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| The Choice Is Ours by Prof. Rudy B. Rodil Gone To The Movies Evelio Javier, EDSA's Sacrificial Lamb Headscarf Y2K: The Not-So- Phantom
Menace
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Issues for the Modern
Muslim Woman Issues about women in Islam have always intrigued me. The wearing of the tarha (headscarf) is just one of these issues. For the past 14 years since I reverted to Islam, it has been easy for me to understand and accept the obligation of Muslim women to follow the recommended Islamic code of dressing. My having resided in an Islamic state like Saudi Arabia for 11 straight years may have helped a lot. But my willingness and commitment to wearing the tarha was actually only tested when I decided to come back to my own country of origin, the Philippines, which is mainly Catholic Christian especially in the urban areas, while the minority Muslims are mostly concentrated in the depressed areas of Mindanao, far south of the progressive capital of Manila. For 3 years now, I carried on with the wearing of the headscarf as part of my dress code in public, initially with mixed feelings: with happiness and pride that I can profess my faith, while at the same time, with trepidation about some elements of Philippine society that might harbor deep-rooted biases and distrusts toward their Muslim countrymen from the South. But I am not from Mindanao. I do not belong to any of the southern Muslim tribes, which almost always people in the North are apt to think all Filipino Muslims come from. |
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