Feminists Adorning the Hijab???

Khalliqa

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"Oppression means the taking away of someone’s power, their agency. Yet a woman in a hijab is only covering her body and hair, not her voice or intellect," said Mogahed, who wears a hijab. "And a man dressed in a full robe and head cover, like many do in the Middle East, is not said to be oppressed. To say that hijab oppresses women is to say that the source of a woman’s power, but not a man’s, is her body, not her mind."

LINK:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ymbol-resistance-feminism-age-trump/98475212/
 

JackRT

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I find that the hijab is a very elegant female garment. There is nothing whatsoever offensive about it. For much of our history Christian women have worn just such modest garb and in some instances even veils.
 
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Nithavela

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It's easy.

If a woman wears something out of her own free will (may it be a hijab, a bikini or anything in between), it's not surpression.

If the woman wears something against her own free will, whatever the piece of clothing, it is surpression.

I have no problem with feminists wearing a hijab or not arguing against wearing it. I DO have a problem with feminists ignoring the mandatory female clothing that is so prevalent in the middle east.
 
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SolomonVII

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The hijab is not so much a religious symbol, but a political one.
Feminist, in general, follow the leftist agenda, rather than following what is good for women.
 
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FenderTL5

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I find that the hijab is a very elegant female garment. There is nothing whatsoever offensive about it. For much of our history Christian women have worn just such modest garb and in some instances even veils.
Many women in our parish still wear head coverings. My daughter almost always wears one to services.
 
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essentialsaltes

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So how much power and agency do women in strict Muslim areas have when they do not wear the hijab in public?

In places where they do not have freedom, they do not have freedom.

Making hijab forbidden is just as anti-freedom as making hijab mandatory.

The opposite of mandatory is not forbidden. The opposite of forbidden is not mandatory.

The opposite of both is 'allowed'. Hijab should be allowed.
 
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Sketcher

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In places where they do not have freedom, they do not have freedom.

Making hijab forbidden is just as anti-freedom as making hijab mandatory.

The opposite of mandatory is not forbidden. The opposite of forbidden is not mandatory.

The opposite of both is 'allowed'. Hijab should be allowed.
When did I say or imply that a hijab should not be allowed anywhere?
 
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rambot

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Snippet:

"Oppression means the taking away of someone’s power, their agency. Yet a woman in a hijab is only covering her body and hair, not her voice or intellect," said Mogahed, who wears a hijab. "And a man dressed in a full robe and head cover, like many do in the Middle East, is not said to be oppressed. To say that hijab oppresses women is to say that the source of a woman’s power, but not a man’s, is her body, not her mind."

LINK:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ymbol-resistance-feminism-age-trump/98475212/
It's always been odd to me that the same people who would wish to ban a hijab, also have significant problems with female nudity in public.

So how much power and agency do women in strict Muslim areas have when they do not wear the hijab in public?
"Strict Muslim areas" is a very important piece of that sentence. BEcause outside of THOSE places, they have total agency. But even with that agency, other people call them repressed. This woman is speaking in AMERICA, so talking about it in a totally different social context in a society and culture with VERY different social mores and values, is a bit meaningless.
 
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essentialsaltes

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When did I say or imply that a hijab should not be allowed anywhere?

You? Nowhere.

But it has been suggested in supposedly liberal democracies.

To quote the OP: "Oppression means the taking away of someone’s power, their agency." We should fight this wherever it appears.
 
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Ana the Ist

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Snippet:

"Oppression means the taking away of someone’s power, their agency. Yet a woman in a hijab is only covering her body and hair, not her voice or intellect," said Mogahed, who wears a hijab. "And a man dressed in a full robe and head cover, like many do in the Middle East, is not said to be oppressed. To say that hijab oppresses women is to say that the source of a woman’s power, but not a man’s, is her body, not her mind."

LINK:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...ymbol-resistance-feminism-age-trump/98475212/

I've heard a lot of Muslim women attempt to rationalize the hijab into either something normal, or something non-oppressive in some way....

She's only partially correct regarding "oppression"....yes it is about taking away someone's power. What she neglects to mention is that most often, the power we are talking about in the oppressive/oppressed dynamic is centered upon choice. So when people talk about the hijab being a symbol of oppression....it's because in far too many places in the Muslim world, it is. Women who don't wear it when they're told they "should" get punished...sometimes quite awfully. That's the problem. No woman should be forced to wear such a thing for fear of criminal punishment, social stigma, cultural alienation, etc....that is the very heart of oppression.

Until we live in a world where no woman is punished by her society for not wearing a hijab (or other particular piece of clothing)...the hijab will remain a symbol of oppression.
 
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Ana the Ist

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You? Nowhere.

But it has been suggested in supposedly liberal democracies.

To quote the OP: "Oppression means the taking away of someone’s power, their agency." We should fight this wherever it appears.

Correct me if I'm wrong....but doesn't that discussion typically involve situations where wearing a hijab would be considered inappropriate (like in court) or dangerous (like being asked to remove it when passing through security)?

If we are in fact talking about just a generalized ban of the hijab....I disagree with that, and think it's hypocritical, but since it's a symbol of oppression it's at least an understandable viewpoint.
 
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Paidiske

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The part of the article which resonates with me is where it says that hijab is a feminist statement "in a society where consumerism and capitalism constantly tell women “what to wear and how to look like and what body we should have.” "

I've only worn hijab once - I went to visit a mosque - but what I noticed most was the removal of the pressure to have perfect hair, to invest so much in various beauty products and techniques, because most of what those things are aimed at was not on display. It was liberating, in a way, and if I lived in a society where veiling was normal I could see myself getting used to it quite easily.
 
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Ana the Ist

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The part of the article which resonates with me is where it says that hijab is a feminist statement "in a society where consumerism and capitalism constantly tell women “what to wear and how to look like and what body we should have.” "

I've only worn hijab once - I went to visit a mosque - but what I noticed most was the removal of the pressure to have perfect hair, to invest so much in various beauty products and techniques, because most of what those things are aimed at was not on display. It was liberating, in a way, and if I lived in a society where veiling was normal I could see myself getting used to it quite easily.

If that were all the hijab symbolized, then I could get behind it....

The fact is though, that on basically any week, you could easily find a news article about a woman being shamed, assaulted, or criminally punished for not wearing a hijab. Personally, I think it's rather shallow to support the wearing of a hijab in a nation where you won't likely face any of those issues while many women are enduring all kinds of hatred and violence just for voicing their opinion in favor of not wearing a hijab.

To me, it would be like wearing chains as a fashion statement when most people in the world wearing chains are slaves and they have no real choice in the matter.
 
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Paidiske

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I think it's more complex and nuanced than the chains analogy. Articles of clothing can convey different meanings in different contexts. Because women are forced to wear hijab in one place, doesn't mean hijab can't mean different things to other women in other places.

We should be wary of over-simplifying or making assumptions about other people's motives or worldview.
 
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Ana the Ist

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I think it's more complex and nuanced than the chains analogy. Articles of clothing can convey different meanings in different contexts. Because women are forced to wear hijab in one place, doesn't mean hijab can't mean different things to other women in other places.

We should be wary of over-simplifying or making assumptions about other people's motives or worldview.

I get that you felt wearing a hijab was "liberating" because you didn't have to participate in your own society's cultural norms...even if just for a short while...

The problem, in my eyes anyway, is that you used a symbol of someone's oppression to do it...and there's lots of ways you could've done it without a hijab. I've seen many women in the U.S., for example, use social media to post pictures of themselves without makeup or hair products to make a statement about our cultural norms. While you may feel like the slave analogy is too far off...I honestly don't understand why you'd think that if you understood that women in other nations literally get whipped for not wearing a hijab in public (like Saudi Arabia for example).

So while I have no problem whatsoever with women wanting to rebel against cultural standards of beauty...I can't hold any respect for someone who does so by wearing a literal symbol of oppression of women all around the world. It seems more like an attempt to normalize a very restrictive and blatant symbol of oppression.
 
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Paidiske

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No need to make this personal, or suggest my understanding is lacking.

I didn't wear hijab for any liberative reason, but in order to be polite and respectful when visiting a place of worship not my own (in the same way that I might have done if, say, visiting the sort of Orthodox church where that is expected). Noticing that I felt a social pressure removed was a side benefit of that, not the purpose.

And what I'm trying to say is that to reduce a head scarf to a "literal symbol of oppression" is problematic. By their very nature symbols are not literal and not easily reduced to a single, rigidly-defined meaning. They are fluid, adaptable and able to convey layers of meaning or different meanings in different situations. (You might, for example, just as well argue that the red crescent is a symbol of oppression because a crescent is a symbol sometimes used by oppressive regimes).
 
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