Letters to the Editor
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Can someone explain to me
Just exactly how wearing a complete head covering all day long is ever, "empowering?"
The contorted newthink that one must engage in to arrive at such a conclusion would both horrify and astound Orwell himself. Only if freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength, can the hijab be considered a tool of female empowerment.
No, sometimes religion is wrong. Religionists routinely judge non-believers to be inferior, they're sinners, they're of necessity morally bankrupt (because morals can only come from God). For some reason, it is considered ill mannered to respond in kind. I have no such inhibition, and today I shall deconstruct the hijab empowerment nonsense dispassionately.
These are the reasons given by one muslim woman for why she wears the hijab, and finds it empowering. I just did a Google search, and it's the top hit for "hijab empowerment.": http://youngbritmuslim.blogspot.com/2007/03/my-first-day-with-hijab-hijab.html
1. Wear it as your label so that you are recognized as righteous women.
2. Wear it so that you are not harmed because of your physical attributes.
Doesn't point 1 necessarily imply that women who do not wear the hijab are not "righteous women?" Is that empowering? You must wear this set of clothes that completely mask your womanhood, or you are a slut?
On point 2, isn't this precisely the sort of blame-the-victim, she wore a miniskirt and deserved rape mentality that feminists rightly decry in our own society?
Hit #4 on Google (http://xpress.sfsu.edu/archives/magazine/009365.html) reveals more arguments, such as, “When you cover your body, men don’t look at you like you’re an object. They look at you for your mind.”
This sounds empowering on first utterance, but isn't this sentiment entirely the result of a patriarchal society, with such an ingrained culture of woman hatred that men believe that any woman who is beautiful must also be stupid? And why doesn't it apply the other way around? Shouldn't good looking men also hide themselves from the view of women, for similar reasons? Or is physical appearance only a detriment for women? Hmm... why would that be?
True empowerment is not gained through fashion. It is gained through a larger cultural understanding that women are equal to men in every respect.