backwardness."

I find it to be a blatant hypocrisy when Western governments and so-
called human rights groups rush to defend woman's rights when some
governments impose a certain dress code on women, yet such "freedom
fighters" look the other way when women are being deprived of their
rights, work, and education just because they choose to exercise their
right to wear Niqab or Hijab.Today, women in Hijab or Niqab are being
increasingly barred from work and education not only under
totalitarian regimes such as in Tunisia,Morocco, and Egypt, but also
in Western democracies such as France, Holland, and Britain.

Today I am still a feminist,but a Muslim feminist,who calls on Muslim
women to assume their responsibilities in providing all the support
they can for their husbands to be good Muslims. To raise their
children as upright Muslims so they may be beacons of light for all
humanity once again. To enjoin good--any good--and to forbid evil--any
evil.To speak righteousness and to speak up against all ills.To fight
for our right to wear Niqab or Hijab and to please our Creator
whichever way we chose.But just as importantly to carry our experience
with Niqab or Hijab to fellow women who may never have had the chance
to understand what wearing Niqab or Hijab means to us and why do we,
so dearly, embrace it.

Most of the women I know wearing Niqab are Western reverts,some of
whom are not even married. Others wear Niqab without full support of
either family or surroundings. What we all have in common is that it
is the personal choice of each and every one of us, which none of us
is willing to surrender.

Willingly or unwillingly, women are bombarded with styles of "dressing-
in-little-to-nothing" virtually in every means of communication
everywhere in the world.As an ex non-Muslim, I insist on women's right
to equally know about Hijab, its virtues, and the peace and happiness
it brings to a woman's life as it did to mine.Yesterday, the bikini
was the symbol of my liberty, when in actuality it only liberated me
from my spirituality and true value as a respectable human being.

I couldn't be happier to shed my bikini in SouthBeach and the
"glamorous" Western lifestyle to live in peace with my Creator and
enjoy living among fellow humans as a worthy person.It is why I choose
to wear Niqab, and why I will die defending my inalienable right to
wear it.

Today, Niqab is the new symbol of woman's liberation to find who she
is, what her purpose is, and the type of relation she chooses to have
with her Creator.

To women who surrender to the ugly stereotype against the Islamic
modesty of Hijab, I say:You don't know what you are missing.

To you, the ill-fated corrupting conquerors of civilization, so-called
crusaders, I say: BRING IT ON.

Sara Bokker is a former actress/model/fitness instructor and activist.
Currently, Sara is Director of Communications at "The March For
Justice," a co-founder of "The Global Sisters Network," and producer
of the infamous "Shock & Awe Gallery