#77, the idea that there’s any feminism in wearing a headscarf to conceal hair so that you won’t tempt men… well…

However the larger problem is religion of restriction, religion of law. I’m not objectifying Islam as the solo “concern” here as some on the right like to do. I see Huckabee and such Xtian crusading types who want to amend the Constitution to meet “God’s standards” as equally, and in fact, more offensive.

Monotheism by virtue of its laws, Mosaic and otherwise, is all about restriction. The place of women in Islam according to tradition is very, very clear – no matter what spin some feminist Muslims try to put on it. Yes brave pathfinders such as Irshad have the courage to seek a new definitions, including those relating to sexual orientation (she is a lesbian), but she has been routinely threatened. In fact I get the sense that the threats on her life have backed her off the more militant stance.

Organized religion is the problem – not spirituality. I had to learn this painfully having been raised in a conservative, right wing environment. It’s one reason why I am coming to greatly value forums such as Crooked Timber because it creates an oasis of genuine discourse in a political environment that is becoming increasingly partisan, polarized and fractious.

Laleh ty – I’m with you completely. I guess my reference to “political reasons” has been conditioned by the top-down dress code requirements of theocracy – which I loathe. But if a woman feels that hijab is a part of her identity and its her choice, it’s a different matter entirely.

of course people wear (or shed) hijab for political reasons, and of course neither wearing it nor NOT wearing it should be enforced. i come from a country where in the 1930s they forcibly ripped the hijab off the heads of elderly women (people like my great grandmother) which is something akin to ripping clothes off women’s backs on a European street. and then in the early 1980s i was slapped in the face by young women who thought my hijab was too loose and not Islamic enough. so trust me, I know what force is.

but again, that outward signifier of politics is really really important. and i personally know a half dozen educated radical women in European and North American cities who have taken up the hijab for precisely that reason (a couple of them have active pre-marital sex lives, and several of them even drink)…

http://www.meydaan.org/english/default.aspx

http://justworldnews.org/archives/002206.html

While I doubt if many people are interested in your phobias, if you are going to bring them up perhaps you should be a little less cryptic.

What about that Danish king in the 1940s wearing (allegedly) a star of david for political reasons?

Given their druthers Iranian women (for example) living in urban centers tended to have a natural preference for Western/Iranian hybrid fashions that were very chic. Remember those wonderful sunglasses, some studded with faux diamonds many used to favor – tres cool. Now these same women are being coerced and humiliated on the streets of Tehran by semi-literate Islamic thug police for wearing headscarves that are too small or tops that are too revealing. Adult women are being treated like children! This is hideous – and it’s being enforced by the minions of Ahmadinejad for religious reasons that are … when you get behind it … political.

I have no objection at all to Islamic dress as such, but I do have an objection when young women are intimidated into wearing hijab. Recently here in Ontario a terrible tragedy occurred – a young Muslim girl was strangled to death by her father because she refused to comply with traditional Islamic dress codes. Obviously the domestic situation was more complex than a simple ‘hijab issue’, but the gist of it was that she was continually being abused because she wouldn’t fall-in-line.

The feminist reaction here really pissed me off. They refused to address male patriarchal attitudes in the Muslim community, and directed reporters to ‘reps of the Muslim community’ to make a response. The reason it annoyed me is because Muslim college/school age females are also Canadian, moreover many identify closely with cultural trends in the larger society and so I think women activists should in fact take more of an active role in addressing those negative and controling factors in the Muslim community that turn some young women into virtual pawns of male authority.

So the hijab as token of submission to Allah, the hijab as symbol of ‘being- owned-and-operated-by-some-dude’, the hijab as sign of being a ‘humble woman’ AND hijab as political statement (whatever that means), doesn’t hold much appeal for me personally, especially since like you I am atheist. The hijab when worn as a free choice without all the heavy baggage or simply as a fashion statement is a different matter.

Women have fought long and fought hard for the better part of the century in the West for their rightful freedoms and I don’t want to see stealth patriarchy making a return through the back door, aided and abetted by Western Islam. I simply don’t trust it when veiled Saudi women say “yes I’m free, I’m liberated … you don’t get it” – I just think “what dupes”! They only have the illusion of freedom because if they ever seriously kicked back at the male authority that allow them their little freedoms, they would be suddenly find themselves less liberated. Just because you’re on a long stretchy leash, doesn’t mean you are free.

So why can’t we give some credit to lots of women taking up the hijab for purely political reasons (as well as moral, ethical, and religious ones)?

http://bp2.blogger.com/_5sbGWuqTOog/Rl_8rTMwVmI/AAAAAAAACe0/SLEqWGthN2Y/s1600-h/Syrian_Hijab.jpg