Women and Make Up: A Story from Gilgit.

I woke up to a story in my inbox. A friend shared it. Thanks Yousuf.

It reminded me of many such stories I grew up listening.
I should say that the source of such stories was my equivocating cousin sister, Maimoona aapa.
Maimoona aapa would have us enthralled on summer afternoons with the genre of the horror/thriller.
She expected us, like her, to become devout muslim women who went to the 'Ijtamas', covered their hair and walked with dignity. But Maimoona, like many of us, had fire in her soul. On many occasions, she would chose not to do none of these things.

First the story: Somewhere in Gilgit. ( As an aside, I think that the age of globalization dawned on the Muslim world much before anything else. So, Dick Cheney in his report of 9/11 was not saying something new. We all grew up listening to stories of Baghdad, Iraq, Mecca and Gilgit.'

But first the story:

"O Believers of Allah and the Prophet PBUH, listen to this story from
Gilgit, and if you don’t believe me go to Gilgit and ask the people if
this did not happen. The incident was that a man was passing by a
graveyard when he heard a voice from inside a grave saying please take
me out I am alive.

People went to the local Maulvi and he said that no one living could
be buried in a grave and gathered a group and went to the graveyard
and began digging it up. After the grave was opened they found a woman
who was completely naked. She arose and said after you have removed
the dust please bring me clothes to hide my nakedness.

The clothes were brought and she put them on but after doing so ran
away from the crowd and locked herself into her house. When people
called she would not open the door. Finally she said only the
strongest among you should enter. Then a few strong men entered but
what they saw was horrendous. The woman had no hair on her head.

They asked why was her skull without hair? She replied that when she
was living normally she would go out of the house with her hair open.
Allah punished her for this and when she was in her grave the angels
came and began to uproot her hair one by one with their hands so that
even the skin came off.

Then the people asked her to show her face. But when she opened her
face the men fell down in a swoon. The upper jaw was there but there
was no lower jaw. All the teeth were showing but there was no lower
jaw and no lips. Think if we had lost out lower jaw would our family
come near us?

People asked how did this happen? She replied that when she was normal
she applied lipstick to her lips to look beautiful. When my lips were
being cut off a voice said we had not made you so ugly that you had to
show your painted lips in the market. Now this is your punishment.

When the people of Gilgit and Naran heard this they started crying,
which is good because Allah says when you see something like this it
is right to cry. If you hear the Quran being recited you can cry as
that inclines Allah to forgive your mistakes and sins.

O women, Allah made you beautiful but you have taken to putting powder
on your face and made yourself ugly. How can Allah like this? When you
cook and someone mixes too little salt in it would you like it? Allah
too doesn’t want you to spoil the gift of beauty he has given you. If
you abide by His rules he will build a palace for you in Paradise".

Many years ago, I guess I must have been 9, I was called in by my neighbours to translate an 'ijtama'.
The scene went something like this: none of the women in my neighbouhood at that point knew English.
A team of women 'ijtama' leaders was visiting from Australia.
If I remember correctly, I sat looking at these women, trying to translate what they were saying into urdu/hindi..not understanding a word.
because they said stuff exactly like this-if you show skin, it will be burnt black.
If you do not obey your husband, you can be whipped. If you do not tie your hair, you'd rise naked on the day of judgement.

I am sure that many of my friends ..those of us who grew up in Zakir Nagar-Sabina, Tayyaba, Naazo, Naseem, Arshi, Khamsa, Iffat, Parveen; all heard similar stories but did such different things. It was as if we were trying hard to prove that these stories were wrong. ..