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Amanda: Gadis Amerika Bukan Islam Yang Memakai Tudung!

Amanda berasal dari Sacramento, California. Beliau adalah lulusan dari Universiti Utah di mana beliau memperoleh BA dalam Pengajian Antarabangsa dan Arab. Amanda bercadang untuk meneruskan Ph.D. dalam World Cultures.

(Amanda : Sacramento, California)

Amanda, memilih menutup aurat walau pun beliau bukan Islam semata-mata ingin merasai apa yang dirasai oleh seorang wanita Muslim. Katanya “Saya memilih menutup wajah dan tangan saya kerana saya menyukai berbuat demikian, bukanya untuk maksud yang lain”, sebagaimana yang diberitakan oleh “Muslimvillage”, Rabu yang lalu.

Keputusan berbuat demikian bukan kerana kebodohannya namun datang dari pengamatannya selama berkawan dengan wanita-wanita Arab di universiti tempat beliau melanjutkan pengajian PHD di dalam bidang Kajian Antarabangasa dan Arab. Selain itu melaui pembacaan serta pencarian di dalam internet berkaitan dengan jilbab menambah keinginan untuk berbuat demikian.

Ikuti perkonsian kisah beliau:

I am an American non-Muslim woman who has chosen to wear the hijab. Yes, you did read that correctly! I am not conducting an experiment on what the hijab is like or trying to explore the lives of Muslims. I have made a permanent life decision to only show my face and hands while in public, and I love it!

When I was younger, I found the hijab to be beautiful, but unfortunately I thought that a lot of the myths about the hijab were true, and so I was daunted by it. When I started college I studied Arabic and made friends with the Muslim students in my classes. A few of the girls wore a hijab, and even though I liked the look of it and respected their right to wear it, I thought that it was oppressive.

Unfortunately, around the same time, I began to notice that some of the men at my university would openly speak about their female classmates as though they were moving pieces of meat. I would often have to hear stories that I rather wouldn’t about what these boys would like to do to this girl or that one, and I began to notice their looks. Before entering university, I would catch men looking at me in an inappropriate way from time to time, and I would just ignore it, but after hearing these conversations and feeling their many looks, I couldn’t just ignore it anymore.

I mentioned how I felt to some of my classmates, and often I got responses like “boys will be boys,” or “it’s just their biology, they can’t help their behavior.” At the time, I bought these responses, and I thought that my discomfort was just my problem. I thought that these people had a right to behave the way they were, and I had no right to try and stop them. When I got engaged, this all changed.

My fiance is my soulmate. We met in junior high and were friends for years before we began dating. He had asked me out a few times before then, and even though I turned him down, he always behaved around me in a respectful way. It was because of how he always treated me that I eventually agreed to go out with him. The day he proposed to me is, so far, the happiest day of my life. Once I made the decision to make a lifelong commitment to him and only him, it seemed obvious that no one had the right to treat me like their sex object. Whenever I would notice someone looking at me inappropriately, I no longer felt uncomfortable, I felt outraged! But I still had no idea what I could do about it.