Wednesday, April 19, 2006

That thing

This woman with a heavy Polish accent asked me today why I wear "that thing on my head." She's like, "but you're so beautiful, why don't you dress like the girls here? Are you married? Does your husband make you wear it?" I brushed her off nicely by saying that I wasn't married and that I choose to wear it and all the rest of the little cushy, pretty and polite words that I could think of. Then, later on when I was at work, there was this older man who was standing around waiting for his wife. So my coworker noticed him staring at her and she asked him "can I help you with anything?" And then he literally says: "no, dear. You're just very pretty, so I want to look at you." If only that Polish woman was around. Then I'd tell her, THAT is why I wear that thing on my head. Alhamdulillah for Hijab. The end.

17 comments:

Stylus Virus said...

Assalamu aleikum,

You go, girl. : )

Reviviscence said...

Salaamz ... weird man

Stylus Virus said...

assalamualeikum,
Aaaaaaaaah!!!! Asmaaa I Luv you for the pic you posted!!!
(for the sake of Allah, of course ;) )

Awesomenessawesomeness.

Forgot tp add, thank you for the luvly reminder too, in that post.

Anonymous said...

baaahahaahaaah!! oh man, it's not exactly the same but people have been getting on my case lately since i started to wear my kufi(s) a lot. i know they're just curious, but it's still not cool to subject me to "50 Questions" when i'm just buying a chocolate bar! :P

Nauman said...

I get a lot of questions regarding my kufi... though I have to give props to the old guy for his pick-up line. :)

Squeeky said...

Assalaamu Alaikum :)

Alhamdulillah indeed.

I'm so thankful that I don't receive any rude comments from people concerning my hijab. They're usually very sweet. haha You're right though, someone really needs to teach them why we wear it to begin with.

Anonymous said...

why are you taking it so negatively?

People fear what they don't know. She did not know the reason why you wore the hijab and went on the stereotypes that the media spewls abt

You have to be happy that someone asked you such a question & use this to do what the hadith in your previous post, tells us

Asmaa said...

Olde, your good influence has been rubbing off on me for a bit :P hehe, I love you for the sake of Allah too man.

Dil, weird indeed.

cmood, haha kufis are NOT the same as hijab, but fine ;)

Nauman, yuck.

Squeeky, well, no one could pick on you. You're just too sweet :P "Someone" needs to teach them - I think we all need to step up to the plate and do this (especially Muslim women), just like "D" is saying.

D. I didn't take it negitavely, I was really nice to her and I tried to explain hijab, but she cut me off. She didn't want to listen - she just wanted to comment. After it happened, another hijabi came up to me and said "avoid that lady, she always comments like that to us hijabis." So, no, it wasn't an innocent question at all. On top of that, this was when I was working, and the company policy is that if someone asks you a personal or religious question, you should ignore it. So I was the one going out of my way being nice to her.

There comes a point when you have to differentiate between people who are asking because of curiousity and people who are "asking" in order to insult you. And if you're a hijabi, you KNOW the difference.

Borges said...

MashAllah!!! So poignent a story!!!

Anonymous said...

Salaam...

That man needs a lesson in lowering his gaze. Besharam...

Alhamdulillah who made us Muslims.

In any case, the spiel I get is that Hijab is about covering a woman's prettiness. But it only covers the hair. So what about the face. Does prettiness stop at hair.

Asmaa said...

Abdul-Rahim, hehe thanks.

Anis, well that issue comes up a lot, but it's not really for us to decide. The generally accepted ruling is that the woman covers everything but her hands and her face. And from my experience, that's really enough if she does it properly. Men usually don't give you a second glance if you're covering your hair and body. Hijab is basically a "STOP" sign :)

(Unless you live in the Middle East - in which case, you will be stared at by men whether you wear hijab or not.)

Umar said...

outta nowhere:

have you seen Hell's Kitchen on the Food channel? It's awesome. I like it just as much as Iron Chef America.

Now, if your little old Barefoot Contessa was on that show, I'd watch it.

Umar said...

on a more related note:
with the some of the hijaabs the girls wear these days, you'd be sure they're trying to attract looks rather than repel them.

Reviviscence said...

asmaa -- middle east ... man ... i know ... in Jedda even if u're covered head to toe ... not only hijab but ur face too ... they still stare like anytinhg ...

Pakistani84 said...

Props and Respect to all sisters in Hijab...

Anonymous said...

I think its really disrespectful to type cast everyone in the M.E. and say they'll stare at anything. There are good people and not good ppl. It depends on the individual as to how they treat & respect women no matter which country they are from or live in. Would you like it if I say all Egyptians are like Amr Diab the singer or all Egyptian women like to go on beaches in bikinis. There are some that do and others that don't

Asmaa said...

Umar, listen, I don't know what you have against Barefoot Contessa, but get over it. I love her and that's that >:)

Anon, I think you need to relax. My initial comment about Middle Eastern men was made in jest. Of course there are amazing people there!

But you know, the very fact that women in the Middle East are mostly covered, means that men are used to it - and instead of looking at the woman's body, they look at what's available to look at - the face. If you've ever lived or visited the Middle East, are are a female hijabi, you'd know what I'm talking about (and I'm talking about the majority of men, not every single one of them).