Comment & Debate
Nadia Gaber. “Why I Won’t Veil”. The Harvard Crimson. November 17, 2006 – “It’s ironic—though the justification for the hijab is to make women less preoccupied with their looks, I have never been more conscious about my appearance than I was in Egypt. Because I am of Arab descent, foreign eyes gazed more keenly at me—at how much skin I showed and how much makeup I wore—than they did at my white friends, although their U.S. passports were no bluer than mine. Equally perceptible were the unabashed stares of lust, constant catcalls, and unsolicited conversations, winks, and even physical contact, as if choosing to show an inch of skin—i.e. my ankles—entitled men to unwanted advances and women to judgmental looks. I could never walk down the street alone without a constant, infuriating paranoia that had me counting down the hours until my flight home. It made me resent Egypt and Islam in general, but I always had the comfort of knowing that I would eventually return home. For millions, that paranoia is an inescapable daily reality, and the consequence of a sad social phenomenon that has long been due for reform.”