2	Hello dear friends, Once again we have a dear mother of the community writing for us in Article of Virtue forum. Marilyn Martin has been instrumental to the promotion, recognition and success of many members of this community through her inspirational activities and programs in ALP.

Today she is presenting her candid view and advice about a very touchy and controversial issue of Women’s Mode of Dressing. Marilyn has spiced it up with historical facts backed with her own personal life experience. This work should sure make some incontrovertible impression in our minds whether man or woman irrespective of religion.

You are all invited to join us in the forum and as you participate in the discussion, please kindly do it with all amount of respect and decorum.

Again many thanks to Marilyn for a positive and admonishing article.

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This is because I was not sure what I wanted to write about since there are so many issues of great importance to me. I finally decided to write about how women dress today and the lack of modesty and values that many seem to have.

I often find myself totally flabbergasted and shocked when I go out, or watch TV, and see how some women nowadays dress with no sense of morality, modesty, or respect for themselves. I sometimes think I was born in the wrong era because I totally disapprove of a lot of the fashions and styles of today.

I was raised in a very old-fashioned home, and perhaps that is part of the reason why I think the way I do, but I also have very deep religious beliefs as well. This is not to say that religion necessarily dictates how one is to dress, even though God did give us some very specific guidelines to live by. I will get to that a little bit later on in my article.

Many people today think that items such as a scarf or veil and long flowing dresses are dominant of the Muslim religion, and they criticize Muslims by believing that the men are trying to hide their women. This is far from the truth! If the truth be known, women have been dressing this way for thousands of years...long before Islam was born. In fact, the "veil" can be traced back to early civilizations. It can be found in early and late Roman and Greek art history as evidenced in their paintings and pottery fragments found during archaeological digs, and it was also recorded in their civil laws.

In the Greek-Roman culture not only did women cover their heads with veils, but men covered their heads as well. This tradition was then adopted by the Jews, and later on by the Christians. There was nothing written in the Torah about this, however, as a well respected Rabbi once said to a group of women, "We do not find a direct command in the Torah mandating that women cover their heads, but we do know that this has been the continuing custom for thousands of years." Orthodox Jewish women still cover their heads most of the time, especially while in the synagogue, during weddings, and religious festivities.

So you can see that dressing in this fashion was not due to Islam, but because of tradition. Women did this to show their respect for God, and also themselves.

Now, God did give us some instruction on how women were to dress, and the following is what He commanded:

1) God has bestowed raiment upon the woman to cover her shame, as well as to be an adornment to her. God said the raiment of righteousness was the best.

2) Women should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; women should not display their beauty and ornaments. They should draw their KHIMAR over their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands. It also states that men should lower their gaze and guard their modesty as well as the woman.

The word "KHIMAR" is an Arabic word meaning "cover"...so this is anything that a woman might wear, such as, a dress, shirt, shawl, scarf etc. And the last part of this command said that women shall not strike their feet when they walk in order to shake and reveal certain details of their bodies. What this meant was that women should not walk hard so that their heals would click and attract attention, and they were to wear clothes loose enough so that they would not show their off the curves and shape of their body. This last section was also directed towards the men as it is not right for men to wear tight fitting clothes either.

3) Lastly, it was instructed for women to lengthen their garment; this would make it so the woman would be recognized and it would avoid her from being insulted.

I think dressing modestly is not only something women should do because God said so, but women should have more respect for themselves. There are many sick and perverted men in the world, and exposing ourselves is just making temptation that much worse. I am not saying that it is a woman's fault that they get raped, but I do think we have to accept a little bit of responsibility when we put ourselves in compromising situations.

I will explain that further; personally I was raped before, and he was to blame for the act of course, but I put myself in a compromising situation, and here's why....

I knew the guy that raped me. I was living in Georgia at the time and I went to visit a friend of mine, and he happened to show up. When I got ready to go home that evening around midnight, my friend asked me if I would mind driving him back to town with me. I said okay, but my big mistake was letting him drive my car because that put him in charge then. For that part I blame myself...I should have driven the car myself. So, a time like that is what I mean by putting ourselves in compromising situations.

Ladies should learn to dress more modestly and attract some respect for themselves. Many times the clothes women wear are not flattering, thus leaving nothing to the imagination but instead a bit of mystery and giving our gentleman friend something to look forward to when the right time comes. If you are flaunting it all from the word go, the guy already knows everything he is getting; shouldn't there be some surprise and mystery? It will also cause others to have a lot more respect for you as well. When a women dress inappropriately people will think negatively about her, no matter if she is a good person or not.

Thanks again to Sami for allowing me to write this article for his awesome and respectable forum. I do hope that everyone will enjoy reading my article whether you agree with me or not. I look forward to hearing your comments regarding this subject.

Have a great day and God Bless You All!
Love

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Marilyn L. Martin is a known face and does not need much introduction in the community. She is an energetic and active member of Adlandpro community who has contributed immensely to the promotion and motivation of a lot of our community members through her Parade of Stars forum and the community Newsletter where she sits as the editor.

Marilyn live in Ventra County, CA North of Los Angeles and is blessed with 4 grown children and 9 grandchildren. <<click here for more about Marilyn>>

 SPONSOR'S REVIEW:

It is a beautiful tradition and the way you have presented it here gives us more depth of why this became a way of attiring a woman’s body.

It is sad that you learned the hard way of not putting yourself in harm’s way.  I admire you being brave enough to admit to it here and maybe it will help others for the future.  Certainly, our young girls could take some advice from you.  They just can’t wait to grow up and seeing this on TV makes it even harder for them.

This statement really tells it all:

“I think dressing modestly is not only something women should do because God said so, but women should have more respect for themselves. There are many sick and perverted men in the world, and exposing ourselves is just making temptation that much worse. I am not saying that it is a woman's fault that they get raped, but I do think we have to accept a little bit of responsibility when we put ourselves in compromising situations.”

Your way of pointing out how God wanted women to dress can be found in our Holy Bible.  As you know, some religions still adhere to some of those rules.  It seems the head-covering you speak of in our later American tradition was women wearing hats to church.  There are probably many thankful persons whose vision has been blocked by the fancy headdress of these ladies!!

I enjoyed reading your Article and believe it will make a great hit with this community and help women pay more attention to how they dress.

Sami, once again, a great Article.

Blessings,

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