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Rana
was featured by the German TV. |
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
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The
program focused mainly on the day-to-day life
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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?!
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The
objective of the program is to show Germans what is beyond
the veil
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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.
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