Media painting incomplete picture of Muslim women

Nada Selameh doesn't hold back her opinions on the American media. "I don't like the way they represent us," she said. "They make the American public attack us. What upsets me is the way they portray Muslim women as being oppressed by their men."

Before 9/11, Selameh never wore a "hijab," the head scarf some Muslim women wear as an expression of modesty. But when dusty burkas became the defining image of Muslim women during the war in Afghanistan, the native of Dearborn, Mich., started wearing a hijab at 26.

"I felt that I wasn't the female the media were showing as representative of Muslims," she said.

Ironically, few knew she was a Muslim in the first place. "When I'm not covered, I just blend in," she said. "But being covered, people know, 'OK, she's Muslim.' But I don't have 10 kids. I'm not married. I work. I have a master's degree."

Before she donned her hijab, Selameh was among the unveiled majority of Muslim women in the West who are less visible than those in burkas.

She was one of about 2,000 Arab Americans, most of them Muslims, attending the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's annual convention this summer. Most women were business casual — knee-length skirts, slacks and button-downs. Designer T-shirts, low-cut jeans and miniskirts were popular among younger women. Selameh was one of only a handful of women wearing the hijab. Still, she worried that "the face of the Muslim woman" would be that of a "hijabi," not the hijabless majority.

Selameh has reason to worry. "Veiled Praise" was a recent headline in The New York Times. "What It's Like When I Wear Hijab" was another in the Lexington Herald-Leader. The headline "Muslim women face decisions on traditional, modern values" appeared in the Boston Globe, accompanied by photos of women wearing head scarves. Add TV images of Arab women in "niqabs" or columns of Iranian women in chadors — and it's hard not to say "covered" when you think of Muslim women.

To most Westerners, "an authentic Muslim woman is always wearing a hijab," said Asma Barlas, a Koran scholar at Ithaca College whose female-centric interpretations of Islam's holy book have sparked controversy in the Muslim world.

In reality, most Muslim women in the United States and in Europe don't wear the hijab, except for worship, because they are members of a secular majority or see themselves as cultural Muslims, identifying more with "rai" music or "rumi" poetry than with "salah," or Scripture. Still others are devoted Muslims but don't view the hijab as a prerequisite of spirituality.