Word to the wise

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This is a note I was tagged to on facebook, by the sister who blogs here. Definitely a good thing to know.

Lesson #1: Never Call a Niqaabi a “Munaqqabah” or “Mutanaqqibah”

What Arabic term have we always used to describe a woman who wears niqab? Munaqqabah, right? In class my teacher pointed out that the term “munaqqabah” is actually disturbingly incorrect. And I say, ‘disturbingly’, because it actually means ‘a lady with holes punched in her face’. Egyptians have a very animated method of teaching. Since they teach via language immersion over here (Arabic only in class) they often act out words or draw pictures to get you to guess the meaning, even if they know you’ll understand a simple definition of it in Arabic. Well in this incident, to make sure we’d never make this mistake again, she actually went to the whiteboard and drew a picture of a woman’s face with holes in it.

The term “mutanaqqibah” is also, surprisingly, incorrect! She said it’s funny and sad because these are the every day terms people use to describe women in niqab, but little do we know we’re calling them something morbid.

So what is the correct term, you ask?

Answer: Muntaqibah

Phew, good thing I never used that one!

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