USA Africa Dialogue Series - Cardinal Okogie On The Hijab Controversy In Osun State

Cardinal Okogie On The Hijab Controversy In Osun State

 

"What type of politics has left Osun State in abject poverty? But religion is in the horizon, and we cannot refuse to look at what is in the horizon. That is why we must still inquire: is wearing the hijab an absolute obligation in Islam? In other words, would a Muslim woman be less Islamic if she were not to wear the hijab? There are scholars of the religion of Islam like Leila Ahmed and Raza Aslam who would answer the question in the negative. As such scholars would point out, while wearing the hijab was required of the wives of the holy prophet of Islam, it was not required of all Muslim women always and everywhere. It is because wearing of the hijab is neither a fundamental human right nor a religious obligation of universal extension that we have countries like Turkey, Tunisia, Tajikistan, to mention but these, where Muslims are in an over-whelming majority but Muslim women are not obliged to wear the hijab. Wearing the hijab was in fact banned in Iran between 1936 and 1979… The right to wear a religious garb, any religious garb, is not to be disputed. But to mistake it for a fundamental human right, and to claim that wearing them to school is a fundamental human right is to fail to grasp an important distinction…"

CLICK ON THIS LINK TO READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE

http://ugowrite.blogspot.com.ng/2016/07/wither-osun-state-we-are-watching.html

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