As you’ve probably gathered from the spectrum of different topics we cover at Love Habibi, we’re a site dedicated to all Muslims and Arabs trying to find their way in the world, a world that, at times has some very fixed ideas about our faith.
We consider ourselves proud Muslims who enjoy participating in any debate, and looking at our faith from inside and out. There are some topics, that repeatedly come up, and which we aim to present subjectively, but most of all objectively. One of these for me, as a Muslim woman is the burqa/niqab/hijab debate. These are actually three very different debates. Today I’m going to concentrate on a story about a Muslim woman in the Netherlands from Gulf News that spoke to me on a very deep level.
A Woman From the Netherlands who Chose Islam
The Netherlands has a population of around 1 million Muslims, who constitute around 5.5% of the population. It is home to the second largest European Muslim population after France.
The article, which is based on another from Reuters, focuses on Rabia Frank, a Dutch woman in her thirties, who converted to Islam in 1994. Rabia has a Moroccan husband and the couple have 3 sons.
In 2005 Rabia chose to join a total of just 50 women in the Netherlands and wear the niqab veil. I was intrigued by this woman’s decision. As the article unfolded it became apparent that this was her personal choice, just as so many women like myself choose not to wear a veil.
A Faith To Which I Can Relate
Rabia explains that she became interested in Islam when she was young. Then she met her Moroccan boyfriend and wanted to explore his culture, so she got library books about Morocco and discovered Islam. What’s interesting is that she read about being a Muslim in secret, as she didn’t want to give her boyfriend the impression she was doing it for him, but the Qur’an really touched her.
“I first read the Qur’an in Dutch translation and it just got into my heart. It felt good, I could relate to it, I understood and it touched me.”
When Rabia discovered a Muslim center at The Hague, she became a regular weekly attendee, and then the Imam asked if she wanted to join in with Shahadah. Her first encounter with a hijab was interesting:
“I wore this ugly scarf I remember, I just grabbed one from the closet. After the Shahadah I couldn’t stop crying. It was very emotional. Wearing the hijab felt like a form of liberation. Every day I had had to walk past some builders and they would whistle at me. Then the morning I walked past in my hijab they didn’t.”
The Same Girl Underneath
Rabia reveals how wearing a head scarf was natural but at the same time she felt paradoxical emotions..
“On the one hand I felt so happy, thinking, ‘Finally, this is who I am,’ but on the other hand I wanted to say ‘Hey, look, I am still the same girl underneath.’”
It took Rabia years to learn how to tie a hijab and equally as long to feel at home with her Moroccan family.
“I didn’t have a lot of contact with native Muslims at first. My family-in-law thought that as I wasn’t Moroccan I was no good. It took me years to prove myself to them and I think now I am the one who takes religion most seriously. “I feel a lot of respect from native Muslim women. They think, ‘wow – you are Dutch yet you dress like that.’
She explains that she fell in love with Islam from the moment she became a Muslim and after a few years that feeling became less intense, so she sought to rekindle it.
“I wanted to do something more for Allah. Seeing other women in a niqab touched something in me. I told my husband I wanted to wear it too. ‘Are you nuts?’ he said. He was not happy about it, but my feeling didn’t go away.”
Now Rabia feels that her niqab is her way of expressing more love to God. She wears it every day with pride. Her choice is really fascinating to me, especially given her husband’s reaction. Whether I myself would wear one or not, I can’t help but admire her.
