in a niqab can be sitting in the same subway car as a woman in a mini-skirt and people from dozens of different cultures and nationalities and mostly the people don’t bat an eye.

    There is an openess to a niqab as well as other cultural norms, or at least a benign neglect of it under the assumption that most people do not have ill intent and that force or threat is not involved. There is no necessity felt to impose one culture’s norms over the other.

    At least this is the way it should work and on that day it did.