This section of the Website is so that you can look up past
stories and articles that you might have missed when they first
appeared on this website.
Exposing Some Facts and
Shedding Light on the Subject
vitamin D deficiency in Muslim women who wear Hijab. If you do a subject search on
Google, you can get almost 80,000 hits on the topic with lots of opinions and a whole
bunch of dire warnings. This article will explore some of the research and themes of
the published stories and try to put it into context with the reality of Muslim women
who wear hijab. We will also try to provide constructive advice on getting enough
vitamin D in your diet.
Below are some headlines that seem to target Muslim women who wear hijab...
‘Women in hijabs 'need sunlight or risk illness'
‘Could Dressing Conservatively Make Muslim Women Sick?’
‘Nutrition: Muslim Women Have Low Vitamin D Levels’
‘Arab-American women need supplement to boost dangerously low vitamin D levels.’
Notice how all four headlines focus on racial or religious wording that seems to
convey a message that dressing like an Arab/Muslim woman will get you sick. The
contents of the articles carry the point further by focusing on the fact that these
studies, done on Muslim women in several countries, found that Muslim women who
don’t get enough sun, or who don’t consume enough vitamin D in their diet, have a
higher risk of diabetes, cancer, high blood pressure and a host of other medical
problems.
Please pay attention Sisters...MUSLIM WOMEN WHO DON’T GET ENOUGH
VITAMIN D IN THEIR DIETS CAN GET SICK!!! This is not just a western conspiracy
to get Hijab wearing Muslimas to modify their habits of dress. It is a documented fact
that religious women who dress modestly can and do seem to suffer more vitamin D
deficiencies than do women who don’t cover. Jewish Women, Christian Women,
Muslim Women, Hindu Women, Atheist Women and in fact ANY woman who doesn’t
get enough sun or vitamin D in her diet from other sources can and probably will
have health problems.
Let’s identify one half of the underlying problem. Women (not just Muslim women)
don’t seem to be getting enough sun. OK, that is simple. Now the question, Why?
The studies above focused on Muslim women because of the way they dress. It
was assumed that because “they” were so different and went to “extremes” in
covering, that “they” were obvious candidates for certain vitamin deficiencies. Many
researchers chose to overlook religious Jewish or Christian women who choose to
dress in modest attire that is every bit as concealing as your average Muslima. They
also dismissed the large female populations who work long hours in office buildings
and other indoor occupations where sun exposure is at a minimum. Also excluded
were wearers of high SPF sun blockers that are a part of many ladies daily cosmetic
routine because of skin cancer warnings and, here in the northern hemisphere, the
women who wear layers of clothing. The clothing referred to here is not hijab but
mandatory protection against the cold for large parts of the year that in turn ends up
blocking the sun’s rays from producing vitamin D.
There is another factor that determines susceptibility to Vitamin D deficiency, Race,
or more specifically, skin pigmentation. In one United Kingdom study researchers
made the comment that "For certain ethnic groups there is an increased risk of
vitamin D deficiency as people with dark and pigmented skin are less efficient at
making vitamin D in their skin.”. Obviously the writers of the above headlines must
think that all Muslim women are of “darker” or “more pigmented” races in order to
paint us with a vitamin D deficiency brush. But guess what? Scientists and
Journalists, please listen up!, it is not just women who are Muslim who are having
this health issue, it is people of color, especially women, who cover against the sun
and women of any color or religion who don’t drink enough milk, eat fatty fish, or take
supplements that are affected. It is MEN and WOMEN and CHILDREN who are
having problems because they avoid the sun or have poor diets. So this information
affects not just the Muslima and her Sisters, but our entire FAMILIES!
Now to address the other part of the underlying problem...Women don’t make up
for insufficient sun exposure by adjusting their diets. Again the question, Why?
Maybe it is just me, but personally, I have never enjoyed a nice big glass of cold
milk unless it had a lot of chocolate in it. I like ice cream. I like cheese. I like yogurt.
But not too much of any of them. I also like fish...occasionally. Another thing, some
of the members of my family are lactose intolerant. We don’t keep a lot of milk
products around the house. See, I can find lots of reasons to NOT get the vitamin D
that I need in my diet. How many other people make the same kind of excuses?
But let’s not get into the issue of how good some Muslims are at making excuses
for some of their actions. Right now we need to focus on how we, ESPECIALLY
Muslim Women, can help ourselves AND our families by getting the vitamin D that we
need.
Among the fear-mongering and distorted news on the internet and other media are
some sources of good information. By sifting through the on-line material, reading
some professional journals and talking to real, live DOCTORS, the sisters here at
IUMW have come up with some practical guidelines that make sense and don’t take a
lot of effort in order to achieve maximum benefits.
1. Drink Vitamin D fortified drinks like Milk, Orange Juice and some of the Vitamin
Waters that have vitamin D in them naturally or added as a supplement.
2. Eat dairy products like cheese, butter and yogurt and fortified cereals that have
vitamin D in them. Also eat canned mushrooms and egg yolks. “Fatty” fish like
salmon also help with vitamin D. And if you can’t stand the taste of fish, hold your
nose and gulp down some good old fashioned fish oil.
3. If you still won’t eat all of the D that you need in your food choices, take a multi-
vitamin that has at least 600 units of Vitamin D in it or a Vitamin D tablet. But don’t
overdo it! Remember, Muslims are supposed to be moderate in all things.
4. The easiest and best way to get the vitamin D that you need is the SUN! Big,
bright thing...comes up every day? Sisters, there are ways to get a little tanning
without compromising modesty. A safe amount of sun exposure is just 10-15 minutes
which will get your body to produce Vitamin D naturally without being a hazard to your
skin health. Sensible sun exposure means the exposure of arms and legs for 5-30
minutes (depending on time of day, season, latitude, and skin pigmentation) between
the hours of 10 am and 3 pm twice a week.
There are some simple methods for getting the sun you need. Do you have a
private porch or deck, someplace where you won’t be observed? In the Middle East
and Africa, many homes have a private courtyard where the ladies can be
unobserved while they are uncovered, but in the US and Europe it is more difficult. If
you have a backyard where you can set up some screens or panels that allow the
sun to shine on you but keep prying eyes out, do it! Sit and relax for a couple of
minutes reciting dua’s or just taking a break. Don’t stay out for very long and if you
want to break it up into several 5-10 minute “mini-tans”, use a timer to keep track.
If finding a suitable spot is really out of the question or the weather in your area is
unfavorable for outdoor sunning for extended periods of time, invest in a small
sunlamp and use it a couple of times a week. Read the warnings about using it
though because a sun lamp can also cause sun burns.
Still having trouble getting enough sun in your life? Light colored fabric can allow a
lot of sun to permeate the cloth and allow your skin to absorb some of the sun’s
rays. Don’t stay out too long because you can still get a burn and you don’t want
your shape to be observed through the transparent material.
To sum it all up, Vitamin D is important for Muslim Women. You don’t have to give up
or compromise Hijab to get what you need (either in vitamins or in life.) Writers like to
take items out of context and use it to show how wrong Islam is in THEIR opinion.
And Muslim women need to ignore the hype and find the truth just like we do with
Islam.
Some of the Material I found:
The first online article that I want you to access is titled “Vitamin D and your health: Breaking old
rules, raising new hopes.” This was published by the Harvard Medical School and does a great
job explaining what Vitamin D is, what it does for your health and what can happen if you don’t get
enough. The URL is as follows: https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/vitamin-d-and-your-
health.htm
The second online article that I would like you to see is “How to get enough Vitamin D.” This one
has a lot of good tips about getting enough “D” in your diet and in your life. The URL is: http://www.
ehow.com/how_2160026_enough-vitamin-d.html
Below are some more sites that helped in research for this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-469196/Women-hijabs-need-sunlight-risk-illness.html
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/06/could-burkas-ma.html
http://www.shiachat.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=31419
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12149082
http://www.medica.de/cipp/md_medica/custom/pub/content,lang,2/ticket,g_u_e_s_t/oid,27698
http://www.slate.com/id/2169013
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-02/hfhs-aw021209.php
http://www.ehow.com/how_2160026_enough-vitamin-d.html
