"The Embassy's Hijab"
Mohammad Salah Al-Hayat - 30/06/08//
Americans realize that they do not need to be hated more by the rest of the world even with the justification of their policies that which make them even more hatred. When two Muslim women were prevented from being in a camera shot with Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate for the US presidential elections, this did not stir much commotion. Obama apologized to the two women, blaming his campaign staff for preventing them from being close to him, "because he is in a sensitive position at this time," which lessened the furor. It was also said that "Obama's rivals should not be allowed to exploit the image and show that he is connected to Muslims and the hijab," as one of the news agencies quoted the women as saying. Among the reasons why the incident passed so quickly is the fact that most Muslims and Arabs sympathize with Obama while they are scared of his rival, Republican presidential candidate John McCain.
Prior to the events of 11 September 2001, Arab media were not aware of any significant campaigns against the hijab in the US, and this was the case in other western countries, spare a few exceptions. However, things changed after the attacks. Not a month goes by without the media covering an incident or a "racist" behavior against the hijab and those who wear it. The situation continues to resemble a graph that monitors the rise and fall of such incidents. Meanwhile, the debate over the hijab between Islamists and secularists in Arab and Muslim societies remains at a stable level. If one monitors cable TV stations and many Arab newspapers, one will be surprised by those people who never tire of fighting about their attire; in fact, the "bickering" in Arab countries about the hijab is a part of daily life, like food, drink and choosing between moral or material support, or even the end-of-year high school examinations. It appears that the disease has spread beyond the walls of the US Embassy in Cairo, where employees are muttering, and Ambassador Margaret Scobey is trying, along with her assistants, to leave the matter behind to prevent another commotion, either among the employees or in the media. Two weeks ago, I wrote a column, "The Ambassador's Dog," about the ambassador's dog which died after eating poison that was apparently planted by Embassy workers trying to get rid of stray dogs and cats jumping over the high walls of the Embassy. Once the ambassador got over her grief, she found herself facing a new challenge. The news agencies relayed the "ambassador's dog" incident and some correspondents asked embassy officials about the matter. They refused to comment and said that they did not deal with such issues in the media; the same goes for the incident that bothers ambassador Scobey who will hjost well-wishers on Wednesday at the Embassy for the 4th of July.
The story involves an Egyptian employee who wears the hijab and was hired in the political section of the embassy, thus joining another employee, who also wears the hijab. The latter recently took maternity leave and those in the section and other Embassy employees were surprised when the employee took off her hijab, which raised questions about her action. There were also fears that she had been subjected to American pressure to take this decision. Some employees at the Embassy say that their colleague took off her hijab at her own free will, and that officials at the Embassy are keen to employ hijab-wearing women in various sections to discredit the claim about hatred toward the hijab by America and Americans, to the point of sometimes appearing more tolerant than Muslims themselves. Certainly, Scobey and other embassy employees do not care much about the hijab, but they are all interested in ameliorating the level of hatred toward Americans in the Arab and Islamic worlds. Whether the woman took off her hijab for personal reasons or under pressure, the "hatred issue" cannot be closed by merely showing that the embassy is not against the hijab, that it did not prompt the employee to remove hers, and that it welcomes employees who wear the hijab.
In fact, Americans have a problem with the internal hijab, which they use to cover their minds and remain blind to injustice. It prevents them from achieving justice and pushes them toward bias. Americans truly need to remove their own "hijab," and this is what Arabs, Muslim men and hijab-wearing Muslim women believe that Barack Obama will do!
|
