Very nice description...

As'Salaamu Alaikum Sister Nausheen,

I agree with what you have said in your explanation but if I may let me rephrase what I truly meant to say because I felt my original post was taken out of context. Insha'allah I won't watse your time with this. I believe that form the other half of the circle of human life. the other side which the man occupies allwos the unity of both men and women to come together without this humanity couldnm't sustain its existence. But if we go more in depth and look at the social infranstructure we see that within the Muslim community there is a sense of "coming out." What I mean is that some Muslim women in our community are now coming out with the ideas of "equality wheras the premise of equality is already stated in Al-Qur'an. We see such women like Irshad Manji who, through her pwnm experiences tends to generalize Islam and some of its adherents. This is the same mindset that certain non-Muslims have when obserivng Muslims through news media or movies.

Along with "coming out" there is the idea of westernizing  the mindset of a Muslimah. First and foremost the culture of western society is in it of itself, a culture which includes: ideologies, beliefs etc. I mentioned Afghan women because all of a sudden its an issue. I believe Kim said earlier that womens rights movement has been concerned with the issue long before, but I believe that in mainstream society the subject is new to the light to many people because this is when Islam is really introduced to society especially here in the States.

The problem I see in westernb infiltration is not the motive, but the lack of sensitivity and education of Islam. What I mean here is that to help a group of women strive to their plateau and to give them their independence and freedom using your "idea" on how to get there I believe that in doing so requires some sensitivity on how going about that. To say "you don't need to cover yourself to hide your beauty" is (1) Telling her to not accept her duty as a Muslim

(2) Helping her transgress from her religious faith (3) interpreting the idea of what "beauty" is. Not saying that that is the idea the Womens rights group but my main point is that in helping the people you must first understand the culture and to understand THAT culture you must understand the religious faith because the issue is more delicate.

I believe the struggle for the equality of women is good especially in a world where most of the men in power do not want to see a female leader. But at the same time we must come to the understanding that equal power is idealistic in this reality is not realistic. The same with all races coming together and extinguishing the "idea of culture." Because culture is so important in our society it would be very difficult to not want to identify ourselves with our culture, and although it would be more idealistic to refer ourselves as human rather black, white, or Arab its not a realistic picture. I do believe that equality is realistic but in this time I believe that its a hard possibility because culture tends to prevent this from becoming a reality.

In addition to Sister Khadija's response to lower the gaze is in comparison with the Buddihst philosophy of the rejection of materialism. We do not know the external beauty of life. To appreciate the full beauty of a woman, a human being is to appreciate the intangible which is her mind and spirit indeed!