My body, and my hair, are beautiful things. They are gifts from God, and I am not ashamed of them. I love them, respect them, and honor them.
For me, showing that love, honor, and respect includes not putting my body and hair on display to all , for their pleasure. Only those I choose to show them to may see them. Is this not empowerment to women?
By choosing to wear modest dress and head-covering, I mark myself as set apart, unavailable to those I do not choose to make myself available to. Is this not empowerment to women ?
If my body is not available to be gazed upon, nor my hair, that leaves only my face, and my voice, and my words and my deeds, my spoken thoughts and my music – in short, it leaves only what is most important about me. People worthy of me are drawn by these; people who scorn me because my body is not there to be gazed upon are not people I want to know. And so I weed out, without effort, those I do not want to know. Is this not empowerment to women?
I reject the dominant American culture's expectation that women should put themselves on (often sexual) display for the pleasure of others; modest dress is how I consciously practice that rejection. Is this not empowerment to women ?
I choose to wear it, for many reasons that I have decided for myself, in response to values I have adopted for myself; and so I do. Is this not empowerment to women?
