Your Head and Your Heart

Okay so yesterday’s update part II:

It is at this point that I might get a little bit political/ interject some of my observations. In order to enter the Blue Mosque those that run the mosque ask that there are certain clothing restrictions that are met. As you might be able to image there are more restrictions for women than there are for men. Men are asked not to wear shorts. Women are asked to wear long skirts and don a headscarf, as well as cover their shoulders and upper arms. This wasn’t really a problem for me because I figured this would be the case anyway and came prepared. What was really the kicker about all of this, and you will have to forgive me to jumping the gun when it comes to the order of my day, was when Jenny and I went out for dinner that night. I wore a black cotton dress that in the states I would not have even thought twice about because it goes down to my knees and isn’t altogether that low cut. To get to dinner we had to catch a cab from the main square; never have I felt more like a hussy in my life. I was very literally wrapping the scarf I had brought around my shoulders and chest in attempts to cover myself. It was silly and I was fine but the fact that I had spent my entire day covered from head to toe and being surrounded by women that were covered from head to toe made my self-consciousness level off the charts. It was horrible.

I thought back to the lectures we had, had early in the week in class and how all of the women professors had said that we as Americans would of course find the law prohibiting women in Universities as a repressive measure and that everyone should just be able to practice religion as they want. I would be lying if at first I didn’t think just that. I grew up and was educated in America and therefore it has been pounded into my head that everyone should have certain freedoms and everyone should have certain liberties. Why shouldn’t a woman be allowed to wear what she wants in a school? My feeling like a hussy walking through a square in anything less than long sleeves and a skirt down the ground, is why. If you let women wear head scarves in the classroom, all women will eventually wear headscarves in the classroom. By preventing the more conservative group to practice this outward showing of faith, you enable the entire population to be free to do what they wish. You enable many by disabling one. To allow head scarves in universities you would strip the right from women to not wear them. I cannot possibly imagine what it would be like as a practicing Muslim woman, who chooses not to cover her head, to be in a classroom full of women who cover. The pressure would be immense and I don’t know if I would be able to do it, as an American grown up with different convictions, let alone getting judgments from my peers.

Many of you are going to read this and think I am turning into a repressive wench, but the fact is, is that Turkey is not the United States, neither is Iraq, or Germany or China. We are different and therefore we MUST be governed by different rules and laws. I still believe that there are some basic rights for us as humans but the parameters of those rights in my mind have changed. Also my views about what should be allowed in the United States have changed. We as Americans must push for religion to be delegated into the private sector of our society. It isn’t going to happen any time soon, if it happens at all, but we have to try. Religion has no place in our schools, our courts or our patriotic decorations. If you are a believer and you want to practice, do so in your mind, in your thoughts and actions and in your home. If you want to don a symbol of your religion do so in your house or when you go shopping; don’t bring it to a university. In your mind is the place in which you can truly be free, run rampant with your convictions there. You should be living your religion anyway, is there no greater gift to G-d than to practice in your life what you believe in your heart? No one needs a head scarf or a cross or a yarmulke in order to do this. And from here I will make a promise: from this point on (though not like I do so all that much anyway) I promise that I will not wear religious symbols on my person while at Michigan State or any other university I might attend. The only exception to this would be when I am traveling to get to church or coming back. I am going to try and practice what I preach and I think this would be the best way to do so. Religion is beautiful, keep it in your heart, not on your person.

Love you all,
~Claire