Equality is largely about everyone having equal choices and options. In the US in the 70s and 80s, some (educated, career-prepped, privileged) feminists spoke out against “housewives” and their choice to make a career of managing the household and/or raising kids responsibly. This was wrong. It was fair to point out that some women felt they had no choice but to be “housewives.” It was fair to point out social and economic factors that discouraged women from any other occupation. It was even fair to point out social factors that predisposed women to make that choice. But it was never right to suggest that women who chose to embrace a traditional wife/mother role were some sort of traitors to women’s liberation.
And of course, shaking their heads all along at this ruckus, were the women who never had any choice but to somehow both earn a living and raise kids.
A debate has arisen since France started talking about banning public wearing of the burqa. France says they’re concerned about maintaining secularism and equal rights for women. Is this the same France that condemned the US recently for attempting to extradite a child rapist?
CNN’s “Belief Blog” has up a video article about women in the US who choose to wear the niqab or hijab. It interviews women who say if they didn’t want to wear Islamic face veils, then they wouldn’t, because it’s not required. One woman, Nadia, chooses to cover her face and body because it’s a way to cover those body parts “you don’t want seen by people who are not in your close family… You don’t need to see my whole body to know me. You can just speak to me.”
What a novel concept. In societies like mine, what I wear and how I look in it is constantly assumed to say something about my sexual availability/desirability to the master gender. Every time I attempt to engage socially with another human being, there’s a risk that their ongoing inner dialog about how my body looks will drown out everything I have to say or offer. This woman uses these Islamic garments to force people to either go deeper or leave her alone.
Aliya feels the same way about a hijab forcing people to engage her on an intellectual level rather than a body-appraising sex-object one. But she elects not to wear the niqab or full burqa because she feels it would hinder her professional aspirations (I assume she means by making her stand out more from her peers than the hijab alone).
These women born and raised in the U.S. have been lectured by random strangers at grocery stores about how “we don’t do that here.” Of course, this demonstrates that no matter what a woman does, some people are going to judge her appearance. But there’s nothing we can do about that alone. How different is the choice to wear covering religious garments from the choice to wear a mumu, or spandex exercise wear or whatever else a woman chooses to wear? When comes the part of equality where we get to stop being judged like cattle at a county fair?
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Shaun — Right, but I have lots of French friends, and all of them think Sarkozy is an idiot and an embarrassment to France. From what I’ve read in the French popular press, that’s a pretty common sentiment.
It’s a little like if someone said “the US thinks this” (a few years ago) — and just quoted George W. Bush’s positions. As an American, I’d ask them not to lump the country together as one monolithic mindset.
chanson(Quote) (Reply)
But I DO say phrases that could imply I think the whole population of the US is of one accord about something, if one wants to read it that way, and you’ve never complained about those.
I don’t think anyone else seriously thought I meant to imply that all the residents of France agree on anything, let alone two things.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Eh, I feel the same way about it either way. If we don’t want the ignorant and crazy speaking for us, maybe we should stop giving them airtime and talk a little louder ourselves.
GardenGoblin(Quote) (Reply)
Exactly – as long as we’re talking about countries where the people HAVE the privilege to speak out against their governments, that privilege becomes a responsibility.
Jennifer Kesler(Quote) (Reply)
Interesting things I’ve noticed about burqa/niqab bans floated or passed in France, Belgium, Quebec et al:
a) few Muslim women wore them in the first place. It was like 2000 or so in France, and the Muslim population is over a million IIRC. See also Switzerland, where mosque spinarrettes were banned by direct vote despite there being only a handful of mosques with them.
b) the laws have penalties for women wearing them, such as banning them from public/government facilities. The reasoning given for the ban is “they are forced to wear them”, the governments view these women as victims who need help. Why the heck are you criminalising victims, guys?
Charles RB(Quote) (Reply)
b) the laws have penalties for women wearing them, such as banning them from public/government facilities. The reasoning given for the ban is “they are forced to wear them”, the governments view these women as victims who need help. Why the heck are you criminalising victims, guys?
The reasoning appears to be: “It is wrong to force women to dress a certain way. Therefore, we will pass a law to force women to dress a certain different way. Problem solved!”
Patrick McGraw(Quote) (Reply)
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