Letters to the Editor
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Oppression
I don't think this is an area of grayness. Very recently I heard Azar Nafisi, the author of Reading Lolita In Teheran. She very clearly articulated the issue that I also have as a woman with middle eastern but non Moslem. As western feminists the issue is very clear. Religion by choice, wether for women or men is a right, a human right. How we choose to practice it should be an individual choice. Oppression, misogyni and patriarchy rear their heads when the state, the father or husband force a woman to practice that expression. When it is forced, it's a lie. It's a caricature that is only there to make the person who endows themselves with authority the satisfaction of obedience. That same right of choice in religions expression, should be afforded to Arab women, Moslem women, basically all women without distinction and without gray areas. We are either for human rights or we are not. It's not ok to apply cultural relativism to an issue of rights.
Practicing and believing Moslem women should have the right and the protection to wear the hijab. As feminists we should not cloud tyranny with the fog of cultural relativism and acceptance. When a woman is killed for not wearing the hijab, it's a violation of human rights. In this day in age, this is a crime against humanity. If there is one honorable thing that has come out of the West, it is this concept. It's not gray.
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More hypcracy
Wonderful...so it's o.k. to oppress people if it's done in the name of religion.
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Anon at 8:41...
why insane? Or do you just say things without ever explaining them?
It occurs to me while this discussion is going on that Salman Rushdie in Midnight's Children wrote about a case similar to the one I knew personally, of a woman whose better-educated and modern husband encouraged her to leave purdah and she refused, arguing her own empowerment. Rushdie's character also became insanely abusive of her family and ended up physically assaulting her husband. Although fiction, I'm pretty sure this portrait was drawn from life. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's mother also seems to have been like this, if you read her autobiography.
The hijab itself is a little beside the point here...I think it goes back to an earlier issue from Broadsheet about the burqa clad women who became vigilantes in Pakistan: can women choose their own oppression? I would argue that these women, whose anger and frustration comes out in the form of abuse in the home, have been so thoroughly brainwashed that they are not really free agents anymore. I know that's probably an unpopular thing to say but there are people who can hardly be said to be exercising free choice. Saying that a woman has "chosen" the burqa falls into this category; the hijab I'm a little more ambivalent about, since, as many people have pointed out, it's often not that much different than your grandma's headscarf. Still we don't see ANY Western young women wearing headscarves today, so it's a little stupid to talk about Jane Austen's time--clearly nobody wants it now. In a truly free world, I don't think many Muslim women would choose it either.
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Sloppy analysis
If this is what is to pass for insight and analysis she wastes her and my time.
Talk about vacuous! She must be running for office---as a'concerned' Liberal democrat, no doubt.
The mind-numbing continuum of these folks is so easy to dissect and detect that I would wager a bunch that I could give you her position, with at least 90% accuracy, on a range of issues of her choice.
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ok, i'll give it a try, Renegade Iconoclast (pg 18)
(how a burka can be empowering).but first, and on the same page, is, "It has to do with (among other things) being proud to be a good muslim and a refusal to hide from bigots." - a good start would be getting a screen name and not hiding behind "Anonymous" - it calls up suspicion that it is more shame than pride. Anonymous is no more "anonymous" than a screen name, but it doesn't differentiate you and it leaves out any personal history (hey! that's what being a moslem is all about, isn't it?) [that last was intentionally provocative, but it is what your handle proclaims - get a screen name]
OK, renegade. here's how a burka (not a mere hijab) can be empowering. jewel thief. terrorist. being invisible. being unsociable (the one who stinks always gets a seat on the subway). it's like having your own personal phone booth. you can hide in plain sight. -
Good one...
the burqa has been used by many terrorists and criminals, including bank robbers in Bosnia and the terrorist maulvi of the Lal Masajid when he tried to escape. Some people have said that Bin Laden has made use of the burqa as a disguise...although he's also, apparently, very tall so who knows.
So the burqa is good for something!
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Wow, a lot of passion.
I am surprised at the tremendous amount of passion I view expressed here, and I am surprised because I just can't get passionate about this issue one way or the other. My topics of interests are in this order; sex, love, parenting, sexual empowerment, gender equality, respect for sexuality (all forms of it), civil rights, politics, world travel, international issues, understanding violence, promoting self defense, preventing rape, combating bad judicial decisions, and American patriotism.
As an American serviceman, sworn to protect the US constitution, I respect all Americans right to exercise their religion, or not exercise a religion, if they so please. That really is as far as my position goes on the story that is at the center of the discussion that you all are having on this thread. However, it appears that in your passionate arguments for feminism to protect the rights of all women to exercise a religion if she so choices, vs. feminism to oppose oppressive religions, you all have lost sight of the real issue that was worthy of debate and passion, for or against, in the story that is at the center of this thread; "honor Killings".
The father did not kill his daughter because she was a defiant daughter, he killed her because he believed that she would not pass on the Muslim practices to the next generation. In other words she was killed because she was believed to be a traitor to her culture, race, traditions, customs, heritage, beliefs, values, morals, and religion.
That girl had a lot of weight put on her shoulders, didn't she? Also, let me remind you that "Honor Killings" are not exclusive to Islam, and that every culture on the planet has often forsaken their own daughters and sons, because they strayed into areas that were adverse to their backgrounds.
Fortunately my parents were very supportive of my conversion to a far Eastern religion, and my marriage to a woman of a different race. But many of my friends were not so lucky, especially the ones that converted to Islam from Christianity, and yes, the daughters who converted to Islam received a lot more scorn than the sons that did.
The issue is, can we betray our back ground and still be universally accepted? If you are an agnostic or atheist feminist, and your only daughter decides to convert to Islam and become the third wife of an Arab national, how are you going to deal with that?
How should the father who honor killed his daughter have better dealt with the great sense of betrayal he felt?