Author Chronicling Islam In Canada Says Que. Becoming Uncomfortable for Muslims

April 26, 2010

Author: Jonathan Montpetit

Source: Google News

Wire Service: The Canadian Press

http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5hHGKkqwWWjaJviduBhKcMQ91Ertw

The niqab flickered briefly for Sheema Khan as the logical next step in her effort to rediscover Islam.

The Muslim face covering, which reveals only the eyes, appealed to the then Harvard grad student as a symbol of piety and fidelity to the religion increasingly asserting itself in her life.

But Khan's experiment with the niqab lasted only a few hours and she settled instead on the hijab.

"I tried it and I hated it," says the author of "Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman."

"I couldn't breathe."

Yet her own unwillingness to don the niqab hasn't stopped her from offering a biting critique of the Quebec government's proposed law that would prevent women wearing the covering from receiving government services.