Mishal Husain, the first Muslim presenter of Radio 4’s Todayprogramme, has entered the row over the veil.
The BBC journalist, 40, who starts her new role today, said that her religion did not demand that women’s faces should be covered.
She described a recent “awkward exchange” with a Muslim man who stopped her as she was boarding a train: “He complimented me on my work and then said, ‘But you’ll have to wear the hijab one day.’ ‘I don’t think so,’ I replied.”
Her opposition to wearing the full face veil was influenced by her own upbringing in Saudi Arabia, she wrote in the Financial Times.
“When I lived in Saudi Arabia as a child, my mother, despite being conservatively attired in her salwar kameez and keeping her head covered, was required to wear an abaya, or black cloak, over the top. Thankfully, there was no requirement for foreign women to cover their faces, so we could at least spot our mother easily if we wandered off in the supermarket.
“For Saudi children whose mothers were fully veiled, with even their eyes hidden, it was more tricky. They would peer at the feet of black-clad figures, trying to identify them by their shoes.
“My urologist father, meanwhile, had the odd experience of lecturing to halls full of veiled medical students, and the even odder experience of his female patients disrobing from the neck down when required but always keeping their niqabs on.”
Husain added that “in the Koran, the subject of dress is touched upon only a handful of times, with the dominant requirement being modesty on the part of both sexes. One verse puts the emphasis on actions over appearances: ‘O children of Adam, we have provided you with garments to cover your bodies, as well as for luxury. But the best garment is the garment of righteousness.’ ”
She pointed to the diversity of women’s clothes throughout the Muslim world, and lamented the divisive effect of the row over the full face veil.
She said: “Sadly, one part of the Muslim world’s concept of Islamic dress may be unacceptable in another, even if rooted in centuries of tradition.”
The Cambridge-educated journalist, who will also be Today’s first Asian presenter, will replace James Naughtie as he moves to focus on coverage of the Scottish independence referendum.
Her arrival has been welcomed as the beginning of the end of male dominance of the programme, which was previously presented by four men and one woman, Sarah Montague.
In 2010, its then editor, Ceri Thomas, provoked outrage when he suggested that female journalists lacked the thick hide to deal with the programme’s “incredibly difficult” environment.
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