The raid of the NINJAS

is it just me or are there actually many more women out there in Karachi who adorn the black abaya and the head-scarf and/or some other kind of veil? Where ever I seem to go, my vision is constantly bombarded with over-dressed women, I mean literally, women with too much cloth on their bodies and face and that too in this stifling muggy horrendous heat! What is this about the abaya and the head scarf that is so bewitching the Karachi women? Is it a result of the teachings of the erst-while paragon of saintliness Mrs.Farhat Hashmi, who has taken off for the greener pastures of Canada and has exchanged her much maligned Pakistani passport with the coveted Canadian one? Is it a consequence of her Al-Huda courses that our women took by the dozens which has somehow convinced them that the covering of hair is one fundamental tenet of Islam? and is the ultimate requirement for a woman, to thus cover her hair, because in principle uncovered hair is a temptation and undue attraction to men.

Why is it that the mantel of keeping the society free from 'sexual deviation' falls mainly on the women of an Islamic country? Why is it that women are made to believe that covering their heads will somehow 'de-womanize' them in such a manner that they will look less different from men and hence will be less 'disruptable' to the society at large. Is this our religion? I refuse to buy it. Islam is not only a set of beliefs that are very lucidly detailed in the Quran and the Sunnah, it is above all a 'philosophy' meaning it is a 'way of thinking' which eventually must translate into a 'way of living' if it is to be an authentic rendition, and if it is duly understood and applied. So, why is it that we in our urgency to show how 'Islamic' and god-fearing and 'nimazi' we have become that we run to adopt such visual measures that do nothing to our spirit but make a public statement, nay, an announcement that 'now I am above everyone else who does not have the courage to do this or that - basically what I have done.'

Please tell me what is the point of covering the face and the head with the 'hijab' when the rest of the body parts which I presume to be far more inviting are left for public display and consumption? I for one want to know what is the purpose of the abaya when every other 'couple' meeting clandestinely in the few parks and nooks of the city is one with the female covered in it? Is dating then allowed in Islam? I'm not being bitchy only asking. Because I see so much going ons with these abaya and head scarf clad ladies that would soon put us 'sleeveless' donning jeans wearing loose women to shame! I know, I am being testy, but my point is that does covering your head and face and the body make you a better Muslim?

I am the foulest sinner there ever was and is, and I have hardly any right to question the beliefs of others, which I am not doing here, I am merely trying to understand the logic behind the frenzied rush to cover each and every hair on a women's head. Who thinks that hair is a sexually inviting part of one's body? yes if you have fabulous glossy long tresses it might turn a few heads but it is hardly going to get anyone in trouble with a man I suppose.

My question has always been why are women singled out as the 'danger' in the society, why is it their 'sexuality' and especially their visible sexual appeal a threat to the fabric of all social norms and forms? And, why must it be them that should be veiling and covering themselves, rather making them themselves invisible to keep the chaos, that they may create in society by their flagrant display of womanly charms, at bay at all times. Isn't it putting an unfair demand on women? Isn't it a bit too presumptuous to assume that if women covered their bodies all will be OK in the Islamic republics?

What of men? yes, really what about them? and please do not remind me that Islam asks them to lower their eyes! hell! lowering the eyes on seeing something and actually changing your whole identity by wearing the hijab are two very different and unequal demands put on men and women and cannot be equated by any stretch of the imagination. Doesn't the imbalance smack more of male-interpretation of Islamic injunctions more and less of god's commandments.

I want to know why all of a sudden our moderate society has turned fundamental and dogmatic? It would have been alright if from the inception of the Muslim society and culture in the sub-continent the 'hijab' had been the norm rather than the exception, but this new-found love for Arabic style coverings is very alien and somehow very non-Pakistani to me, but then, its only me who is bizarre and crazy to think this way. The thing is that the increased incidence of head-covering hasn't really raised or improved our souls to the same degree. If so many pious women existed in Karachi as the number of women wearing hijabs suggest then the city would beam with a light of beneficence and there will emit a smell of purity and holiness from it, instead there is a stench of ethnic violence, crime against fellow men, corruption and squalor.