Ubered, you've provided a long post two above with a lot of sense in it, including the view that different moslems believe different things, and that all sorts of things can be found in the Koran. All this is good stuff. Then this one-liner about women wearing veils.
I'm sure there are some women who wear them because they want to. I'm also sure that there are some women who don't want to wear them but are forced into wearing them. In some countries they are a legal requirement. In others there are strong social requirements which may be enforced by family members. At least some of the women who wear veils wear them because they are coerced into wearing them. In some cases there certainly is repression of women which is manifested in forced veil wearing.
Hi Jason - I was just intending to draw attention to the tone of the original comment, that there
really are some Muslim women who veil out of personal choice. It's amazing that this surprises people so much! Of course some are forced into it by families and by the laws of their countries (just as some women in Muslim countries are banned from wearing it in certain contexts); but it's funny how everyone has an opinion on how the
majority of Muslim women feel, and this needs some thought.
I think that often people generally view women's role in Islam as submissive. Because everyone tends to see their own value system as being universal, many western liberals cannot accept the fact that a woman would choose a role
they see as being submissive. The conclusion has to be that they are forced into it, because the other possible conclusion - that women chosing to veil are chosing their own cultural identity over a western liberal one is too much for most to deal with, because it forces us to face up to the fact that
our liberal western values are not felt to be universal by everyone; we just say they are. And what's the point of having universal values if not everone accepts them? So, it's easier not to go down that road at all and just say that most women are forced into it. And let's be totally honest, most people say this without really ever having talked to any veiled women.
Interestingly though, telling a Muslim woman she's culturally forced into veiling; while she maintains she is veiling out of choice is tantamount to totally taking her voice away. She can't win, and is not given any right to autonomy or personal choice by western audiences. This speaks volumes about the west's longstanding cultural antipathy towards Muslims and its mysogeny.
Many Muslim women I've met who have decided to wear the veil have utterly shocked their secular parents with their decision. Others have told me they would like to, but don't feel ready yet. This can be about people's spiritual quests, marking their identity, a sign of protest or searching for something to anchor them in a shifting and dizzying world (just like we all are, if we're honest): and Muslim women are doing it in
very very different ways than their veiled grandmothers or mothers; in most cases loudly, and defiantly. Women have never done this before in Muslim societies - ever. It's a massive departure and women's position in Islam will never be the same again.
Again, diversity: women veil for many different reasons in many different places. A veil does not have the same meaning in Riyadh as in the suburbs of Paris or Luton, or in Istanbul as in Washington DC.
