Going behind the veil: students pray for women in the Muslim world
Posted by The Skyliner on November 11th, 2009Samantha Mayo
Staff Writer
The room was dim in the candlelight. Soft, haunting Turkish music played and tables were set for a Middle Eastern tea. North Greenville University students entered one by one, putting on scarves, head coverings and the colorful garb of Muslim women from all over the world for an evening of prayer for the Muslim world.
Ruth McWhite, director of women’s ministry, said that the purpose of the prayer tea was to teach students how to pray more specifically and effectively for Muslims, particularly Muslim women, and to inspire students to reach out to Muslims both in the United States and across the world.
Paula Hemphill, International Mission Board women’s missional strategist, and Kim Gainey, former central Asian missionary, spoke to the students about the plight of Muslim women.
Hemphill told the students that out of all Muslim background Christians, only 10 percent are women.
“That is primarily because they have so little access to the gospel,” Hemphill said.
“[The] Muslim woman…is very hidden, very kept away. She makes no choices of her own. Besides that fact, she has no hope because of her religion,” McWhite said.
Hemphill and Gainey spoke of both the Muslim woman’s plight and some unique aspects of most Muslim cultures, particularly hospitality and the social custom of drinking tea.
Students shared in a Turkish style tea to get a taste of Middle Eastern Muslim culture.
After tea, students joined together for what Hemphill called “seasons of prayer.” The seasons of prayer consisted of a time of prayer for Muslim women, prayer for persecuted believers, prayer for missionaries in Muslim countries and a prayer for God to bring in the harvest. Each of the four seasons was closed with the singing of a hymn.
Katie Kasey, senior Christian studies, found the evening to be very eye opening. When Kasey arrived at the tea, she was given a Middle Eastern burka to wear. The burka covered Kasey completely from her head to below her waist with only a small, veiled opening for her eyes.
Wearing the burka gave Kasey a new sympathy for the plight of Muslim women and a new appreciation for her own freedom.
“When I put this thing over my face, I was automatically invisible. My own friends and people that I know didn’t know me,” Kasey said. “It made me realize how the Muslim women can’t even identify and have friends because their faces can’t even be seen. They can barely see out…. Their view of the world is dimmed, which I can imagine would bring so much hopelessness.”
“ It was eye opening….I had no idea the depression that just having this over you would bring,” Kasey continued. “[Having] this veil over my face has unveiled my eyes to the truths of what so many other people face.”
Although not all experienced the view from a Muslim woman’s burka, all the students learned more about praying for and reaching out to Muslim women across the world.
Tags: Fall 2009, Vol. 109 - Issue 9