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Wednesday, July 04, 2012

Hijab For Young Girls Is Child Abuse- Says Moroccan rights group

Aside from the erroneous belief that, as per the Quran, it's a woman's Islamic duty to wear the hijab, the foremost reason for donning the veil is modesty. Muslims seem to believe that their men have no self-control (and often this is true), so women must cover most of their body to avoid enticing men. In many cases it's also a political statement of sorts, "I'm Muslim and I'm proud". Ironically, wearing the veil in the West just makes them stand out, which is exactly what they say they are trying to avoid.
It's not the only religion that has the more conservative factions of the faith dressing modestly, but Islam is the most extreme and hypocritical of the lot. I can understand adults wanting to dress modestly in a hyper-sexualized world that often objectifies women, but why do some Muslims dress their children in hijab? There's something terribly obscene about putting a veil on an innocent three year old child, but it happens, and a Moroccan human rights group is trying to change that. Calling it "major child abuse", the Center for Woman's Equality (CWE) is trying to put a stop to little girls (from three to ten) being forced to wear the hijab.
Their slogan is “So that girls won’t live in eternal darkness,” and they're asking for help from all human rights organizations to put an end to what they deem:

“a flagrant violation of innocence and childhood.” “Girls at this age know nothing about religion and what is prohibited and what is not."

According to the statement by the CWE, forcing young girls to wear a headscarf can scar them for life, and as result this can have a negative impact on society. They believe that the only way to combat the phenomenon of early age hijab is for rights groups, along with the government, to partner with religious entities to tackle the problem.

“Islamic bodies need to interfere to make things clear and tell people that forcing young girls to wear the veil is not part of Islam.”

Mariam, a 10-year-old girl, said her father, an imam at a mosque forced her to wear the headscarf.

“He said that it will protect me from harassment,” she told Al Arabiya.
Asmaa, also 10, said her mother, a teacher at an Islamic school, forced her to wear the veil because it is a religious obligation.

“She said I have to get used to it while I am still young, otherwise I would go to hell,” she told Al Arabiya.

Sociologist Karima Wadghiri believes it's a violation of children's rights and creates an unhealthy attitude towards their bodies.

“They will start associating their bodies to shame which has to be hidden and this view contradicts the true essence of Islam,” she said.

Wadghiri added that when they grow up these girls will confuse conservatism with fanaticism and liberalism with immorality.

“Their inability to distinguish between those concepts will put them in a constant state of confusion and eventually drive them to isolate themselves from the outside world.”

The girls’ conflict will be taken from the personal to the public level and will have a negative effect on the entire society, she said.

“Society will later be divided not on class or financial status as is usually the case, but on religious and ideological basis.”

No wonder they're so screwed up.

However, there's something equally obscene about how some people dress their young girls in the West. All you have to do is watch some of those kiddie beauty pageants to see that sexualizing little girls by dressing them like adults is as offensive as dressing little Muslim girls like their adult counterparts. Let little girls be little girls. Let them keep their innocence. Dress them in little girl clothes and let them make the choice when they are adults, when they are fully aware of how their appearance affects others.

8 comments:

Leonde Haven said...

Hi! I am being concerned about this young Islam girls who are abused by the beliefs of their parents. Wearing
hijab for young girls is acceptable, as long as they are aware about their rights and not force for doing so. I hope this certain rules in Muslin cultures will be correct for good.

Incognito said...

Since you link to a Muslim website it's no wonder you think it's acceptable for a child to wear a hijab. It's not.

Anonymous said...

What about parents who smoke a day long at home ?
Is not children abuse this ?

Incognito said...

Anonymous: Yes, it is a form of abuse if you are exposing your kid to second hand smoke all day long.

Anonymous said...

these are just pictures our young girls does not wear hidjab in this age they are too young they wear hedjab when they are 15 or 16 by there own choice ....

Incognito said...

Maybe in your country they don't, but in many countries they do. and in places like Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan they do not have a choice whether to wear a hijab or not.

Anonymous said...

Lately i have been being more and more children at a young age being forced to wear a hijab. As if this is not bad enough, a few days ago i saw a family who forced their 3-4 and 6-7 year old girls to wear hijab and a face scarf. It was a bizarre and unsettling sight. I say force because the youngest one was trying to take of her face scarf and the mom scolded her really loudly. Its really sad.

Incognito said...

Wow, that's outrageous. Sexualizing young girls is terribly offensive, because basically that is why they wear the hijab. And it's not even proscribed in Islam.

Are you in the U.S.?