Today The Washington Post published a column written by an Iraqi woman named Dalya Hassan. In it, she describes how she went from wearing Western clothing to donning a hijab, the traditional head covering many Muslim women wear. She started doing so because her husband asked told her to:
"You have to wear a hijab," my husband told me shortly after we got married. "Don't argue with me over this issue."
"I knew better than to protest," says Hassan, explaining that women will "do things we don't like out of love," but still pushes the issue with him, saying, "Do you know what I wish right now? … I wish I could force you to wear this hijab so you could experience my feelings." According to Hassan, this caused her husband's eyes to redden with anger.
Hassan goes on to explain that wearing a hijab is a necessity in Iraq at this point, even though stores sell more Western style clothing every day.
After 2003, wearing the hijab became a means of protection. Many women opted to wear the veil to protect themselves from dogmatic militiamen who kidnapped and murdered people they deemed secular. Being beautiful or flashy made women particularly vulnerable to kidnappings and other attacks.
Hassan's insights are initially maddening, in that she has resolved to do somthing that she clearly does not like or want, and that resolve has been imposed on her by men (her husband, the government, religious leaders). This renders her realtionship with her husband unequal; she asked her to wear a hear scarf, she reluctanly complied. She asked him, his eyes got red.
But her patience is something to be admired. After all she is "allowed" to write for an international audience and publish her work in n American newspaper, even if she can't wear the short sleeve shirts she so covets. She felt comfortable enough to write this article, in which she quotes her husband and casts him in a less-than-favorable light. Perhaps Hassan is wiser than I. She very well could be playing her cards, waiting for the day when she can take off her hijab and her husband won't protest.
