Note from Rafik Beekun: I am always moved by the sight of our sisters in Hijab. They are the ever courageous and visible standard bearers of Islam. In this video test taking place in the seaside town of Southampton, U.K., a non-Muslim woman dresses up in hijab to test the reactions of non-Muslims to her attire. The results are amazing: you will see the ugly face of Islamophobia, and the compassion and empathy of non-Muslim Good Samaritans.
Remember that this was only a test. Our sisters have to endure this type of reaction on a daily basis when working, shopping or wherever else they may be, and they face worse consequences in Muslim countries like Turkey and Tunisia.
In Turkey, the hijab is banned in many places. Turkish authorities “not only ban the wearing of headscarves by civil servants or pupils in state-run schools as in France, but also in private colleges, driving license courses, court rooms and even some hospitals,” Ayhan Bilgen, head of the Mazlumder rights group, told Reuters. Ironically, the wife of the Turkish Prime Minister can wear the hijab when she visits the White House in the USA, but not when visiting Turkey’s own president’s palace.
Critics state that Turkey’s ban exceeds restrictions enforced in other countries, and say it violates individual freedom of expression in a country set to start European Union entry talks. So our Muslim sisters have to choose whether to remove their hijab or to receive an education, receive legal, medal or other government services, and work in public institutions. They are often spat upon by the police and taken to prison. Students have been dismissed from schools, teachers have been fired, etc. simply because they chose to wear their hijab as mandated by Islam.
To honor them and to remind all of us of the trials that our sisters in Turkey are going through to win the right to wear hijab without being ostracized from schools and cut off from public sector jobs, I have included the following videotape:
May Allah Bless them for their faith and courage.
The Islamic Workplace 
icanplainlysee
February 1, 2007
Hi
I’m waiting for the sequel where REAL situations are filmed or taped and participants are called to task for their actions.
What I see here is a hackneyed attempt to generate sympathy and a sense of VICTIMHOOD for muslims.
I’m sure you wouldn’t be part of an engineered attempt to create a boogeyman where one does not exist?
Would you?
Actually, I think you have, and are about just that.
I’m sure your proud.
Rafik
February 1, 2007
This is just a minor demo of what actually happens to Muslim women wearing hijab. This is what my wife, a US Navy veteran and a Muslim convert, has to put up with regularly. I have been with her when it has happened–for example at Disneyland of all places where somebody reached out and pulled her headscarf partly off her head while she struggled to get away (my wife just refreshed my mind on what happened that day). No one from the public stopped by to help us against the pack of individuals harassing us. After a while, the Disneyland plain clothes security people came to our rescue. This is no boogeyman: Muslim women oftenget harassed or worse because of wearing hijab, and many just stand by watching the show or join in. Sometimes–as in the video–some good Samaritans will intervene to help out the Muslim woman.