In England we have parents dressing little girls in Hijabs to go to school while in repressive Islamic States women are facing prison to protest being forced to wear them.
In Iran women are climbing up on to telecom boxes, taking off their Hijabs, putting them on sticks and waving them in the air. For forty years they have been protesting being forced to wear the restricting garments. They want their freedom and are prepared to face draconian punishments to win it.
In Afghanistan under the Taliban women not fully covered were beaten cruelly with canes. The Hijab is also mandatory in Saudi Arabia and parts of Indonesia.
Yet in Britain Muslims are putting little girls into these restrictive clothes.
When I have travelled around the world in Muslim countries I am always struck by the contrast I see. The heat is sweltering. The men walk around in cool western T-shirts while the women are swaddled in voluminous black robes and facemasks (if they are allowed out at all – in some countries they are invisible).
It smacks of medieval misogyny.
The Niqab, Burqa and Hijab are pre-Islam. There is nothing in the Koran that says women should be forced to wear these medieval costumes. In fact the Koran states that both men and women should dress modestly. The men conveniently ignore that.
It smacks of misogyny to me. Women are second-class citizens.
Perhaps it is time for all Muslim women to show solidarity with their oppressed sisters and overthrow these outdated modes of dress?