Modesty and Islam

Nzingha and her young daughter:

I didn't wear it [the abaya] on a vacation in Malaysia, "Why mama" she soon asked on why I didn't wear an abya there. People actually saw my clothes, it was all very confusing but easy to explain. Different cultures have different dress when I'm in Saudi I use an abya when I'm in Malaysia I don't. "Ok". Simple enough for her, thank goodness simple enough for me.

Women are forced to wear the abaya or the burqa in Saudi Arabia in temperatures often exceeding 40 degrees Celsius. That would have been a more correct explanation. Put it another way, I don't think that a woman who doesn't wear an abaya is automatically not modest (or a prostitute, a slut, or a whore).

Women have even been attacked based on her dress but we fail to see that happening to the male fraction of our ummah. When was the last time a man in your masjid was condemned to hanging in hell from his feet because he wore long pants past his ankles. Or when was the last time you saw a group of men referring to a male Muslim speaker as a evil conspirator agent of Shaitan [the Devil] because he wore a suite jacket and [a] pair of slacks.

Oh come on Nzingha, you know that only an aurat is capable of serving the Shaitan. Even when a woman is raped in Saudi Arabia, she gets part of the punishment (50 lashings, I think). Why? Because she must have devilishly attracted the aggressive male to her.

I have yet to witness a male conversion that is coupled along with a speech on growing his beard, shortening his pants, and sporting a thobe. And this isn't souly [sic] related to one man, in fact when conversions take place in this country they are required to take some sort of class given by the government affairs sector and the women are told all the proper things, covering, submitting to their men and all the other most important factors that a new Muslim women needs to know.

[Emphasis mine]

Yup. You better submit if you want the male "guardian" to take your concerns into account.