A convert’s veiled story – The Globe and Mail

A real oldie!
A convert’s veiled story
Margaret Wente. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.
Dec 12, 2006.

Na’ima Roberts greets me at the door of her modest London house, dressed head to foot in black. A black scarf is wrapped around her hair, but she’s not wearing the niqab . That’s for outside the house, when she goes shopping or takes the kids to the playground. She makes us tea and toast with lemon curd, and we sit down to talk. Why, I want to know, would a worldly, educated, ambitious, young woman convert to Islam and embrace the face veil?

Her answers shed some light on why Islam is the fastest-growing religion in Britain. “Dad was an atheist. Mom was a lapsed Christian.” And Na’ima, now 28, was the quintessential GloboGirl — biracial, bicontinental, secular and smart. She grew up in Zimbabwe, where she got a Western education. Her parents (white British dad, black South African mother) raised her to believe girls are equal. She partied and clubbed and hung out with guys.

At university, in London, she began to grapple with questions of identity. For a while, she immersed herself in the African-Caribbean society. Then she went to Egypt and saw women wearing the hijab . “I thought it was gross and anti-feminist,” she says. “Then I got to know a woman who wore one. I asked her why she covered herself, and she said, ‘I want to be judged by what I say and what I do, not how I look.’ ”

Na’ima wasn’t even 20 then. The idea of escaping the male gaze appealed to her. She began reading the Koran. She liked its prescriptions for leading an orderly and disciplined life. She gave up alcohol and clubbing and began to wear loose clothes. She liked the sense of family in Islam.

Finally, she converted and began to wear increasingly conservative Islamic dress. One day, something she had dreaded failed to happen, and she decided to put on the niqab to signify her gratitude to Allah. “It was an easy thing to do, for me,” she says.

In Europe, Christian culture lingers on, and there’s the odd backlash over multicultural silliness such as Winterlude. People occasionally deplore the fact that the school nativity play has given way to pageants featuring children dressed as elves, snowflakes and Elvis. But the truth is, most kids don’t have a clue what the Nativity is. Europe’s splendid churches are deserted; they might as well be giant lawn ornaments.

But the mosques are overflowing. Hundreds of people show up at Na’ima’s mosque every week. Many are converts, others born-again Muslims. It is a disciplined, simple, clear and demanding faith that gives structure to a person’s life. People are hungry for that.

“Islam holds a lot of appeal for women,” Na’ima says. “Women today lead lives that are very difficult. Maybe they come from a single-parent family. The guys they know just bum around. They’re relieved to know they shouldn’t have to do it all – look after the house, the children, work, look pretty. They want husbands who know what is expected of them.”

Many young men may embrace Islam to escape the chaos, drugs and violence of the streets. Islam brings peace and order to troubled souls. “It hasn’t repackaged itself, like Christianity. It hasn’t tried to make itself look cool. It’s still hard-core.”

Na’ima has become a sort of ambassador for women who live behind the veil. She’s written a book about them, called From My Sisters’ Lips .

Of course, Na’ima is hardly a typical Muslim woman. She is, for example, completely free to choose her own degree of devotion and her own style of dress, as many Muslim women are not. Her husband (also a convert) supports her completely in her career (writing children’s books and public speaking), and is a devoted father to their three kids.

Na’ima offers me a lift to the tube station in her four-wheel drive, and flips down her niqab . My last sight of GloboGirl is her eyes. Next week, she and her family are moving to Egypt, where she plans to master Arabic once and for all. She admires women who’ve memorized the Koran. One day, perhaps, she will, too. (insha Allah!)