The District Chronicles

Issue date: 7/25/10 Section: Divine Intervention

It was a moment Laila Al-Marayati wishes she had back. Standing outside the Islamic Center of Southern California in Los Angeles following Friday prayers, a male worshipper approached and chastised her for not wearing a headscarf.

"If you were a true Muslim," he snapped, "you would keep your hair covered." Al-Marayati, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles-based Muslim Women's League, was taken aback and too shocked to be able voice her anger.

Looking back, she wishes she could have given him a piece of her mind. "And if you were a true Muslim," she would have told him, "you wouldn't be staring at me."

Al-Marayati and other Muslim-Americans say that ogling is one of the biggest yet least-talked about problems in their communities. Among the worst offenders, they say, are self-styled morality police who are quick to reproach women for how they dress, yet ignore the mandate from the Quran to keep their eyes to themselves.

The result is a double standard that not only discriminates against women and is inconsistent with the Quran's guidance to "lower their gaze and be modest," critics say, but contributes to the objectification of women that Islam was supposed to eliminate.

"People have stories like this all the time," she said. Ogling is also discussed in the hadith, the collected sayings of the Prophet Muhammad. "And the eyes commit adultery. Their adultery is gazing," according to one saying. In another saying, Muhammad states that the first glance is not a sin because it is by accident, but a second glance would be a sin. (One joke among Muslims recommends making the first glance a long one, since it's not a sin.)

Despite the apparently clear command to both sexes not to ogle and to dress modestly, critics say many mosques ignore male responsibilities while segregating women with barriers or placing them in balconies or separate prayer rooms.

"That's a point that doesn't get talked about, and that's a huge policy issue, because so much time and energy is spent on keeping women behind a curtain, but not much effort is made to make sure men keep their gazes low," complained Rizwan Kadir, executive director of the Muslim Community Center Full-Time School, an Islamic middle school in Morton Grove, Ill.

Islamic historians say one reason the imbalance persists is because many Muslim communities are rooted in patriarchal societies.

"Throughout the ages, Islam has always been interpreted in terms of patriarchal culture," said Riffat Hassan, a retired Islamic scholar from the University of Louisville. "This particular text talks to both men and women, but the part that applies to men is disregarded."

Continued...

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