TS: Could you please elaborate on your understanding of covering historically in Catholicism, your first religion, and how you understood covering when you and your girlfriend first converted to Islam?
JF: From the Latino culture many of our grandmothers will remember that they used to cover their head whenever they went to mass. They don't necessarily know where it came from, but they were possibly at the very edge of the generation where they stopped covering. But even when you look at nuns, for example, they cover as well. So, when the Muslim women cover, unfortunately there is an element of misconception that they're doing so because they're being forced or because they're being treated as a second class citizen or being forced to do it by their husbands. It couldn't be further from the truth, in fact if you look at a nun who wears a headscarf, no one would think she was being oppressed so the issue is not about who covers and who doesn't, it's about the connotation that the Muslim Woman has been put under. Unfortunately for many of us who become Muslim we don't even know these things, so as I was learning Islam when I first became Muslim, my girlfriend became Muslim a week after I became Muslim, and right away, as soon as she accepted Islam, she wore the headscarf. Now she had been studying Islam from a woman's perspective. So I was one week old in Islam, and I didn't even know why she covered, but some of her family members were blaming me for forcing her as to why she was covering, and I didn't even know why she was covering. So a lot of miscommunication was taking place, but she covered because she realized that for her to send the message to any other man, other than the one that she was going to marry, they needed to deal with her as a person who has respect for herself, confidence, and that she was not to be dealt with as an object. So somehow, before she used to cover, she used to go to the mall and guys used to run up to her and ask can I get your number? And all of a sudden when she was covering, guys used to just look away, or if she was coming they would open the door for her and look down. It's a big difference, and that's why she went on to do it. I went on to understand what that meant. And we married a month after. So now that I'm her husband, I see a big benefit. I see a benefit, I don't have to worry about a guy going and asking for her number. It protects her as a woman and people have to deal with her based on her intellect, not based on attracting men because of wearing less clothes to become more noticed by people, and unfortunately, when you look at- to an extreme- to say that this is normal- to an extreme- there's studies that show that some women who have been raped in society, their offender goes on to say well she dressed in a way that provoked me. That is twisted thinking, it's criminal minded, but I wouldn't have an issue with my wife with people who are that off because of the way she dresses, she wouldn't be a target. Right? So you kind of see now, even me raising three daughters my daughter at the age 9, began to wear the headscarf, and we never told her to do so. She just did it because she understood the benefits of it, it's respecting one's self and having a sense of dignity and of confidence and a sense of confidence and respect in herself and that's what we benefit from now as a family. I have three daughters, my wife, they looked up to her and that's why they wanted to follow the example of how their mom carried herself with dignity and respect and that's what we hope women value, whether their Muslim or non-Muslim, and that's the way we see women and we see a high level of value for it.