veiled4allah: a very different choice

The Washington Post has an interesting article about conservative Saudi women. I expect a lot of peoples' outrage meters just hit maximum.

But the new atmosphere has alarmed conservative women who are suspicious of U.S. interference and warn that changes in their status could destroy the country's Islamic framework. Though no figures are available, conservative, religious women seem to constitute a sizable portion of the country's female population, belying notions that most Saudi women are unhappy with their lot and waiting to be liberated. On the contrary, the black veil and the prohibition against women driving are embraced by many women here as a form of protection and an integral part of their religion...

...Obaidi shows pride in her religion and resists foreign interference, she said, by maintaining her veil, or niqab . "Just because this is closed," she said, tugging at the black material that covered her face, "doesn't mean this is," pointing to her head.

Samia Adham, a statistics professor seated beside her, also in a veil, added: "This is a choice. We choose to be ruled by Islam. We will make changes, but within our religion and in our own way."...

...Many Salafi women here, who follow the school of thought that calls for a return to Islam as practiced by the prophet Muhammad and the following two generations, shatter the stereotype of women in black niqab as meek and submissive. Often well educated, articulate and sometimes downright aggressive, they include award-winning scientists, writers and college professors.

Khadija Badahdah, a university administrator who holds a doctorate in chemistry from the University of London and wears a veil, said she recently started to grant television interviews because women calling for change were dominating coverage on the airwaves and in newspapers and giving the wrong impression of Saudi women. "They are a minority but they appear to speak for all of us," she said, sitting in her comfortable home in Jiddah on a recent weekend. "This is the beginning of a cultural erosion, and if we don't fight it now, it will continue."

The Salafi women have also used lectures and Internet and newspaper campaigns to combat what they view as negative developments. Though they appear to be fighting against women's rights, they say they are actually fighting for the rights granted to women in Islam.

Humaydi, the lecturer, says she counsels women to educate themselves for at least half an hour a day about their rights under Islamic law. The problems faced by Saudi women, she said, are not because of Islam, which she calls a perfect religion that honors and values women. The fault lies in its improper implementation.

"We were given rights by Islam 1,400 years ago that women in the West only got at the beginning of the 20th century," said Humaydi, a middle-aged college professor. "Muslim women can work, and inherit, and be financially independent."...

...At Jiddah's King Fahd Medical Research Center, a small Casio recorder played Koranic verses in the background as Faten Khorshid peered through a microscope, her niqab falling past her shoulders over her long white lab coat. Khorshid, who received a government grant for cancer research, says that her conservative views have not held her back and that the niqab makes it easier for doctors to concentrate on work instead of one another. "I don't want to be the equal of a man," she added. "In many ways, I am better than him."

If nothing else, this story is a reminder that freedom of choice means that some people will make choices that many may not agree with.