{"id":480,"date":"2003-10-19T02:02:06","date_gmt":"2003-10-19T06:02:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/?p=480"},"modified":"2007-07-31T09:13:41","modified_gmt":"2007-07-31T13:13:41","slug":"women-hijab-oppression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nomes.malcolm-x.org\/?p=480","title":{"rendered":"women, hijab, oppression"},"content":{"rendered":"

a comment i made on degrouchyowl’s web site<\/a> a while ago was brought into question by someone
\nso let me now explain it<\/p>\n

someone stated:
\nHow patently strange that you people think a western woman exercising her right to choose is oppressed and a muslim woman under a dress code is free–very odd \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd very pathetic. <\/i><\/p>\n

and to it i replied:
\nmulti-culturalism is the way to go <\/p>\n

diversity vs. assimilation <\/p>\n

the non-muslims bring up some important points (though not all are valid) especially this last one
\nwhen a western woman chooses, she’s oppressed by the media
\nwhen a muslim woman chooses, she’s choosing (choosing not to choose) <\/p>\n

multi-culturalism <\/p>\n

go canada<\/i><\/p>\n

what i mean is this, a common muslim argument to defend an islamic state where hijab would be mandatory is “but western women are oppressed by the popular culture and media to conform to rigid standards”
\ni don’t deny that pop culture has an immense influence upon the standards of dressing of women
\nhowever, it is not law
\na girl who dons the hijab in canada or america is, by defintion, a western woman
\nbut she has not been forced by the culture or the law to throw away the hijab and adopt the ‘western’ way of dress
\non the contrary, her choice is (more often than not) respected by law
\n[this is not taking into account states like turkey, or france or the province of quebec, where hijab is in many cases not allowed — i’m talking about canada, as my post says — and even in france and quebec, the hijabi can take her case to court]<\/p>\n

on the other hand, if we go to this ‘islamic state,’ women would be forced to wear the hijab, by law (e.g., taliban’s afghanistan)
\nthey would not have the choice to remove it if they willed, and they would not be able to take their case to court<\/p>\n

there are, here, two types of oppression, if that is a proper word to use
\nin the west, its media influence
\nin the case of the ‘islamic state,’ it’s a binding law that makes it illegal to choose or refuse the hijab<\/p>\n

that’s the point i’m making<\/p>\n

but let’s say you have a patriarchical family who’s moved to the west
\nand the father makes his daughters or wife wear the hijab
\nhere, once again, is oppression<\/p>\n

say you have a western family who move to pakistan or something
\nand the father disallows his daughters or wife from wearing the hijab
\nthen yes, that, too is oppression<\/p>\n

but the latter doesn’t happen much too often<\/p>\n

of course, there are families where the parents disallow their daughters from wearing the hijab, for whatever reason
\nthat, too, is oppression<\/p>\n

i use the word broadly, there’s much to the issue of oppression<\/p>\n

anyway, that was my point<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

a comment i made on degrouchyowl’s web site a while ago was brought into question by someone so let me now explain it someone stated: How patently strange that you people think a western woman exercising her right to choose is oppressed and a muslim woman under a dress code is free–very odd \u00ef\u00bf\u00bd very […]<\/p>\n

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