If you think modest clothing protects you from sexual harassment, you need to listen to these Muslim women

Nisaa FM:- The idea that modest clothing prevents sexual harassment is refuted by a number of Muslim women who have not hesitated to join the #MeToo campaign. A campaign where women use the hash tag MeToo to bring awareness to sexual harassment. Some of these women have shared details of what happens to them on an almost daily basis despite being fully covered.

Farzana from Yorkshire, a mother of two, recalled how she has been harassed in the UK and abroad. “I had my crotch grabbed in Pakistan in the bazaar. It was very crowded and I didn’t see who did it. I had a niqaab (full face covering) on at the time.

“Before that when I was 16, a tailor in Pakistan felt up my breasts in front of my mum while he was measuring me. I didn’t realize what happened until afterwards when I thought about the event and processed it.

“Before I was married, I was asked by two Caucasian men in a car in Middlesbrough if I’d like to suck their c**ks.”

Many preferred to speak anonymously, like the Londoner who told this story: “I started to wear the hijab when I was 17 and there have been different incidences [sic] of varying degrees. From constantly being ‘banged into’ on a crowded tube train to when I was working in a clothing store in central London. The white male builders apparently had a vote and decided I was the best looking member of staff – a colleague told me about it. It made me feel cheap and I guess it was because they would often look at me in the way that only men with one thing on their mind can. The clothes I was wearing didn’t matter as they all seemed to undress me in their minds.”

An older woman confided how her experiences from years ago still haunt her. “It doesn’t matter what you wear. Some men think they have the right to prey, harass, grab, touch and treat women like objects. I was very young when it started. I was 15. It was a distant relative who used to harass me. But I didn’t tell anyone. After a while I just made sure that I was never alone when he was around.”

Another young woman told me how she was raped four years ago in her northern city: “As a hijabi woman covered head to toe, [modest clothing] didn’t stop my rapist.”

Her case is not one of the 15 per cent of those who experience sexual violence that is reported to the police. Her rapist is known to her and living free as a bird while she deals with his crime against her. I asked her why she didn’t go to the police.

“I just couldn’t. There is just so much stigma attached to it.”

The Muslim Women’s Network UK runs a helpline for Muslim women. Shaista Gohir, the chair, told me: “We receive calls on the helpline from Muslim women who disclose sexual assault and rape. They have been fully dressed. Some have been wearing the headscarf, jilbab (full robe) and even the face veil. The offenders have included family friends, family members, and also respected religious leaders in the community.

“Women’s dress is an excuse popularized by men to justify their behavior so they don’t have to take responsibility. It makes me angry when some women join in and peddle the same narrative instead of challenging it.”

Source: www. The independent.com