I am seeing this post way too often these days, and it was about time I wrote about it.
"A guy once asked a Muslim man “why do your women cover themselves?” The Muslim man just smiled and pulled two pieces of candy from his pocket. He un-wrapped one and left the other covered. He dropped the two on the floor and asked the guy which one he’d choose to eat. The guy said " Of course, the coverd one!"
It reminds me of this quote from Muhammad Ali to his daughter: “Hana, everything that Allah (SWT) made valuable in the world is covered and hard to get to. Where do you find diamonds? Deep down in the ground covered and protected. Where do you find pearls? Deep down at the bottom of the ocean covered up and protected in a beautiful shell. Where do you find gold? Way down in the mine, covered over with layers and layers of rock. You’ve got to work hard to get to them"
What bothers me the most is the analogy itself, the very fact that the woman is being compared to materialistic things, no matter how valuable they are. A candy? Candies are made for people to enjoy and eat. Is that how you see your women? Regardless of the price you pay for diamonds, pearls and gold, they are nothing but your possessions. Is woman a property to own?
And as women, we don't want to live inside coal mines or at the bottom of the ocean. I wonder how world would be if the Sky, the Sun, the Moon, The nature and every amazing entity in this world was hidden in wraps.
Moreover, candies don't have brains to think and hearts to feel. Whether a woman should cover herself or not, should purely be her decision, not of men who "own" her. As long as even one woman is forced to cover herself, the analogy above will be a blanket covering a dark truth.
"He dropped the two on the floor and .." Don't even get me started on that!
