The hijab has liberated me from society's expectations of women

[Neoma]

When you think of the hijab, you probably don't think "political". Or "independent". Or "empowered". Feminist? Certainly not – feminism is far better known for burnt bras and slut-walks than headscarves.

There is much misunderstanding about how women relate to their hijab. Some, of course, choose the headcover for religious reasons, others for culture or even fashion.

But in a society where a woman's value seems focused on her sexual charms, some wear it explicitly as a feminist statement asserting an alternative mode of female empowerment. Politics, not religion, is the motivator here. I am one of these women.

Link

[SheilaT]

1. I've seen this justification for the hijab and even for the burka any number of times.

It doesn't work for me. Which is not to say that for the women that say this, it's not true for them. It must be.

But anything at all that separates women so thoroughly, that ultimately consigns them to second-class citizenship, is not a form of freedom in my opinion.

Many, many religions do exactly this sort of thing. There's no point in naming any of them because I'd be sure to leave out some. It's one of the reasons I simply have no use for organized religion.

Things like this (the hijab in particular, and organized religion in general) are telling people exactly what to think. I do my personal best to think independently, even though I realize that I am of necessity bound by my own history and the culture around me. But by rejecting the above named constraints, I hope to do a better job of thinking and living independently.

[laconicsax]

5. +1

The idea that voluntarily taking part in one form of oppression to stop another is nonsense.

[hedgehog]

2. How many of us women have deliberately dressed down

to avoid attracting unwanted attention? It's not a head scarf, but it's the same idea. The real problem is that some men see women as targets of opportunity rather than co-workers!

[obamanut2012]

7. I thought of that example, too

Many of us have done that. We shouldn't have to, just like the author of the OP shouldn't have to wear the hijab to feel safe or free.

I do, however, understand what she's talking about.

[Starry Messenger]

10. I wear a lab coat to teach in.

Male students in high school are not shy about making sexist cracks about female teachers' appearance. Of course, you can report them for harassment. Then they get moved to another (likely) female teacher's classroom...

[Permanut]

3. Ditto SheilaT, only from the viewpoint of a western male..

My first inclination was to think that George Orwell would recognize the logic here. A quick search on the hijab indicates that it is a product of interpretation of hadith by "muslim scholars". I'm bettin' these scholars are all male. I guess I'm not getting how that can be interpreted as a feminist statement.

[Warpy]

4. I have no problem with anything freely chosen

when it comes to cloth that women wear.

And neither should anyone else.

I don't need an abaya, a niqab or a burqa. I have the natural one of age that renders most old women invisible.

[msongs]

6. that experience is not unique to women btw nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

8. i agree.

also i do research on the veil, and frankly the empirical work shows that a negative attitude towards the veil (not forced veiling, but veiling out of choice) is just really islamophobia not a desire for emancipated women.

[Neoma]

9. Ever read Zeitoun by Dave Eggers?

I recommend it. Depressing though. I pick out the most "cheerful" books.

[Violet_Crumble]

23. That's the impression I've gotten...

Haven't done research or anything, but in GD after telling someone that a Muslim colleague wears the hijab because she wants to and her hubby has no say in it, was informed that my colleague was brainwashed and was actually being oppressed and that she'd need to be forced to not wear the hijab in order to be free, blah blah blah. That happened in a thread about a Muslim reality show, so it's pretty easy to spot where it turns into islamophobia in some cases...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. they did a study in europe looking at this (belgium)

and found that greater dislike of immigrants was associate with dislike for veils. greater belief in egalitarianism was associated with lower dislike of the veil

[MerryBlooms]

11. Very well said. ty

[ZombieHorde]

12. Not my place to tell women how to dress, or what their clothes really mean. nt

[La Lioness Priyanka]

13. agreed. i am very against state enforced hijab

but i am also against state enforced unveiling

[FloridaJudy]

14. One of my local supermarket's checkers wears a hijab

By her response when I complimented her on the headscarf - hers are quite colorful and attractive, really - I gather she does it voluntarily. It doesn't seem weird or oppressive at all. A lot of religions have peculiar dress codes: Sikhs wear turbans, Orthodox Jewish women also wear head-scarves or oversized wigs. In fact, the biggest flap here was about a Muslim boy whose over long shirts violated the schools' dress code. People were afraid he was smuggling weapons under there or something. While everyone admitted he was a good kid, who'd never caused any problems, the reasoning was "Well, if we let him do it, we'd have to allow the gangbangers..." as if any of them would have been caught dead wearing a high-necked, long-sleeved, knee-length shirt!

As long as it's the wearer's choice, I have no problem with it. Some days I even think it would save me a fortune on hair products and a lot of fussing before I left the house.

[stevenleser]

15. Sure, it's freedom in the same way a police state tends to free one from crime.

That isn't to say that the western world doesn't impose some very ugly and unhealthy standards for women to meet. They have a point there, but using the hijab to deal with that is like needing a new doorway installed in a wall and using a bazooka to create one.

There is disagreement among a number of third wave feminists on this. I am not sure a hijab can be truly empowering. Naomi Wolf, who I otherwise tend to agree with, had this to say http://bigthink.com/ideas/14391

Wolf: I did write a piece in which I said that Westerners should be aware of being presumptuous in assuming they know that a Hijab means oppression to a women wearing it, and where did I get that from, I got it from feminists in the Muslim world saying again and again things like, you know, what we have much worse problems than this, you know, it’s much more urgent that they’re burning, you know, brides or that, you know, we’re facing [forced clitoridectomies] like you Westerners are so preoccupied with wearing a head scarf.
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I mean, there are other ways of looking at how other people see us, and even if we don’t agree with those ways, I do think that it’s a very important time to be engaged in an open dialog with this, you know, with the Muslim world and be open to hearing, you know, Muslim women’s own interpretations of what the Hijab means for them. Are there many other Muslim women who think it’s very oppressive? Absolutely and I remember saying in the piece that that is true, of course, yeah.

[Neoma]

16. I think it's a two way issue.

You can say either way and still be on track. Whether or not I like it, really isn't ever the point. Some people like it, some people don't. I usually leave it at that.

"Is milk good or bad? .... I rest my case." -Lewis Black.

[stevenleser]

17. This is one of the harder aspects of empowerment to wrap my head around

3rd wave theory basically suggests that if someone considers something empowering to them, we have to respect that. The hijab is one of the hardest ones for me to accept.

[Neoma]

18. I'm used to seeing women wearing them.

Mostly in doctors offices and hospitals for some reason. To me it seems like an accessory.

To put in better perspective: it's not physical damage like foot binding. It's a piece of clothing. I can be okay with that.

[stevenleser]

19. I see it all the time too..

Where I live in Astoria, NY, we have a very large Muslim community. There are 3 mosques within half a mile of me. I love halal food, btw.

I think I may never get over the girls who burned to death in Saudi Arabia because religious police wouldnt allow them to exit the building because they couldnt get on the appropriate gear in time. That is probably the mental block.

[Neoma]

20. ... Never heard of that event(s)?

I've also never had halal food. We're enjoying the new Thai restaurant near us. My parents enjoyed Greek food the other day too... You can understand why Greeks are immigrating to the U.S.

[stevenleser]

21. Completely horrific. It almost makes me cry everytime I think about it...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/1874471.stm

I don't think I will ever accept the hijab/burka/niquab/chador after that.

[LadyHawkAZ]

22. To me it's a bit like saying

"I married a Fred Phelps-type preacher and had 15 kids to protest the media-driven sexualization of women and the glorification of promiscuity"- it may give the person a feeling of empowerment and rebellion, but that does not necessarily make it beneficial either to the woman herself or women in general. To me, feeling that sexuality is something that a woman needs to hide from is just exactly that- hiding. I don't see empowerment in hiding. In this case, she's hiding under a garment specifically designed to mark the wearer as male property, which definitely doesn't say "feminist" to me. It could just be that my POV is entirely Western. YMMV.

BUT, while I'd have a disagreement or two with her definition of empowerment and freedom, I'd never disagree with her right to wear it.