Sunday, August 28, 2016

Response to NYT op ed article on France’s ban on Burkini 8-28-2016

28 Aug 2016          Response to NYT op ed article on France’s ban on Burkini


I wonder how many Muslim women would respond affirmatively if asked their personal views on wearing the Bukhas anonymously.

I wonder how many men would be willing to wear burkas to cover their alluring bodies from the gaze of women. It was only late last year when women in Iran were disfigured and blinded in acid attacks for daring to challenge the country’s strict hijab code. No, the hijab is a hideous symbol of oppression of women in much the same way as the fatwa on prohibiting women driving in countries like Saudi Arabia. The Somalian born author and activist, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, describes Muslim headscarves as a means in which a deeply patriarchal culture oppresses women. “The veil deliberately marks women as private and restricted property, non-persons,” she said. “The veil sets women apart from men and apart from the world; it restrains them, confines them, grooms them for docility. “It is the mark of a kind of apartheid, not the domination of a race but of a sex.”

The pressure to conform is overwhelming.  risk not only being judged, denounced and reviled but completely ostracized. Being a source of shame to your family for not abiding by accepted cultural practices can be traumatic for any young girl let alone one raised in cultures where she’s considered subservient to men.
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The unpalatable truth is that the root cause of much of the world’s entrenched misogyny in 2015 is Islam and it manifests itself in a variety of ways including the requirement for women to cover up.

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