WOMEN IN BURKAS: A LESSON FOR CHRISTIANS

On Islam, feminine Christian clothing, and God's dress code.

Today's world conflict can be viewed as a clash between religion and culture. On the one hand there is the Christian west, and on the other there is Islamic east. Currently the two cultures and faiths are mixing, pardon the pun, like water and oil.

The manner of dress evidences the tension between the two worlds. Western men appear more clean-shaven (beards are still exceptional among us) and nattily dressed in a business suits, white shirts, and colorful ties. But their Arab counterparts are often seen wearing beards, turbans, and long robes.

Arab women too dress in dark flowing robes, covered heads, and veiled faces. Where highly conservative Islamic Wahhabism rules, Sharia Law mandates that females walk in public places dressed only in tent-like garments called "burkas." No part of the female anatomy, not even the eyes or the face, is displayed. All the while our "popular culture" "sends images of an undulating Brittany Spears and scarcely covered Jennifer Lopez all over the globe."[1] A missionary friend once told me about his ministry among the Stone Age people of what was then Dutch New Guinea. He remarked about the progress of the gospel in that part of the world there as compared to its decline in the west. "Our people are putting clothes on," he observed, "all the while you people in the west are taking them off." If popular images provide any indication, then we may judge our culture may be less dignified and more pagan than Islam's. Seemingly, western women dress to reveal while their Muslim counterparts dress to conceal.

Admittedly, as Charen admits, "The subject of female modesty is a delicate one." What disturbs me however, are the dismissive attitudes that western elitists manifest toward Islamic dress in general and "burkas" in particular. I grant that the forced covering of a woman from head to toe by ultra-conservatives goes too far. But can we Christians not agree with Charen, "that we've drawn the line way too far in the other direction"?

And herein lies the practical issue for Christian women of faith. How much like the world can Christian women dress and still appear to be Christian? Can they dress like Jennifer Lopez and still consider themselves Christian? Time magazine once showed a picture of her scantily clad while wearing, of all things, a Christian cross! Crosses do not sanctify immodest dress, and in a culture given over to a "fair show of the flesh," even "moderation" can be viewed as extreme and unacceptable from the biblical point of view.

The Apostle Paul instructed ladies and girls in the early church, "Likewise, I want women to adorn themselves with proper clothing, modestly and discreetly, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly garments; but rather by means of good works, as befits women making a claim to godliness" (1 Tim 2:9-10). In this vein Mona Charen rightly observes that "most Muslims do believe " along with traditionalists of other faiths like Judaism and Christianity "that female immodesty is incompatible with piety." In other words, genuine spirituality and sensual dress do not compliment one another.

Given the rising tide of the vulgar and the degraded as indicated by what Charen calls "the wanton display of human flesh," Christians ought to conclude that what to them is "modest" may be "gross" in God's sight. He places a premium upon the feminine cultivation of inner beauty and good works.

Pastor Larry DeBruyn

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FOOTNOTE

[1] All quotes from Mona Charen, "The Woman Question in the Muslim World," The Indianapolis Star, January 7, 2002, A8.