Reply #243: Velma D, as a fellow progressive female feminist.... [View All]

I might have agreed with you many years ago. In some contexts, I still do. But, I had my eyes opened when working and teaching women across the Arab world: Syrians, Jordanians, Saudis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Kuwaitis, Palestinians, during working stints in Egypt and S. Arabia several years ago. These were professional women--largely physicians and very westernized and liberated by local standards. They were as different from each other, in their views, as they were with their male counterparts--who I was able to work with separately as a group (as a western woman, they were respectful to the point I felt I had no gender--but that's another story).

The bottom line though is that my talks with these women was extremely eye-opening. These women were able to immigrate if they wanted, were trained in Britain, Europe, the US and YES, they were able to leave their culture, their religion, their traditions--including covering. They were, of course upper middle class and well educated, but they do dispel the notion that there is any kind of monolith among Arab or Non-Arab Muslim women. They expressed the view that the negative western attitudes toward the veil--covering--the hijab--(that you have well described)as an attack on their culture.

Nonetheless, they expressed viewpoints on the role of women that many western women could find agreement with, but there is a real disconnect on this issue. While if women in the West were forced or expected to "cover," this would be the ultimate and I would likely erupt like a volcano. For many Arab women, to be forced to abandon the hijab would be akin to you, VelmaD and I, and other western women being forced to abandon our way of life--our core beliefs. To many Muslim women, western norms in terms of dress, are offensive to them and leave them feeling exploited. It would be amost like if WE were told to dress in only pasties, thigh high stockings and high heels each day--really! There truly IS a cultural difference and when those impacted do not wish change, our filters applied to their decisions may not be appropriate.

I think we are confusing the true incidents of abuse and inequality and injustice that are occuring among women in some Arab countries, as well as in India and China, and elsewhere--with the symbol of clothing. In some areas of some Arab countries, the two may coincide, that's true. BUT, Not all Muslims or Muslim countries are alike, in their viewpoints or the status of women. To confuse this, leads to the kind of cultural insensitivity that is rampant in the US--even, unintentionally, among some progressives.