Is wearing the hijab a sign of faith or of religious oppression? That is the question that has concerned many scholars in the fields of religious studies and women’s studies. Shelina Zahra Janmohamed argues in Love in a Headscarf, that wearing the hijab a sign of her faith. She believes that it is her religious duty to dress modestly and practice veiling. For her, it is a mark of devout faith in Islam and a marker of the religion that she practices. Even though she faces the pressure of a local religious community and a national feminist community, Janmohamed views the hijab as a sign of her individual devotion to Islam.
Even though many people view the hijab and Islamic ideals of modesty as repressive to women’s independence and freedom, Shelina …show more content…
One of the most profound things she writes is, “My right was to be treated with courtesy. My culture had belittled the respect I should have had for myself. On the other hand I saw that my religion offered respect to me, telling me to trust that voice inside myself.” (Janmohamed 94). She decided that Islam gave her value and self-worth when her culture had denied her those. She chose to stick that more closely to her individual interpretation of Islam and reject the self-depreciating rules that her culture had taught her to live …show more content…
No one undergoes a lifestyle change graciously. Whenever we are forced with the disaster that our lives have become, we slowly change ourselves with the poise of a child having a temper tantrum. Change is always easier looking back, but with looking back, we are forced to examine our behavior from the past. Mary Karr gave herself the same task when she wrote Lit. In Lit, Mary Karr had to look back at rough parts of her adulthood and show her transformation from a faithless alcoholic to a sober Catholic. Character change goes hand in hand with life and memoir. Mary Karr displays this at the cost of making herself look unprofessional, but with the reward of seeing herself in a truthful and deeper
Even though many people view the hijab and Islamic ideals of modesty as repressive to women’s independence and freedom, Shelina …show more content…
One of the most profound things she writes is, “My right was to be treated with courtesy. My culture had belittled the respect I should have had for myself. On the other hand I saw that my religion offered respect to me, telling me to trust that voice inside myself.” (Janmohamed 94). She decided that Islam gave her value and self-worth when her culture had denied her those. She chose to stick that more closely to her individual interpretation of Islam and reject the self-depreciating rules that her culture had taught her to live …show more content…
No one undergoes a lifestyle change graciously. Whenever we are forced with the disaster that our lives have become, we slowly change ourselves with the poise of a child having a temper tantrum. Change is always easier looking back, but with looking back, we are forced to examine our behavior from the past. Mary Karr gave herself the same task when she wrote Lit. In Lit, Mary Karr had to look back at rough parts of her adulthood and show her transformation from a faithless alcoholic to a sober Catholic. Character change goes hand in hand with life and memoir. Mary Karr displays this at the cost of making herself look unprofessional, but with the reward of seeing herself in a truthful and deeper