I am a conservative, but having lived 12 years in the Middle East, I can say that absolutely Nancy Pelosi did the right thing! Headscarves may symbolize oppression of women to the West, but in a Muslim culture, it would be both disrespectful and immodest to enter a mosque without a head scarf. I would be shocked and disappointed at her lack of sensitivity had she done so. I agree with Speaker Pelosi on almost nothing else, but in this case, she was right on. I'm shocked that exercising cultural sensitivity is so controversial.
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More women are wearing the hijab today in Iraq. At a panel last month about women and Islam at the Kennedy Library in Boston, Ahmed said she noticed the change when she returned to Baghdad in 2002 after several years abroad. "When I came back I thought I was coming from Mars. I was the only one without a scarf." Under Saddam, Iraqi society was more secular—although as times grew tougher, the influence of Islam grew. During the first gulf war, women who lost sons and husbands put on the scarf as a way to show commitment to their faith. Then, in the aftermath of the war, the incidence of cancer increased—"cancers we never heard of before were killing children and young women and men," says Ahmed. "Women were afraid and they started wearing the hijab. They didn't have to."
Nancy Pelosi didn't have to, either. But it's interesting that she touched off so much anger by doing something so many other high-powered women have done before. Some of the most vicious attacks on the Speaker are coming from the left—a constituency that typically cheers her on. Maybe the fallout over Pelosi's headgear says more about the state of American politics than it does about the Muslim world.
© 2007
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