Women Must be Free to Wear the Veil but not Pants
So I come across two recent seemingly unrelated news reports regarding Muslim dress codes:
- A Muslim woman in Germany who sued a man for calling her a terrorist because she wore a headscarf was stabbed to death by him while in court (1).
- In the Sudan, a Muslim woman faces 40 lashes for wearing trousers (2).
In both cases Muslim mobs took to the streets to protest; in the first case, to denounce the killing of a Muslim woman who proudly wore the symbol of her oppression; in the second case, to denounce a Muslim woman who wore a symbol of her independence. Seems Muslims want their women to be free to wear the veil but not so free as to wear pants.
Although I believe Muslim women should be ashamed to wear the hijab in public, I am opposed to violence against them. Hopefully all of Europe will find the courage to ban the hijab. Some readers may not understand the difference between banning the burqa and Sudan's law against wearing pants. Here's the difference: the burqa is a symbol of Muslim women's subjugation by men, pants are a symbol of Muslim women's liberation from men.
We in the modern west would not tolerate white men forcing blacks to wear chains even if those blacks were brainwashed into thinking that they liked wearing chains. Certainly blacks walking around in public embracing their slavery would be and should be an insult to all other blacks. Is it likely that there could be violence against such 'slaves' if they refused to discard the symbols of their oppression? Obviously, yes.
If Muslim women truly want to be treated like animals by their husbands, fathers, and other male members of their family, then they should do so in private. Do not go out in public and display your slavery for others to see as if it is right and proper.
ENDNOTES
(1):
BBC News, 10 Jul 2009, Egyptian anger over slain mother
The stabbing to death of a young Egyptian mother inside a courtroom in Germany last week has provoked a groundswell of anger in Egypt.
Her funeral, in her hometown of Alexandria, turned into a huge demonstration with banners demanding retribution and denouncing what is widely believed to an increasingly Islamaphobic Europe.
The bare facts of the story horrified the public. A devout and professional Muslim woman was killed while seeking justice inside a European courtroom apparently for no other reason than her being a veil-wearing Muslim woman.
She was murdered in broad daylight under the gaze of the authorities in the German city of Dresden by the very same man from whom she had sought redress for a racist slur.
...
She was stabbed 18 times inside the courtroom by the man, a German of Russian descent.
She had accused him of racism for calling her a terrorist, apparently because she wore the Hijab, or Muslim headscarf.
The security guards who rushed to the scene opened fire on her husband, who was trying to defend her, mistaking him for the attacker. He is in a critical condition.
(2):
ABC News, 29 Jul 2009, Woman Threatened With Lashes for Wearing Pants
Earlier this month Lubna Ahmed Hussein, who also works for the UN Mission in Sudan, was having dinner in a restaurant with 12 other women. The meal was interrupted when 20 to 30 police officers came in and arrested them for wearing pants.
Not hot pants. Not shorts. Rather long dress pants, which the police said ran afoul of the largely Muslim country's strict sharia law.
Several of the women took their punishment, 10 lashes and a $100 fine, on the spot.
But Hussein refused. She saw the charge as an opportunity to highlight a law she calls inhuman. If convicted she will have to pay a fine and receive 40 lashes.
