|
Unveiling
the Truth: German Portrait of Hijab*
|
By
Mohammad Shawky
|
15/02/2004
|
The
yearlong debate about banning the veil (hijab) in France and Germany reached its
peak when French President Jacques Chirac formally proposed, on 17 December
2003, a law banning the display of religious symbols in state institutions in
France. This law bans students and civil servants from wearing Christian
crosses, Jewish skullcaps, Islamic headscarves, as well as political party
symbols. The disapproval of this law among some fractions of the French
population, and the Muslim population in particular, has led to several protests
against banning the veil. Interestingly, the debate, which started as one about
the veil in Islam, has evolved into a big discussion about Islam itself: as a
religion, the Islamic movement in Europe, and the relation between Islam as a
religion and fundamentalism. This has attracted the attention of various media
to try to explain the concept of hijab itself, the logic behind wearing it, and,
most importantly, finding out more about the lifestyle of the women wearing this
veil.
Changing
the Stereotypes
|
|
|
The
program focused mainly on the day-to-day life
|
In
an attempt to explore the topic further, German Television has taken a positive
step to explain this relatively new phenomenon. As a result, Mr. Waltar Dehler,
the foreign correspondent of German Television, came to Cairo for almost a
month. The main objective being to prepare a program whose aim is to understand
the concept of the veil and its different dimensions, thus providing the viewers
with an objective, first-hand covering of the topic, and hopefully, changing the
stereotypes-in Europe in general and Germany in particular-about veiled women.
The
program is 6 minutes, 20 seconds long and focuses mainly on the day-to-day life
of some educated, veiled Egyptian young girls. “I asked the girls to tell me
more about their common daily activities and asked for permission to accompany
them while they are carrying out these activities,” said Mr. Dehler. So, the
program shows those veiled girls playing basketball, studying, shopping, or
socializing as they normally do. “The objective of this”, he said, “is to
show Germans that beyond the veil, these girls also have lives, several aspects
of which are very familiar to the European young girls.” In addition, there
were interviews held with these girls to know their opinion about the veil and
other confusing topics, including, for example, polygamy.
Why
do they Wear Hijab?!
|
|
|
The
objective of the program is to show Germans what is beyond the veil
|
When
asked about public opinion in Germany and its response to the debate about
banning the veil, Mr. Dehler said, “I think that generally, people in Germany
are afraid of the movement towards Islam, but this is mostly because many of
them are confusing Islam with fundamentalism and terrorism, especially after the
September 11 attacks. Our role as journalists is to explain to the people that
Islam is not equivalent to terrorism”.
Concerning
the veil in particular, it is generally viewed as a symbol of the oppression of
women in Islam. The general perception about Muslim women is that they are not
well educated, do not have rights equal to those of men, and their role is
mainly to serve men and satisfy their needs. While on the other hand, men have
the right to marry more than one woman, receive better education and so on.
However, most Germans were fascinated to know that most women decide to wear the
veil of their own free will; in fact, they would not be surprised if women were
obliged by men to wear the veil, because this is the general perception.
Therefore, the majority of Germans still do not understand the reasons why women
decide to wear this veil. “My primary aim for this program was to understand
and explain these reasons,” said Mr.Dehler.
Seeing
the Whole Picture
According
to Mr. Dehler, the main reason for choosing Egypt as a location for shooting
this program was practicality, as the regional office of German Television is in
Cairo. In addition, he said that Egypt is viewed as one of the most open Islamic
countries, as it has a long tradition of Western influence, unlike some other
Islamic countries with extremist regimes that many Germans do not think very
highly of !
Overall,
this program helps Germans to be able to relate more to Muslim women; not to
label them as just “veiled”, or think of them as fundamentalists, but
instead to be able to see the whole picture of their lives, ambitions and ways
of thinking. It represents an objective account of the lives of Muslims and
veiled women; the program attempts to bridge the gap between Europe and the
Islamic world by helping the Germans to understand Muslims before judging them.
Actually,
Muslim countries should encourage such attempts and initiate dialogue and
co-operation with the Western media to assure that they portray the right image
about Islam in different parts of the world. This can only happen when we
provide viewers everywhere with the facts-and then leave it up to them to form
their own opinion.
*
A 6-minute, 20-second long segment of Welt Spiegel, a programme produced by
German television's ARD Channel 1. This segment was translated from Arabic into
German by Mona Younis, the head of IslamOnline.net's Social Section.
|
