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Finally, someone says it! How about listening to the robust debate on the issue among female Muslim academics and scholars before holding forth about this complex issue? But no, surely "female Muslim scholars" must be an oxymoron, as we are all victims of the Stockholm Syndrome.
I'm a Muslim woman who chooses to wear the hijab ("scarf" in modern parlance). I'm also a graduate of a top-10 U.S. law school. I'm also someone who chose to wear it, much to the horror of my mother, who does not. My father was hand-off about it, as is my husband now, and my brother actively tried to discourage me from wearing it (so much for all Muslim men as "oppressive"). I've been wearing it for the past 11 years. And yes, at times it gets hot and annoying, and its not always fun to stand out in a crowd, especially at a law firm, but I do it as a sign of my spiritual devotion, and as a check against superficiality and vanity (among many other reasons). I am so happy to live in the United States, where I have the choice to wear it or not, as opposed to Saudi Arabia where I would be forced to, or France, where I couldn't go to a public high school wearing it as I did here. I'm also happy to have non-Muslim friends who don't try to take my agency away by assuming I must be brainwashed. We have interesting discussions.
I have to admit that the burka unnerves me as well, but as a liberal, how can I argue that government has the right to police women's bodies? Whither, pro-choice? Some of my cousins-in-law wear burka, and decided to wear it before they were married, AGAINST the will of the men in their families. They were born, educated, and brought up in the U.S. It is not so difficult to imagine that many many intelligent women choose to wear hijab/burka/long sleeves/long skirts etc for their own personal reasons. Try talking to us sometime.
