I find it offensive that the French Government has placed a ban on Muslim women wearing a hijab. In a country of about 5 million Muslims, only about 2000 women wear the full veil and the powers that be, have decided that they know best and these women must be saved. Or could it be that the government wants to save the French people from this most terrible of atrocities, a female body that cannot be seen .
There are a number of assumptions in the government's decision to act. They infer that women who wear the hijab are being oppressed not only by their husband, but also Islam. Heaven forbid that these women are cognizant beings able to make decisions for themselves. If the hijab is a symbol of male power and oppression, the question arises why should Muslim women be punished for their compliance? The argument then follows, if these women are not being oppressed and choose to wear the hijab or burka then they must be rebels flaunting western culture and as such, should be punished. It seems either way that men in power have decided that these women must be punished for acquiescence to Islam or their lack of obedience to male power structures in western societies. Never mind Islam, how dare you defy our will!
Non-Mulsim women throughout the world have the freedom to choose their own style of clothing, which tends more and more to reveal rather than cover their bodily parts - note the recent trend of women wearing short shorts, which occasionally creates an almost pornographic revealing of the pubis and buttocks of the wearer and the tops that get lower and lower, revealing more and more of female breasts.
But we live in a capitalists society where the body and bodily parts are highly marketable and women are encouraged to show their wares. The Muslim woman who covers her body transgresses male desire to see and female (but not all female) desire that others desire to look at them; male desire considered primary!
I'm beginning to think that countries that ban the hijab do so not because they actually think the item of clothing is divisive in a religious sense because there's already a division between Islam and Christianity, but because the hijab has become like a red rag to a bull that flags the notion, we dare to be different in a different way than you have condoned!
And where do western, educated women in gender neutral jobs figure in all of this? Used to competing in obvious and non-obvious ways with their body (after all, isn't that what people see first - groomed, beautiful and as perfect as they can be with up to the minute fashions) they know that they are no challenge to those not selling. How can they be better, thinner, more beautiful than the woman who keeps it all under wraps? The ground lines may have shifted, but from what I can ascertain, men are still holding the chalk.
It is only their face that we wish to see, and for their voice to be heard, to have an identity and to be social, to engage. They are not being asked anything more, and definitely no one is asking to see their body, this would be deeply unfair. As a woman who teaches, if you entered a hall to give a lecture and you were faced with two hundred students wearing ski-masks, who refused to remove them, would you not feel intimidated? Or if reversed, how well does a Professor in a burka 'mike-up' on stage? Can she be heard over the sound of the Burka, rubbing against the microphone? This literally invokes the smothering quality of the dress, as she can not be heard clearly in a public arena. They are people who are expected to be contained, their voice never to project past the proximal, if it all. I want to relate to her, but how can I emphathize with someone who only wants to observe me, and turns her social back on me, so to speak? It feels as if she has objectified me into the 'other' a spectacle to be observed from behind a barrier of anonymity.
ReplyDeleteI used to live in North Melbourne and had many conversations with women wearing fully body burkas. I could see the look in their eyes and hear their voices - the veil was NOT an impermeable barrier that restricted social interaction.
ReplyDeleteI've thought long and hard about your question as to whether I would be intimated if confronted in a lecture theatre with 200 people wearing ski-masks?
No, not intimated, but I would be curious as to why they were wearing them, as much as I would be curious if everyone was wearing yellow, or if carrying a bunch of flowers, eating ice-cream, etc. I don't necessarily see a sinister motivation behind covering one's face. Would you feel threatened being in a room full of burns patients - only their eyes visible behind a face covered with bandages?
In regards to your statement 'how can I empathize with someone who only wants to observe me...'. I really don't think the burka is an enabling device for objectifying the other, gosh, we all unconsciously do that anyway. If you want to 'relate' to a Muslim woman try treating her as you would any other woman, with respect and dignity for her life choices.
Try carrying a bunch of flowers into a bank, then try it with a ski mask on and see if it is taken as a threat, it will surely raise more than an attitude of curiosity. If you talk to a burns patient you will find that they too find themselves at times socially isolated, but it would be rare to find that they have arrived there by their own volition, their position is not a life choice, and I am sure they lament it, not celebrate it. If they could remove their bandages, and their disfiguration, they would. Would I be threatened by them, yes, in the sense that my body would feel vulnerable, or at risk. To have empathy, to have ones body resonate and be attuned to their physical pain would terrify me. Am I bad person, I doubt it, just human. Do you not think it a rather extreme comparison that you have drawn, travelling from Burka to burn ward?
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ReplyDeleteMy example of a bunch of flowers was in response to you raising the proposition of people entering a lecture theatre on mass and dressed in conformity. Everything must be read in context. Of course if you wear a ski mask and enter a bank staff will assume you are going to attempt a robbery, since people with stockings stretched over their faces, ski masks or other head/face wear to disguise their identity have robbed banks in the past. However, Muslim women wearing a hijab or burka must also be read in relation to their situation - they are simply going about their daily lives. I think that people sometimes find them suspicious because some men, who have no good in mind have disguised themselves under the burka and carried out unlawful acts.
ReplyDeleteYou are right about it being it being a bit of a leap from Burka to burn ward. I was at Uni and trying to think of another image of a person whose face was covered and apart from those who wear theatrical masks, all I could think of was an individual in a burns unit. I purposely avoided at that time mentioning masks for the very reason that I didn't want to make a correlation between it and the burka. I think to do so would be incorrect on so many levels. I don't think the burka masks identity, I believe that it is part of that women's identity. Some of us may not particularly like that identity since it is contra our ideas about what women should be like and how they might express themselves and their beliefs in a capitalist society, but who are we to judge? Why do we in the west believe that our ideas are superior to that of others and why do we continually attempt to impose those ideas?
I don't think, nor would I ever suggest that anyone who thinks differently to me is a bad person. It seems to me that you have thought through the situation and have indeed empathized with Muslim women and you imagine (rightly or wrongly) that she IS isolated or that she chooses to be isolated. The way in which you see her is a projection perhaps of your own sense of isolation?
If their form of dress does isolate them, you might consider how courageous they are in their convictions.
I was arguing in my own way that we need to consider our own perceptions alongside existing negative stereotypes about Muslim and non-Muslim women and how we may begin to be more tolerant, and I welcome your valuable comments on this post.
I had a short break to eat my evening meal and whilst doing so I had another thought.
ReplyDeletePermit me to return to your earlier statement:
"It feels that she has objectified me into the 'other' a spectacle to be observed from behind a barrier of anonymity"
I hate to stress the obvious, which is, although you know my name and are able to view a profile photograph of me, I do not know who you are since you have not identified yourself by name. I cannot guess your gender, political affiliations or religious persuasions. You are, essentially, anonymous and I honor and accept your anonymity. My point here is that neither of us can see each others face or hear the others voice (other than that engendered by written language) which was the point you were making as absent in the woman who wears a burka and yet we ARE communicating and in that exchange attempting to understand the others point of view.