http://www.fnfmalaysia.org/2011/04/why-some-women-wear-a-hijab-and-some-don%E2%80%99t/
Published on April 19, 2011 by fnf in News
In Malaysia, some women wear a hijab; others don’t.
In Malaysia, which is predominantly Muslim, some women wear the
hijab, a head scarf that shows the face but covers the hair, ears
and neck. And some do not. A new documentary, “Siapa Aku?” or “Who
Am I?” by Norhayati Kaprawi, a young Muslim woman, explores the
reasons why.
“I am passionate about women’s issues,” says Ms. Norhayati, who
herself once wore the hijab but no longer does. Her first
documentary, “Mencari Kartika” (“In Search of Kartika”), told the
story of Kartika Shukarno, a young Malaysian Muslim woman sentenced
by a religious court to six strokes of the cane and a fine for
drinking beer in a hotel bar. A day before the caning was due to be
carried out last April, the sentence was commuted to community
service.
The director, Norhayati Kaprawi, at a screening of her new
documentary in February
In her new documentary, Ms. Norhayati interviews Muslim women —
young and old, urban and rural — in Malaysia, as well as religious
scholars and celebrities in Kuala Lumpur and Indonesia about the
hijab, also called the tudung.
The pressure to wear one is a dominant theme: “I think this
conformity is the most dominating factor on why women in Malaysia
wear a tudung,” Shamsul Amri Bahruddin, director of the Institute
of Ethnic Studies at the National University of Malaysia, tells Ms.
Norhhayati, adding that those who don’t can expect to hear from the
lady next door every day, saying “you will go to hell or your hair
will be burnt in hell.” Often, he adds, the women don’t understand
the Quranic verses surrounding the reason for the hijab.
Indeed, at times it seems wearing it has little to do with
religion. Nik Aziz Nik Hassan, former head of the Dakwa
(missionary) department at National University of Malaysia, tells
Ms. Norhayati, “In the late 1960s, Nik Mohamad Salleh, the son of a
Kelantanese mufti (Islamic scholar)… was really against the
imposition of tudung on Malay women. However he was not against the
wearing of tudung. It is up to women’s own taste and style…. He
opposed the claim that women who do not wear tudung are not
faithful Muslims and are un-Islamic.”
“This documentary is not aimed at discouraging Muslim women from
wearing the hijab,” says Ms. Norhayati, who adds, “This issue is so
big…the hijab issue has been there for years.”
The 50-minute film, which is in the local Malay language with
English subtitles, presents scenes of Muslim women wearing the
hijab at weddings and scenes of Muslim women dancing without the
hijab, with their hair showing. There’s also one scene of Muslim
men wearing the hijab — as a sales gimmick. They are hijab sellers
on Kuala Lumpur’s famous Masjid Jamek street.
“I want to see the response, especially from the Muslim community,”
says Ms. Norhayati. She talked to Scene about wearing the hijab and
why she turned the issue into a film.
Q. Why did you do this documentary?
A. I decided to do this story because I am inspired by this trend:
women taking off their hijab…. People will have an idea of what is
actually going on in a Muslim woman’s life. They just see women
wearing tudung and that’s it. But what happened? Why do they wear
it? What are the challenges they face?
I know a lot of women wear it out of pressure. Especially in
schools, they say it is compulsory. The amount of pressure and
harrassment the women go through …these voices, their voices are
never highlighted. The women themselves are too afraid to talk
about it in public.
The documentary also gives the history of the hijab phenomenon in
Malaysia. When did the hijab become popular in Malaysia? Who
popularized it? What organization popularized it? And how much of
it is actually about religion?
Q. Does Islam say it is compulsory to wear the hijab?
A. Opinions differ. Most mainstream ulemas (Muslim scholars)
generally will say it is wajib (compulsory). I am highlighting [in
the documentary that] there are actually differences of opinion,
which I do believe the mainstream media, especially the Malay print
and TV, will never highlight. The difference [in opinion] is
between the ulemas. In the 1950s, there was an ulema from the state
of Kelantan, Nik Mohamad Salleh, who studied in Mecca. He was
against the imposition of tudung on Muslim women…. Now the
mainstream ulemas view that sort of opinion as un-Islamic.
Q. You did not interview any ulemas in Malaysia for this
documentary. Why?
A. If anybody can tell me, “You can interview this ulema,” I will
go. I have asked around.
Where are the progressive ulemas? That is why for this documentary
I had to go to Jakarta. Of course, there are many conservatives in
Indonesia as well. But at least there are moderate voices as well
as well as progressive voices. Whereas in Malaysia, where are the
progressive voices?
Q. You don’t wear the hijab. Why?
A. I used to wear the hijab. I wore it when I was 14 and I took it
off in my 30s. I wore it because at that time…from what I read, I
said, this is what a Muslim girl or woman should do, [it was the]
right thing to do…. But as the years went by, I felt something was
not right, especially when I was 17 years old. I was already
wearing tudung but a friend of mine did not wear the tudung. Almost
every day boys [at a co-educational school] would put notes in her
table insinuating she will go to hell for exposing her hair. She
felt so pressured finally she wore [one]. It left me thinking: How
come boys can do whatever they like, can wear whatever they like,
yet they feel this higher ground, this higher moral authority to
pressure girls?
Q. How did your family react to that?
A. They did not comment. I don’t know if they said anything behind
my back. One of my sisters wore the hijab when she was working in
the civil service. She was pressured to wear it. Once home, she
took it off.
Q. What conclusions can you draw from the various
interviews?
A. From this documentary, one of the main things that is quite
obvious is that it seems the ulemas, their accomplishment is
forcing women to wear hijab through whatever ways, either through
mental pressure or emotional pressure. From my interviews they have
not managed to educate the Muslim women about why they should cover
up. [The women] don’t even know the verse in the Koran which says
you must cover up. [The ulemas] don’t emphasize education…. You
wear or you go to hell. It’s like a command.
source: The Wall
Street Journal