Hana: Oh in about an hour we'll be flying to London. I feel so excited, but I'm a bit worried, too.

Needa: what worries you, Hana?

Hana: well, the campaign of denigration against Muslim women and the headscarf. They say that Muslim women are hassled in the streets!

Needa: We should not care about that. Our headscarf is the badge of our human dignity and through our achievements and good manners the westerners will eventually learn to respect us.

Maha: Yes, by the way I've just read an interesting newspaper article about this issue. Let me sum it up for you: The article says that western women think that they are free and emancipated whereas Muslim women who wear the headscarf are deprived of freedom. It refutes this assumption saying that, in reality, western women are reduced to a body and a sex icon savagely exploited and despicably demeaned by society and the mass media. They are dehumanized slaves in the guise of free creatures.

Needa: Hey, Maha, they've just announced that the passengers to London have to board now. What you said is quite interesting but we have plenty of time on the plane…

Maha: Oh come on, the plane leaves only in 45 minutes. Let me just finish. It won't take me more than a couple of minutes. The article goes on to say that in contrast, Islam stresses that a woman is to be judged by her intellect and manners not by her body; by her inner beauty rather than by her outer appearance (which she can enhance and improve but for her husband). For that reason, Islam enforced the headscarf and the covering up of a woman's body except her hands and face. In the eyes of Islam, a woman is a precious treasure to be protected and honoured.

Hana: very interesting. And that is precisely the type of argument we ought to put forward when we settle in Britain; to sum it up freedom for women lies in covering up their body not in uncovering it!

Maha: exactly, and that is how the writer concludes. He compares and contrasts women to a diamond saying that while the value of a diamond lies in its surface appearance, the worth of a woman , because she is human, lies beneath the surface, that is in her spiritual and intellectual depth.

Needa: Oh what a beautiful simile. Very inspiring. I think I'll write a poem about it, a poem I may entitle women and diamond. It might say:

 

 

Maha: Hey, Needa don't be carried away! It is time to move. Weren't you urging us to board 10 minutes ago? Come on let's go.