Veiled Threat

I an dedicating this post to Muslim women in Vancouver who wear veils in public.  I have to admit it's taken me a few years to get used to this.  I was downright shocked the first time I saw three veiled women walking proudly together in the Richmond mall.  This might have been around ten years ago, perhaps eleven.  I wanted to approach them and say to them, "We are in Canada now.  You don't have to cover your faces to go out in public."  Then a couple of weeks later I saw three more veiled women in Yaletown near where I live.  I felt positively creeped out.  They all reminded me of Darth Vader.  I again had to resist the temptation of telling them that here in Canada women are allowed to go about bare-face.  Then in Stanley Park in a play area a Middle Eastern man was pushing his veiled wife on a swing, like she was his little girl, as their small child looked on.  Then, something happened that to this day I am not proud of.  A young man and a veiled woman were walking just ahead of me early on a summer evening.  I think they were brother and sister.  I blurted out "This is Canada.  Women are free in this country.  You don't have to wear a veil here."  They both ran away from me, fast.

Then the niqab began to hit the news.  Everyone, especially in Quebec, appeared to be outraged that in this age of feminism and equality that some women would still publicly veil themselves as though they were living in the Twelfth Century.  The Harper Conservative government made things even worse as they poured gas on the fire.  Then I did something that to this day I thank myself for.  I began to open my mind.  I read articles in the papers and online and listened to programs on the CBC.  It became evident that Muslim women here in Canada wore veils in public for one very simple and very legitimate reason.  They had chosen to.  Not their husbands, nor their fathers, nor their male siblings.  No one was doing their thinking for them.  It was their way of honouring their God and their way of preserving their sense of honour and modesty. 

I gradually came to respect them.  Realizing how many innocent Muslims were being scapegoated and discriminated against because of terrorism I began to feel compassion for them.  Then, one summer evening, it really came into perspective for me.  On a warm July evening I was walking down Granville Street.  Everyone appeared half undressed, especially the young women, but there were also plenty of shirtless young men flaunting their steroids.  In the midst of all this exposed sin (oops, Freudian slip, here Gentle Reader.  I meant to write skin) and flesh I noticed a Muslim man, likely from the Middle East, in traditional garb.  Surrounding him were his four teenage sons.  I really wondered what they must be thinking right now.  Were they lured by the gorgeous half dressed young women (and perhaps even by the half dressed young men?)  Were they shocked, horrified? Scandalized?

Then it occurred to me just how sexualized is our culture here in North America and especially on the West Coast.  I began to think of rape culture and how young women still cannot feel safe going out alone in some neighbourhoods because of young male swine.  I also recalled how very recently I had confronted a four wheel drive in Yaletown full of randy obnoxious South Asian men harassing a young woman walking by, and of how I told them all off and commanded them to leave her and other young women alone.  They actually paid heed, after trying to argue lamely, and drove away.

Even if going around fully veiled is an extreme, and perhaps inappropriate statement to make, these veiled women are still making a valid statement.  We still have a long way to go in our culture before the genders really are fully equal and before women can feel fully safe and respected.  In the meantime, next time you see a veiled woman, think of thanking her for reminding us of the current sad reality that women and men still have to live in here and bless her for her faithfulness to Allah and her personal integrity.