Oppression is in the eye of the beholder, you know. Having spent my undergrad years up to my elbows in literature on marriage and families, this is a topic that's graced my intellect on more than one occasion.
With the dawn of the feminism age in the mid-1900s, droves of women proclaimed their independence and threw off the fetters that bound them to narrow, socially acceptable roles. The message to society was simply this: "How dare you tell us what we cannot do based on gender? How dare you confine women to be barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen? How dare you tell us we're worth nothing more than a gaggle of children and a few loaves of homemade bread?"
But if I may interject here, let us not forget that the sword cuts both ways. While equal opportunity is all well and good, it is my opinion that we have veered much too far in the contrary direction. In an effort to proclaim their right to wear business suits and earn paychecks comparable to their male counterparts, my feminist sisters, perhaps inadvertently, knocked sexual prejudice on its little head and took things for a 180-degree spin.
Case in point: society now places a firm taboo against telling a woman that she doesn't belong in the corporate world; however, society loves to tell women like me -- women who, yes, admittedly, firmly place motherhood as our primary goal in life -- that we are aiming too low. That raising children is old-fashioned and simple-minded. That we are less intelligent, less capable and less ambitious than the female CEOs and political leaders of the world. That women who choose full-time motherhood are just stay-at-home moms.
What once again brought this double-edged topic to my attention was France's recent ban on wearing burqas in public. The burqa, traditionally worn by Muslim women in public places, is a veil that reveals little more than a woman's eyeballs, worn with a robe that reveals little more than her hands. Society, round up your cavalries and raise your red flags: how dare a religion tell a woman she must cover herself in public? How dare a culture so brutally oppress a gender?
If I may interject again, let me point out what the burqa truthfully represents: respect. Many Muslim women wear the burqa because they respect their bodies to such a degree that they do not wish to flaunt it to the world. How sad is it that society screams "oppressive and wrong" at this, while plastering billboards and media with pornographic depictions that shriek "liberating and right."
I admit that corrupted dictators and governments have tainted society's view of traditional Islam with their extremist attitudes and, yes, oppression of women. But surely it is a logical fallacy to brand a religious practice as 100-percent erroneous because it has been warped at the hands of fanatics. Perhaps we are the ones with a warped idea of what is truly beautiful.
If we ever tried to put a ban on immodesty, the world might simply implode. Heaven forbid free expression that dictates reverence and respect for a woman's body by covering it rather than revealing it.
Forgive me, but something about this doesn't sit well with me.
So if I may: France, how dare you?
Kari Ansari: Telling Muslim Women What Not to Wear
Anne Peterson: Know Your Veils: A Guide to Middle Eastern Head Coverings (PHOTOS)
Ida Lichter, M.D.: Misogyny in the Muslim World: Bound by Culture or Religion?
Mike Ghouse: French Burqa Ban Sets a Dangerous Precedent
George W Bush, Aboard Air Force One, en route to Australia), Oct. 22, 2003
Hawkes, you are cracked.
You said that Hawkes "incorrectly assume these women's misogynistic masters allow them any choice"
You are incorrectly assume that covering the body represents inequality and that all women who cover are doing so because they are forced by "misogynistic masters".
Extremely poor arguement because you are only basing this off the mainstream propaganda you hear.
You need to realize that Muslim women who cover some or all of their body are doing this by choice and because of what Islam tells them to do, not because of their husbands or fathers. I am not going to be biased and say that all cases are like that, but from my personal experience, I do not know of anyone forced to wear the veil. I have actually witnessed the opposite where some muslim men tell their wives not to wear it in order to fit into the culture.
With regards to France, they absolutely have no right to tell someone what to wear. If they are concerned about certain Muslim womens rights they need to investigate it on a case by case basis. Also one should not assume that wearing a veil and covering the body is a form of torture or abuse. So even if a women were forced to wear it, it does not have any physical affect on her what so ever.
On teh other hand, there are those women who earnestly want to wear it.
It's a weighing of interests. Which interest should prevail?
"As a test of strength," said the sun, "Let us see which of us can take the coat off of that man."
Love is warm and bright, one can hardly resists.
I love you all.
I happen to belong to the [[religion]] of Islam and NO. burqa DOES NOT truthfully represents: respect. and guess whatI! many women and even men wear it to hide their sins and criminal wills and backgrounds. !
I think the debatable word here is "MANY" as you said "Many Muslim women wear the burqa because they respect their bodies...." any statistics please ?
custom in Islam is part of a much bigger system of values and concepts. with so many dimensions and priorities and levels. i.e. there are many statement/versus in Muslims Book (Koran/Coran) that forbids showing or saying what you don't believe in. at least and i am saying at least with this sense of belief and logic one should not wear what she is claiming to be an Islamic custom when she is not following the basic Islamic teachings amongst which is to obey the law which should stem from the will of a the majority (equal to democracy in today's terms). Thus, if the law of the states or Palestine or Turkey or Syria or France asks people to reveal their identities for security purposes or whatever, women should follow and obey the law. The elected law.
Indeed it is, so let's stop clinging to horrible oppressive customs that have no basis, except in misogyny, just because we can't accept that other people think forcing a woman to cover up completely might be a wee bit oppressive.
Again ... don't stretch so hard to sound tolerant and reasonable. It just doesn't work for you.
Please, Katie, don't make such a stretch to sound reasonable and tolerant. This is one of the most absurd arguments I've ever heard ... really embarrassing.
being a woman.
And, would you really want your children to share the road with burqa-clad drivers? That little eye slit offers so much in the way of peripheral vision. Lawd help us if the clip holding back the "privacy curtain" accidentally deploys!