I don't think that Mr. Hosni's statement about women's beautiful hair is laughable at all. I think that its a privilege to be able to bring beauty, in whatever form it may be, into this world. In terms of physcial beauty, I think that there are few things more beautiful than the human form.

This statement, on my part, is in no way intended to imply that physical appearance is the be-all and end-all of beauty, or that women should be presenting themselves with anything other than their own satisfaction in mind. I don't believe that Mr. Hosni intended to imply that either.

I have a hard time believing that 80% of Egyptian women wear veils.

I spent about 3 weeks in Egypt earlier this year, and while veiled women weren't, strictly speaking, uncommon, they were far from being the norm. I'm guessing the writer of the original article has confused veils, which cover the face, with headscarves, which only border the face. And there is a huge difference between the two in terms of a person's ability to interact with others normally.

Indeed in 3 months travelling through 4 Islamic countries, we probably saw only 20 or 30 women who chose to cover their faces. We saw as many women wearing short skirts (well, above the knee, anyway) in one Damascus restaurant. And, while Syrians are much more liberal than Egyptians in their interpretation of Islam, perhaps feelings against the veil are not as out of the ordinary as they might sound to those whose only contact with the Muslim world is through the media.

It may be trivial, but I like women's beautiful hair, especially when they don't try too hard to make it beatiful, and instead just let it be. Bandannas and doilies and things are cute, but those big scarves are ugly.

I have recently completed my PhD specializing in Arabic women and Islam and I must take extreme objection to your analysis. It is poor journalism to brush aside Hosni's actual words and baselessly attribute your own views to him. The issue of the headscarf (which is often called the veil) for many in the Arab-Muslim world is precisely the issue of whether women should or should not display their hair, bodies, or beauty for the pleasure or titilation of men. In fact, it is this view which leads many women to take the veil (headscarf.) For them, it is an assertion of their desire for liberation from sexualization by men. Hosni's view is in no way refreshing; it is quite common in the Arabic world and extremely sexist. A supporter of women's rights should be just that; a supporter of women's right to choose their own clothing. It is inappropriate for a political figure to weigh in on this kind of personal choice. Imagine if President Bush declared that American women should wear skirts above the knee so that men could see their beautiful legs! Hosni's statement is not different.

I agree with L that women should wear what they choose--my question is: Who determines what the women choose?

If women choose to wear a veil or a headscarf because they feel pressured by their family or by the local society to do so--is that really their choice?

In the US, women may feel pressure from media or from local fashion mavens to wear a certain style, but failure to do so does not result in beatings or other forms of physical punishment.

As far as I can see, the whole argument about veiling is less about religion than a throwback to the idea that a woman must be "pure" when she enters a marriage so the husband can be sure any children are his. It's about "ownership," plain and simple.

In many cultures, a woman "belongs" to her father until he passes "ownership" to her husband. If the husband dies, the oldest son becomes her "guardian." It sounds more like slavery to me.

I am always concerned that polls and media reports capture the views of posturing spokespeople. I have known so many Muslims so very irreverent about religion, and that viewpoint is politically suppressed.

...except in blogs. Check out this one:

http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/01/as_my_own_seaso.php

Here's an excerpt from another thread on the veil in Saudi Arabia, and the women who defend it,

link http://www.aqoul.com/archives/2006/06/corner_on_niqab.php#comments:

Fucking hell I hate these women. So priggish and vile and blind and STUPID.

When will they look past their own smug, pious, safe, educated, middle class little lives at the plight of the voiceless Saudi women? The ones who are beaten, abused, in forced marriages, harrassed. The ones denied education, the right to work, the right to sovereignty over their own bodies? The ones who have their children taken from them, and their (supposedly Islamically guaranteed) rights stripped away.

But of course they can't look very far, can they? They've got a bloody great veil blocking out most of the light.

What the hell does that mean. Should we give men so little credit to think that just looking at us will cause them to go into a hormonal fit of lust, pillage and rape? Wow, it's that backward thinking and utter control that induces these atrocities in the first place. It's really about control otherwise it wouldn't be completely one sided. Aren't women sexual creatures, with desire and hormones that God or evolution has given us in order to continue the species? It is unfair to judge people based on their appearance, so here's my suggestion, let's veil all the men too. Then us women won't be having sinful thoughts as men pass by, otherwise we are likely to get all hot and heavy under our veils and head scarves at the sight of a strong jaw bone and soulful dark eyes. Oh wait these men would never go for that, it might hinder them as they work (but not women of course), it might take away some of the pride they have in their handsome appearance (women don't deserve to take pride in these things), and it might make it a little harder for them to look some one in the eyes and determine the quality of that other person (women have no need to do this because the men decide these things for them). Yes let us veil all the Muslim men, now that is equality.