We're getting a bit off-topic, so I'm gonna repost something
I posted in the social justice warriors thread last year:
Massive tl;dr warning, I go all out on this one. But I think the read is worth it.
Muslims are the True Feminists
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archive)
Um, lol, okay. I'm not even going to bother addressing these points in order. Strap in everyone, you're in for a bumpy, rambling ride.
- Alright, first and foremost, we need to address the core argument here, which the author has proposed thusly: "Woman who wear hijab have freed themselves from a man’s and a society’s judgmental gaze."I see this argument presented all the time, both from Muslims and Muslim-friendly feminists. They argue that Muslim women are more empowered because they're seen for their "minds" and not their bodies. Sorry, no, that's bullshit. I think it's fucking bullshit that, in order for women to "free" themselves from judgement, they have to completely cover their bodies. I'm not going to drape myself in yards of fabric to get men to respect me, and I can't believe a "feminist" is actually saying that it's a good idea. Maybe instead we should be telling men to respect women as fellow human beings regardless of what they're wearing (I'm not trying to throw shade at any men here, btw; in Western societies this is mostly the case already).
- Wearing a hijab/niqab/burqa/etc is not a choice for far too many women. There may not be laws telling them they have to cover themselves, and their fathers, brothers, and husbands may be fine with them wearing whatever they want, but the culture at large will bully them into covering themselves. Women who do not cover their heads- even if they're modestly dressed otherwise- are often subjected to sexual harassment because women who do not cover their hair are seen as loose at best and actual whores at worst. For example, in 1960s-1980s Egypt, many (if not most) women did not wear headscarves. Nowadays basically all women cover themselves in a desperate attempt to not get sexually harassed (not so fun fact: 99% of Egyptian women have faced sexual harassment). Not that it works.
- To be frank, I don't understand the appeal of covering everything but your face and hands (to say nothing of the dress styles that take it even further). I consider myself to be a modest dresser, but I still wear shorts and t-shirts. So when I look at women who have everything but their eyes covered, I just can't understand how they could be happy wearing all that, especially when it's hot outside. Not only does it seem uncomfortable, it seems to create an unbearable sense of isolation. Now, I don't look at every women wearing a hijab and think "omg you poor victim," I just don't understand it.
- I don't really buy the "Muhammad was totally a feminist, you guys" argument when you consider that the Quran itself basically asserts that women are only worth half as much as men. Why else do women inherit half of what their male relatives do? And why else is the testimony of two women worth the testimony of one man? Or that Muslim women must always be available to sexually satisfy their husbands, but not the other way around? Or that men are allowed to marry up to four women but women can only have one husband? Or how about the fact that men are explicitly given permission to rape female slaves?
- Ah, the Khadija argument. I think that Khadija's story is very admirable. However, it's very important to remember that Khadija attained her success before Islam even existed. If anything, her life story affirms that things weren't that terrible for women before Islam. And how many women like Khadija were there after Islam? I'm sure there were quite a few, but still, let's not act like she's the poster child for Muslim women.
- "Muslim women, as well as Muslim men, see every body as a sacred temple, especially the female body." While there are no doubt many Muslims who view the body this way, I think it's disingenuous to present this as the typical Muslim outlook. In actuality, many Muslim men (Wahhabists being chief among them) view the female body not as a sacred temple, but as a source of corruption. This view is especially prominent in underdeveloped and Wahhabist-influenced areas. In fact, women in Saudi Arabia and similarly extreme societies are so segregated from men not because they're viewed as respectable, but because they're contemptible. They think that even the sound of a woman's voice or the sight of her uncovered arm can lead men astray into a life of sexually deviancy. Again, I know that this is not the case for tons of Muslims, but unfortunately this view is becoming more and more common as Wahhabism continues to spread.
- Glorifying the hijab and Islamic female dress encourages victim-blaming and rape culture. Think I'm throwing out a bunch of buzzwords? Think again, fam. They've set up fucking anti-rape classes for migrants in countries like Norway and Finland because they come from cultures where all "good women" veil themselves and only whores walk around with their hair uncovered and their arms showing. There is also the extremely pervasive idea that women are always responsible for rape; after all, if she was a good, moral woman, she wouldn't have gone out unescorted by her father/brother/husband and she would have covered herself. Men can't be held accountable for not containing their urges.
And this last point is so
mind-numbingly stupid that I had to break it off into its own section. It's really, really bad, you guys.
"I finally understood who is really oppressed by a patriarchal society and it is us." Shut the fuck up, you stupid bitch. Shut. The fuck. UP. No, things aren't perfect for women
anywhere. We still have shit we have to deal with and a lot of outdated ideas to combat. But the amount of progress Western women have made in just 100 years is absolutely fucking insane. We can vote. We can drive. We can buy, sell, and inherit property. We can wear whatever we want. We can marry (or not marry) whoever we choose- and that includes other women. We can work whatever jobs we want to work. We can receive whatever education we want. We are considered fundamentally equal to men before the law and by society at large. We are in charge of our own lives and our own destinies. We don't need to depend on men to take care of us, we can live with them as equals and support one another.
Women in most Muslim-majority countries only have a couple of those rights, if any at all. I would honestly rather kill myself than live in a patriarchal country where women are considered property. If you think that the United States or the UK or France is more patriarchal than Pakistan or Afganistan or Saudi Arabia then you have fucking brain damage.
Okay, I'm done. I have even more to say but I've been writing this post for like an hour and a half and I'm honestly pretty salty right now.
