Letters to the Editor
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I don't know.
If I were a woman, I don't know if it would be such a great thing to trade a society that required me to be modest for a society that primarily judges me based on whether or not I lived up to impossible standards of beauty. I don't think the hijab is oppressive per se. I would say, however, that the ridiculous standards for unachievable physical perfection that are treated as normal in our society (has anyone read a magazine lately?!) are pretty damn oppressive. And really, our standards of beauty are unachievable. There are entire websites devoted to comparing and contrasting the pre- and post-photoshop pictures of our models and celebrities... allegedly the most beautiful people in our society, who are apparently not even good enough to get in the glossies without major touchups.
That, I think, is the mistake that non-multicultural feminists make when they assume that the hijab is a symbol of oppression. Yes, it is oppressive in circumstances where women's lives and safety is threatened if they don't wear one. But in much of the Arabic world, women view the hijab as something that preserves, rather than degrades, their dignity and personhood. Western people often view Western culture as the blank slate to which everything else must be compared, but really, we are as oppressive (in our own way) as any other patriarchy. We have just clothed our oppression under such guises as women's sexual liberation. Arab women live in such a culture that often requires them to wear a hijab or burqa: Western women live in a culture that often requires them to wear toner, concealer, foundation, powder, mascara, eyeshadow, lip gloss, hairspray, a push-up bra, form-fitting clothes that are "sexy but tasteful," and $300 shoes.
Who are we to say that people of Arab or Muslim culture must conform to our high standards of equality?