Linking Hijab to Oppression of Women

[***super_nova***]

Only 44seconds video

The Problem of Linking Hijab to Oppression of Women

[tezza2844]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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She might not feel oppressed to wear it, but her religion still requires her to wear it. So it's still a garment of oppression.

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as far as garments of oppression are concerned there are still oppressions of many religions/beliefs currently being experienced by women as well men. Start off with this link and follow through:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_headcovering

Actually, sometimes heading coverings can be quite attractive depending on the wearer (without being oppressive)

http://imgur.com/gallery/syIYvKh

[the_great_she_elephant]

The ones we wore at my convent school were really only tokens as far as covering your head went. They were mantillas - triangles of black lace,  worn loose with the apex, pointing forward. We thought they were very chic.

[Anonymous]

as far as garments of oppression are concerned there are still oppressions of many religions/beliefs currently being experienced by women as well men. Start off with this link and follow through:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_headcovering

there are a couple of good examples

there, similar to what this topic is about

except most of those are only worn 

during religious ceremonies.  they

are not required to cover up in front of

unrelated males at all times.  

see the difference?

[bluecat*dancing]

Its no one's business. To say that women should not wear the hijab is also controlling and oppressive. If you don't like the hijab, or other hair coverings, then, don't wear one.

[***super_nova***]

[icyfroth]

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@bluecat*poledancing wrote:

Its no one's business. To say that women should not wear the hijab is also controlling and oppressive.

I agree. Australia is a free country and people may wear what they like. I have no problem with Muslim women wearing their muslim garb. Unless it's for concealment from the law, as we've seen in some cases. Carnita Matthews springs to mind.

 If you don't like the hijab, or other hair coverings, then, don't wear one.

The point is, if an orthodox muslim woman doesn't like the hijab, she still has to wear one, according to her religion and culture. 

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[***super_nova***]

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@icyfroth wrote:

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The point is, if an orthodox muslim woman doesn't like the hijab, she still has to wear one, according to her religion and culture. 

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Right, and we are going to liberate her?  How patronising, but that is what Europeans have been doing anywhere we went.  The liberation has to come within their culture.   These countries were handed over by European colonial powers to nasty handpicked dictators, well that worked really great.  Then we decided to "liberate" Iraq and give them democracy, that also was a fantastic success. 

There is lot wrong in the Muslim countries, but you cannot force human rights, and women rights.  It will all take time. 

Back in 1960s, I knew Greek Orthodox girls in Australia who were not able to leave house without a chaperon, their marriages were arranged, and although they were able to say no if they did not like the man, they only ever met him in presence of both families over afternoon tea.  They were never left alone before they were married.  Even during their engagement period they were not even able to go to cinema together without chaperon, who sat between them so they could not hold hands.  I doubt if their kids were brought up in the same way.. 

The same way, I am sure Muslims, as they become part of the community, will become less observant of some of the more drastic parts of Islam.

[johcaschro]

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@***super_nova*** wrote:

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This caption is a false message.

Muslim women do not choose freely to adopt this form of dress; they do it for a reason; it's not a matter of fashion or style or anything to do with freedom of choice.

It is worn because Muslim women have internalised the teaching of Islam that it is the womens' fault if they inflame the passions of the men (who can't or won't take the responsibility of behaving like civilized individuals, but must needs grope and molest and rape uncovered women), because it's the womens' fault.

If there were not the teaching in Islam that women must cover up because it's their fault then sure, the wearing of the hijab or niqab et al might be a freely chosen form of dress.

It's important to understand what Islam teaches about this dress form.

I know that some Muslim women choose to dress like this, but's let's not fool ourselves that it has anything at all to do with freedom.

[johcaschro]

"The Erich Gutenberg College is a trade school in Mülheim, an economically underdeveloped district in Cologne. Two-thirds of the students here are first- or second-generation immigrants, and most are Muslim. A few days after the incidents in Cologne on New Year's Eve, in which a large crowd of men with supposed immigrant backgrounds harassed and sexually assaulted women in the city's main train station, a female teacher stood in front of her class at the school and tried to talk to her students about that night's events.

She was horrified by their reaction. "What exactly do you want?" one of the students shouted. "That's what women can expect if they walk around there at night!" No one in the classroom protested. The girls were silent."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/sexism-and-islam-debated-in-germany-after-cologne-attack...

That's what women can expect if they walk around here at night. That's what women can expect if they walk around without wearing hijab?

What women should expect is that the systematic teaching (a systematic religious teaching; a systematic Islamic religious teaching) that women can "expect" to be abused if they refuse to submit to a dress code imposed by by supposedly religious men, is a teaching which should be consigned to the rubbish bin of history as being total and absolute noxious garbage, poisoning all of those who come into contact with such ideas.

There is no elegance in hijab. There is no beauty in hijab. There is no grace whatsoever in a symbol of oppression.

There is nothing which is deserving of support in the teaching of, and the tolerance of, oppression of women.

Hijab is a reflection of attitudes and of values. It is a reflection of an attitude which values women only in a role which is subordinate to men.

It is an attitude which is  oppressive, repressive and ugly in its violence; and it is a violence. A violence acted out on women and sanctioned as virtue by those who submit to and who teach  Islam.

Its an institutionalised form of violence. a religiously sanctioned form of violence.

a culturally sanctioned form of violence.

It's a thought-form from hell.

Let's not support oppression. Let's support and promote equality of the sexes and freedom of thought and action for everyone.

Let's agree to drop our support for and our rationalisations of a system which espouses oppression and subjection of women.

[lurker172602]

I mostly agree with what you are saying, but I'm also hearing an echo of your argument in our own society.  "If she hadn't been walking in that park after dark she wouldn't have been attacked", "what did she expect getting drunk and dressing like that" etc are comments not unheard of in court rooms and lounge rooms and chat rooms right here in Australia.

We need to be careful not to be too holier than thou in our condemnations of others, lest we open ourselves to being accused of hypocrisy.