my point in bringing up the grammatical ambiguousness of certain passages of the quran was not to convey that god, in his or her almighty wisdom, had a perfect or imperfect grasp of arabic grammar. the quran was revealed to humans who then had to interpret it, or so the muslims say. for the record, I am an atheist.

this little matter about the nuances of arabic grammar was irrelevant; the point i was making is that the text of the quran is not as overtly misogynist as one might assume. when read in the original language, which i assure you i have done, there are ambiguities present. PEOPLE interpret these ambiguities and often interpret them in such a way that benefits them.

religions that have texts associated with them are all subjected to translation, interpretation, and application. islam is not an exception. just as orthodox jews who attack women that are dressed with insufficient modesty do not represent all jews, wahhabist muslims of saudi arabia do not represent all muslims.

i did not also bring up push up bras and miniskirts in order to claim that any religion has forced me, or anyone else to wear them. please read my post carefully. i am saying that women who CHOOSE to wear hijab are doing so for cultural reasons; women who CHOOSE to wear miniskirts and pushup bras are doing the same. these are footprints of the same obsession with women's sexuality. this footprints just look different in different cultures.

secondly, there are interpretations of feminism, by the way, that applaud women's attempts to revel in their own sexuality and ability to take ownership over their own objectification. this is not my interpretation, but they exist. i would rather derisively call them the pop-culture brand of you-go-girl feminism, but they are out there.

and no, with the possible exception of britney spears, allie lohan, and a few other kids unfortunate enough to live in hollywood, western mothers do not force their kids to wear miniskirts. but again, read my post, and obama's speech, and tracy clark-flory's post CAREFULLY. my post, clark-flory's column, and his speech, were referring to women who CHOOSE to wear hijab, not women who are beaten by mobs of men for refusing to wear it, or women whose families force them to wear it.

women who CHOOSE to wear it. if you have been to Istanbul, or Dearborne, Michigan, or Cairo, you will have seen such women. Sexual harassment in Cairo, as you mentioned, has become more prevalent than in past decades, but residents of that city will tell you that women in hijab are targeted with as much, or even more, frequency as women without. it is tough to make the argument that women in Cairo thus wear hijab to protect themselves from sexual assault, as it would offer them no protection from it.

and finally, since either a) you didn't read my post clearly or b) the post itself was unclear:. no RELIGION encourages western women to dress scantily and punishes them for appearing "dowdy" or unnatractive. i never said that, nor did i mean that.

but western CULTURE surely does. if you read broadsheet with any regularity, you're surely aware of the frequency with which any famous or semi-famous woman who has dared to gain weight will immediately apologize for it (oprah, kirstie allie), or proudly appear on a magazine cover in a bikini or short dress to demonstrate that she is no longer fat (valerie bertinelli, virtually any woman in hollywood that has had a baby and must prove she lost the Baby weight). susan boyle, you will remember, was offered makeovers the second she became a youtube sensation. her dowdiness, which was part of her charm, immediately became something of a liability and a yahoo headline the day after her youtube video got a million hits read "will susan boyle get a makeover?"

my point, lest is is again misunderstood, is not that a religion cares whether or not susan boyle has a unibrow, but rather it is undeniable that our culture sexualizes women and rewards them explicitly for being attractive. our culture rewards us for catering to traditional standards of attractiveness just like Muslim culture rewards women for catering to traditional standards of piety.

thus, to say that a woman in Turkey, or the US, who CHOOSES--and this is crucial to my point--CHOOSES to wear hijab is oppressed because she is catering to cultural pressures that she simply is not admitting to, but a woman in the west who goes out dancing in a miniskirt is NOT oppressed because she is catering to cultural pressures that is not admitting to, is very problematic.

and finally, i am wondering if you have ever read the quran. if you haven't, please read the penguin books translation. then read the old testament. then please tell me which religion advocates for more violence against women, and then perhaps we can engage in a discussion about religion as text versus religion as interpreted by scholars versus religion as interpreted by the masses.