Denmark: Miss Hijab 2008 Wins iPod
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Here is a time-waster news of the day:
This undated photo made available by Danish public broadcaster DR1 shows 18-year-old Iraqi-born, Huda Falah who DR1 says it has chosen as the winner.
Iraqi-born Huda Falah was on Tuesday named Miss Headscarf 2008, beating 46 contesters in the competition organized by Danish public broadcaster DR.
Huda, 18, won the competition that was open to anyone aged 15 or older.
“The woman is like a diamond and you don’t show it to everyone,” Falah said in an interview with the broadcaster, adding she entered the competition in order to help bridge the divide between Muslim and Danish youth.
And the iPod, maybe?
The broadcaster’s 15-19 online community DR Skum announced the competition in May, but underlined it was a fashion contest, not a beauty contest and open to anyone - regardless of religion!!!
DR’s youth club, ‘Skum’, believes that the project would display the ‘cool Muslim women’ who ‘often make up a very fashion-conscious and style-confident part of the Danish street scene’.
It looks like some Danes are getting desperate to show some respect to what other Danes are dying to insult. Or is it a real respect to the 3.7 percent of the country’s population - Muslims (210,000 persons - that is 7 times the population of Monaco)? According to U.S. State Department, they are the second largest religious group there! In spite of that, Hijab has recently been the focus of a heated debate in Denmark to ban wearing it. It is pity to see the West confusing Hijab and modesty with or other religious symbols such as crucifix. Stories like these and campaigns such as the one lead by Danish Peoples Party (DPP) only shows how much ignorant, racist and anti-Muslims that part of Denmark is.
While DPP is fighting to marginalizes Muslims, some are beginning to realize the sheer impact of the hatred they have fueled against themselves from Muslims all over the world after the cartoons scandal and the support they shown in favor of insulting Qura’an by the Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, in his infamous short clip.
Anyway, as a winner, Huda will receive an iPod and a hot, specially made headscarf designed by a Danish fashion boutique. Five semi-finalists will walk away with subscriptions to Muslim Girl magazine.
Now, I have a question to these Danes: Are you done ridiculing Islam and regard the hijab as a symbol of what you see as the inferior status of women in Islam? This competition is just a kind of a joke, but it’s also something I hope will force Danes to accept women who choose to wear a headscarf.
A screen grab from the Denmark Radio Web site in Copenhagen shows contestants for the Miss Headscarf competition on Tuesday, June 3, 2008.
Last but not least, the whole point of the Hijab is that it’s a symbol of chastity and modesty; to cover women instead of turning them into objects. I don’t mind looking at a nice objects, but this object is not one of them!
Here is an interview with the winner, subtitled to English:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOIP9PdSciM[/youtube]
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9 Comments on “Denmark: Miss Hijab 2008 Wins iPod”
I was born a Dane.
I found this offensive.
I judge people as to who they are and not what they are.
We have to stop using religion, colour, politics and everything else to judge people.
See them as to who they are. Accept them as to who they are.
We are all equal. (Unless you are a CEO.)
Another story!
Nicely reported but I would like to correct some subtleties. The competition was mainly in order to bring young Danes into the current (politician-dominated) discussion about the roles of the hijab in Denmark, particularly the women who wear them. Apart from the smallish DDP minority who are anti-Muslim, the concern for Danes is that religion of any sort, including Christianity, might get to influence the public offices. Although Denmark is officially a Christian country, the role of the Church is mostly traditional and as a vent for “that crazy minority of Christian believers”, a bit like the Monarchy which is mainly symbolic, a useful unifying symbol for the country. Danes are very secular, sensible, and reasonable, and can by and large not understand faith or understand how people can believe all these things that lie beyond sense and reason. Unfortunately, this has led to the reprinting of the Cartoons, for instance. The government can (and has) disapprove but cannot apologize for the (re)printings of the cartoons because it has not right to do so; doing so would be un-sensible, unreasonable. It would be like me apologizing for your mistakes, and no amount of bullying me would make that right.
You could say that Danes believe in Laws and correctness.
> some are beginning to realize the sheer impact of the hatred
> they have fueled against themselves from Muslims all over the
> world after the cartoons scandal
They have fully realized that hatred since it started. It bothers Danes a little bit but since they cannot do anything about it, they just continue with their usual lives, pretty much like when Germany invaded Denmark (until Germany made things too tough, and a reaction was prompted). All the hate just vindicates Danes in their belief that half the world is populated by village idiots who are *not* interested in being correct, sensible, and reasonable, and strengthens many Danes’ resolve to be correct etc. in these matters; although it also polarizes people and helps DPP’s cause, for instance.
There is not much fear in Denmark, despite all the hate. And really, why hate? You can be critical in all sorts of ways without that emotion, nonconstructive as it is in these matters.
> the support they shown in favor of insulting Qura’an by the
> Dutch lawmaker, Geert Wilders, in his infamous short clip.
There was almost no support for Geert Wilders and his stupid film;
the Danish Prime Minister criticized it and even many DPP members would not watch it.
> Now, I have a question to these Danes: Are you done ridiculing
> Islam
Hopefully, but probably not, and certainly not if hate is the
reaction to a mere cartoon; that indeed seems ridiculous. Sticks and stones. Danes ridicule almost anything; it is a grand tradition, also going back to the Vikings and probably before. You are welcome to ridicule back, preferably with funny humour! Of course, the Danes should have been more aware of other people’s thin skin, and the cartoons were perhaps a bad stunt, but the cartoons were published locally and not meant to offend half the world, only a few local Muslims who were aggressively trying to censure some authors.
Only few Danes hate Al Queda for the Pakistani embassy bombing; what would hate achieve? It would not be constructive, and anyway, how can you hate a violent village idiot or an earth-quake?
> regard the hijab as a symbol of what you see as the inferior
> status of women in Islam?
Women might be held in high regard in Islam but Muslim wives in Denmark get beaten by husbands more than non-Muslim wives, and they are disadvantaged compared to their (Muslim) husbands, in terms of education, income, social interaction etc. The (perhaps wrong) picture in Danish minds is that the controlling husband (and Muslim male culture) does not let the wife lead her own life, the use or non-use of the hijab included.
> This competition is just a kind of a joke, but it’s also
> something I hope will force Danes to accept women who choose to
> wear a headscarf.
I hope so too, just as I hope that any Danish Muslim who does not want to wear one will not have to!
Best regards,
Thomas :)+<
As a Christian Palestinian I long for the days when the Hijab was far less popular among fellow Muslim Palestinians - and other Arabs. It is my humble opinion that the Hijab is a symbol of our (Arab) cultural regression, and is hardly something to be celebrated. We were doing just fine when the écharpe was limited to 90-year old toothless grandmothers - regardless of religious affiliation. This was before Khomeini’s 1979 revolution sparked the intensification of archaic and anachronistic practices and values across the region.
In any case, if women want to shroud themselves in fabric, it is their right (to my chagrin). And on the subject of Muslims in Denmark, anything that facilitates their integration is good.
nizo
Im a Muslim woman and i do not wear the Hijab but i support the right for women to wear the Hijab if they choose to. My own mother only wore the Hijab in her forties , and she chose it . dad was dead when she was in her twenties so no one forced her .
Since you say you are christian , Let me tell you there are chapters in the Quran (and parts in the Hadith) that support the wearing of the Hijab.
Yes women in most Arab countries wore western clothes, mini skirts and did not cover up because Most were still recovering from western Occupation , if it was not french , it was either Italian or British .many Arab countries only got their independence in the Mid 60s , that s when many renewed with their faith and were allowed to study Arabic and islam. My own mother can not read or write Arabic , but only french , Because the french Occupation burnt any Arabic school and any school that taught the Quran to wipe out the Identity and faith of the North Africans .
IF a woman wants to wear the Hijab and feels her faith is stronger that way , Let her have that right , why does a scarf scare you that much . Be flexible , and allow women to have that kind of freedom .
The saudis and the Koweitis continue to wear the Full veil and let me tell you it was not Khomeini who influenced them , they have been doing before his birth .
thomas
according to a documentary i was watching one in 3 women (NON MUSLIM) are beaten in france by their husbands . something similar happens in Spain too , it has nothing to do with the faith .
No I do not support such a behaviour , since iam a woman , i condemn it with all my heart , but please dont blame this behaviour on Muslims . there is violence everywhere , especially when alcohol has been involved .
Fatima,
As someone who’s family lived in the Gulf for 30+ years, I can assure you that the revolution in nearby Iran certainly had its effects on Kuwait, the UAE and others. Even if those women dressed in Sheilas and 3abayas before ‘79 and even if the Gulf states are predominantly Sunni.
Furthermore, I was never against Muslim women wearing veils, but I don’t have to pretend to like it either. I was simply expressing an opinion.
I also happen to have opinions on Christian religiosity. I support my co-religionist’s rights in Egypt to tattoo crosses on their wrists, but supporting a right doesn’t mean I agree with the practice. I think it’s mutilation, actually.
At the core of it, Fatima, I think the veil makes women pay for men’s presumably uncontrollable impulses. I don’t give two cats if it’s supported in the Quran or Hadeeth. Holy books of all three monotheistic religions support all kinds of things that we need to evolve away from.
Nizo
That s your opinion and i respect it , but i also respect the choice of a woman who feels more respected when she wears a veil . A friend of mine suprised her husband by wearing the veil (she is a lawyer in morocco ) he was not for it but he had to respect her choice . She now says she feel more respected and people dont see her as a female body but as a person with a brain. Nor was she fond of wolf whistles either . She is a good friend and she never critized me or tried to influence me to follow her footsteps .
IF you dont give a damn about other people s beliefs , that is ok , i do not expect everyone to respect other people s beliefs but you should be Open and flexible enough to allow them to have those “backward” beliefs too , the world would be a better place if we accepted each other as we are , instead wanting to impose our standards and our norms on others . Good day to you .
Dear Fatima, thanks for your reply. One in three women beaten in France and Spain is really terrible! That is certainly very different in Denmark. Women are rarely beaten in Denmark but, unfortunately, Muslim women get beaten by their Muslim husbands more often than the average Danish woman (which might still be less often than in France, say). I wouldn’t blame the Muslim faith for this, only as part of the sometimes misogenistic cultures among immigrants (including perhaps French or Spanish immigrants?) in Denmark. Danes don’t like this sort of bad behaviour, regardless of whether religion or general culture is to blame or not (though they also dislike religion in general). Some of the relatively few xenophobes in Denmark might focus on Islam in order to highlight the foreignness and primitivity of immigrants, but those few Danes dislike immigrants much more then they dislike Islam. Luckily, most Danes are tolerant of faith and foreign cultures (even though most regard all religion as counterproductive delusions).
Why is the hijab only for women, isn’t “modesty” important (even more important, indeed ) for men ? Am I a better muslim if I wear hijab as a man, for the sake of modesty ? Thank you for answering !