Hard to see this any other way:
A recent declaration by a leading Egyptian cleric that women will not be allowed to wear the niqab in university areas frequented only by women has sparked demonstrations by female students in Cairo determined to wear the all-encompassing veil wherever they go....I'm not a woman. And I'm not a fundamentalist Muslim. So I don't pretend to understand. But is it just me, or does that outfit just reek of self-inflicted subjugation? Especially when it's 120 degrees out, the women are dressed like this, and their husbands are running around in blue jeans and the latest Air Jordans. Or, is this simply a "cultural difference"? Or...
In Europe, wearing the niqab has become a controversial issue too. Recently, French President Nicolas Sarkozy banned it from French classrooms. And British Justice Minister Jack Straw also recently asked women to remove them in his consituency office.
I posted this on my Facebook page, and got a number of very interesting, and illuminating, responses I'd like to share.
From Gloria Feldt:
The burqa makes women invisible. In a culture where being a visible woman can mean death or rape, it is understandable that some women regard wearing it as a free choice. But that doesn't make them empowered. It means we have a good deal of consciousness raising yet to do.And this from Alex Nicholson:
Many Egyptian women feel that rising sexual harassment levels in Egypt over the past 5 years necessitate covering up more these days. It used to be that the hijab was seen as sufficient, but when I lived there more and more women were wanting to wear the full naqqab for their own comfort in public.
