Quote:
Originally Posted by turasultana
My neighborhood also has orthodox and hasidic jews, and all those women (married at least) cover their heads as well, but with wigs, not scarfs. How come it doesn't seem to be as much of an issue that they cover? I don't see many debates on whether jewish women are being forced to cover their heads. It seems we assume they're doing it by choice. Just a thought.
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And an interesting thought turasultana...I've never heard anyone say a word about hasidic jewish women and their wigs. Perhaps because they don't cover the face, but not all veiling covers the face either, and those women and girls (as you pointed out) still get the "poor thing" reaction.
I do appreciate the points you raised dreadgeek, and am flailing around a bit with words to describe my thoughts. I guess, for me, it boils down to if it is an individual choice or if the behavior or circumstance is forced upon the individual. If an individual is making a choice ...whether to veil or not, to go to a single-race or single-gender school, to subscribe to traditional values (no matter how they may appear to those outside of that culture), then I think we need to respect their choice.
If people are being oppressed and asking for help, then that's a completely different issue in my mind.
Not being a Muslim woman, I don't know what pressures they face to veil or not...from culture, from religious leaders, from family. I'm guessing (perhaps wrongly) that women in the U.S., Canada, France, etc. are making that choice at least somewhat freely...although I'm open to hearing from anyone in that position that I'm wrong on that.
What offends me is when we decide (as the government of France is attempting to do) that women may not wear the burqa...regardless of their individual choice. It would be the same as legislating that women could not wear men's clothing, or making bras illegal, or any number of other ridiculous scenarios.