"Veil Essay" is Food for Thought

Submitted by Matt on Thu, 2006-10-26 02:54

I read this and thought "Gee, wonder how far down the street a man in London would get covered head-to-toe with only his eyes showing? Excerpt:

'I don't understand the need of women to wear something as severe as the niqab. But for that tiny number that do, I will shake their gloved hands for bearing this endurance task — the staring, the swearing and the discomfort. On the streets of London, the black veil does nothing to distract attention — and everything to attract it.'

One day perhaps men will start to voluntarily keep their faces covered in public. Only instead of being insulted for it, I rather think we'd be arrested or shot-- or both.

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Comments

All I got out of that essay was one woman's self obsessions and various neurosis.

She feels oppressed by not being able to see HERSELF in a mirror. She completely mis-interprets the various insults thrown at her as being directed at HER and personally insulting even though the comments seemed to be based on political views and ignorance and not personally motivated. She whines and complains like any good feminist would and of course the object of her displeasure is men. She admits no one forced her to do it and then still claims oppression.

The whole damn essay is about her feelings and has nothing to do with the issue. She does not for one second try to understand the women who do wear the veil everyday. She labels them and blames them with about the same level of ignorance as the people who hurled insults at her. She says she sees women in veils in London all the time yet finds not one amongst many women in the local temple.

She did not approach one single thing objectively and admitted the whole point of her experiment was motivated not by a desire to understand her culture but by her guilt to hating aspects of her own culture. It was nothing more then an exorcise to prove herself right an alleviate her guilt.

I don't know, maybe it is somehow useful to some one but I certainly did not find anything that I want to mull over in that essay. I already knew that many lesbian Muslims and otherwise perpetually disgruntled Muslim women come to Western countries to carry the feminist banner. That's not breaking news to me.

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Submitted by Paragon on Thu, 2006-10-26 19:00

This essay is about a rag. I think this is a LITTLE far. Come ON!
You're just trying to portray women as whining pussies so you could have a bad guy.

Feminists have "The Patriarchy"
Black Men have "The White Man"
Fags have "Right Wing assholes"
now we're working on Feminists.
They all amount to the same thing really,
Elitist Assholes.

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Submitted by Daemonic on Thu, 2006-10-26 19:10

I do not think all women are bad at all and certainly not all of them are whining pussies. The one who wrote that essay is though.

I just think it would have been a more balanced essay had she actually tried to see the word through the eyes of the women who BELIEVE in wearing the veil rather then through her own eyes while wearing the veil. Her opinions did not change because she did not even attempt to change her perspective. She merely dawned a costume and proceeded to go about her daily life. She went to the most bourgeois places and blamed the Muslim religion because she couldn't figure out how to drink a cappuccino. Perhaps actually seeking out a group of Muslim women who wear veils and ask them how they do it would have helped. She claims she sees them all the time in London but yet can't find a single one the day she decides to play dress up. Maybe traditionalist pious women would not find sitting in a coffee bar downtown the most pleasurable thing to do anyway. Who knows, she sure didn't ask any. She just went on with her life (because she obviously believes she has it right) and did the things she enjoys doing. Her experience may have absolutely nothing to do with the experiences of other Muslim women who wear veils because she did not even esquire how they live or try to live like them and follow their beliefs

She gained no understanding that she did not previously have because she did it not with the intent to further understand Muslim women who wear veils but to prove the veil is bad. The conclusion was reached before the investigation started and therefore the investigation was completely flawed. The whole thing was a self serving waste of time. She did not get enlightened about the Muslim women who believe in and wear the veil she merely alleviated her guilty conscience with regards disagreeing with their beliefs because she is of the same religion. Happens all the time. Always has. Not exactly breaking news.

I found nothing objective or useful with regards to gaining greater understanding about veil wearing Muslim women in this essay. I did find learn the author likes paintings of large breasted English noble women in the London National Art Gallery but I am not sure I find that of any particular interest either. It tends to raise my feminist alert when women admire rich and powerful women while speaking in a derogatory fashion and minimizing the beliefs of those they do not like. Especially when the group they do not like - traditionalist Muslim women - is one they are a member of.

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Submitted by Paragon on Thu, 2006-10-26 20:13