Tone Kristin Kara Ali (42) spoke last Saturday at a seminar about Islam at the Hotel Opera in Oslo. She is a Norwegian women, works as a teacher and lives as a Shia Muslim. Eight years ago she met a Shia Muslim Lebanese. Tone was Christian then, and said that was the way she will stay.
“I said clearly that I have my faith and that it didn’t agree with his faith. Then I began to read a lot about it,” she says.
Time passed and the woman from østfold, who had been very active in the Christian community, began to be seriously enthusiastic about Islam. She felt Islam was ‘more logical’ than Christianity.
Three years ago she got herself a hijab and covered most of her head.
Q: How was it to suddenly cover yourself as a Norwegian woman?
A: I didn’t look forward to it. It is certainly not so easy in the beginning, but it says in the Koran that I should do it. I must take the consequences of my faith. I felt still that I lost my personality in the beginning, and that I became very anonymous. But some as a convert I got compliments from the other Muslim women. A Muslim should besides never look for compliments.
Tone stresses that her husband hadn’t forced her at all to be Muslims and put on a hijab, but says that he had taught her a lot about this religion. Together they have a daughter of 16 months, but Tone has a daughter who’s 18 who isn’t a Muslim.
Q: What does your daughter think of you being a Muslim?
A: It’s not so easy for her, she answers shortly.
Q: What do you think of Norwegian women after you became a Muslim?
A: It’s not so that I look down upon Norwegian women now. I don’t want to change them. But I want to change society.
Q: What is wrong with society?
A: things don’t play a role any longer. Take for example this with clothing. A 16 year old girl who dresses like she’s older, goes to a disco and doesn’t have full control over the possible consequences. For example rape. Could it have been avoided if people had covered themselves? I believe that the number of rapes could have been halved then. What is most important? To demand the right to dress as one wants, or is it most important to protect oneself against a dangerous situation?
But she makes it clear that she doesn’t want to say that “all man are dangerous”.
After she became Muslim she encountered some obstacles in Norwegian society. Among other things, in connection to the mass media and advertising.
“People shouldn’t expose themselves, show themselves naked. There are large parts of the body that shouldn’t be seen. A moral dilemma for me is then to watch TV. I’m provoked when I turn on the TV and look at what’s broadcast, especially on TV3. I must switch a lot.”
Tone thinks that women should cover their hair and chin. She herself can show her hands and feet. But she can’t touch another men, so she can’t shake hands. A a man can’t shake hands with a woman either.
Q: If you could change three things in society, what would they be?
A: I will forbid showing nakedness and sexualisation, prohibit sex as a means in the public space (ads, film, TV etc). I will offer stronger and better education about each other across majorities and minorities. I will set up places where women can be without having men there, such as swimming pools etc.
continue reading at………….Islam in Europe
Source: Nettavisen (Norwegian)
See also: Norway: Teenage converts
