Debate is raging if veil is indeed an Islamic tradition stipulated by the Holy Quran or just a tribal tradition that came to be associated with Islam.
Veil has increasingly started appearing on the streets from Egypt to England and from India to Indonesia.
In the more moderate Muslim majority countries like Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, veiled women are now a prominent sight where as it was rare a decade ago.
Is this the assertion of the new and emerging face of a radical islamic identity or a veiled protest against the mainstream society…?
The US and allied forces’ reaction to 9/11 – the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq – has undoubtedly driven moderate Muslims to embrace a more radical form of Islamic identity.
The irony in the case of Aishah Azmi, the veiled teaching assistant in England and that of Iman Ahmad, the 21-year old University of Halwan student who was banished from residence halls of the university, is that these women have embraced the veil (known as niqab) on their own free will…!!!
The vast majority of Muslim women in the arab world do not wear the full face cover, but opt instead to wear only the headscarf known as the Hijab
"I don't agree that the veil should be compulsory, and I don't like it," says Soad Saleh, a professor of Islamic law and former dean of the women's faculty of Islamic studies at Al-Azhar University, which is more than a thousand years old.
According to her “Quran does not say that women have to cover up their face – it is an old Bedouin tradition”.
Whatever one may say about the veil – pro or anti – the veil row is here to stay for a while.
As per press report in Egypt, a 63 year old Egyptian grandmother divorced her husband of more than 40 years because her ophthalmologist husband does not favour her wearing the veil!!!
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