#but religious people still deserve my respect and especially in the case of veiled women i think there's something just kind of sick about

[croutonnet]

does anyone else think it's very very odd to deliberately make a nun oc just to go and sexualise them

[mycommonplacesblog]

Western Feminism and Hijabs

Throughout this class we have taken a closer look at different types of gender inequality and women's issues. Within these parameters we also explored different sub-themes with one of them being ethnocentrism and feminism. But the one theme we talked about that I really wanted to focus on is ethnocentrism with a focus more on Western views towards Muslim countries and religious practices done by Muslim women. These ethnocentric views towards Middle Eastern countries, religions, and cultures comes from a lack of knowledge or an unwillingness to learn about their culture. Many Western mindsets believe that our way of life is better and therefore others should convert to our way instead of us learning and respecting theirs. The lack of knowledge has fueled not only a fear but a savior complex in Western culture towards Eastern culture and religions, especially the Islamic religion and predominantly Islamic countries. This fear is spread through misinformation and negative media coverage. In Dalia Mogahed’s TED talk she discusses how in a study it was found that over 80% of news about Islam or Muslims is negative. As a nation that is glued to televisions and has strong bias towards specific news outlets it is startling that most of the information we are receiving about Islamic culture is negative. This negative narrative towards Middle Eastern countries and Muslims started around 9/11. Life for American’s as we knew it changed that day, and with that change came a new hostility towards Muslims. Most Americans do not have a solid understanding of Islam, only knowing what they have heard from the news or others, and therefore view some of the religious practices as oppressive or extreme. One of the common arguments of oppression brought up by Western societies is that women who practice Islam tend to wear hijabs, niqabs, or burqas. They claim that it is oppressive for them to have to cover up and they blame religion and misogyny for this. But in all reality it is the woman's choice, many practicing Muslims do not wear any kind of facial covering at all. It is their choice how they practice their religion and how they follow the Quran.

These views and conversations started happening more openly after 9/11. As Dalia Mogahed said in her TED talk “...somebody else's actions turned me from a citizen to a suspect, Muslims were now viewed as terrorists just because of their beliefs and hijabs made them a more recognizable target. Racism against Muslims was not something that was new, but now it was being televised and was becoming a common view among Americans. Muslim’s were being ripped out of Mosques, harassed and beaten on the streets all because of their shared religion with a group of terrorists who radicalized it. Now how does this hate towards Islam turn towards a hatred for the hijab? Well in the obvious way hijabs are an outward way to show and practice Islam but in another way some people view it as oppressive. They can not seem to wrap their minds around the idea that a woman could make that choice herself to cover up, to hide her hair, face, and or body with a garment. It is obvious that men would take issue with this just in the same way they take issue with women who do not wear enough clothes for their liking. In my opinion non- Islamic mens views on hijabs are deeply rooted in ethnocentrism, the fact that women in hijabs are not dressed like typical Western women and also in misogyny because they believe the woman's body is for their pleasure and gaze. The biggest shock to me came with who truly has an issue with hijabs. 

It is “feminist” who seem to have the biggest issue with women wearing hijabs and who view it as the most oppressive. I put feminist in quoations because in my own opinion you can not want equal treatment and rights for women if you yourself are degrading them. To me it is very degrading to tell a woman they are oppressed when they are doing something out of their own free will. Feminism is about celebrating being a woman, fighting for the rights we all deserve, and protecting our fellow women. It is impossible to say you are fighting for the rights of women when in tandem you are disregarding their own choice. I do not see wearing a hijab as a women's issue but rather the response from others as the issue. In writing this reflection I re-read a few of the articles from this semester course load and noticed that in almost every TED talk or article about Muslim women they discussed how it was female friends or self proclaimed feminist who questioned their decision to wear a covering the most. But this is where ethnocentrism and feminism meet in this issue. Western women and Western feminist call these practices oppressive because to them it is. Wearing hijabs or burqas is not something that is common in America or Europe and therefore is already viewed as “wrong” or “bad”. Add to that the fact that it is women who wear it and it becomes a feminist issue. It becomes a case of “I can save you” not “let me understand why you do it and support you”. I used a meme in my commonplace book to show this whole savior complex women in Western societies have adopted. In the image you can see a woman in a burqa while a white woman tries to rip it off while saying “Hang in there, we will free you” while the woman desperately tries to keep it on. This is a perfect example of the overall idea that it is lack of knowledge that fuels this conversation. In our Persuell annotations assignment for Lila Abu Lughod’s Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving, my fellow classmate Sarah Jones made a compelling comment saying “To instantly assume a veil is a sign of oppression is being negligent to 1) learning the real reason behind why a women wears one and 2) the actual struggles that are being fought and not heard because of the "western obsession" about the veil”. This comment really stuck with me as it not only strengthened my own beliefs but also wrapped together all we had been learning from not only Lughod but all the other amazing Muslim women voices whose work we had been listening to and reading all term. This comment also made me think about the fact that it might not even be about the hijab but more so converting everyone to look and think like them. The hijab may be a symbol of difference from them, one they do not accept. Being a true feminist is fighting for what is truly right for women and to do that you have to be educated on what is actually needed.

Although I have a few memes on my tumblr depicting the ethnocentric feminism practiced in Western feminism I tried to aim my tumblr posts at the power in the hijab. It is important to switch your own personal opinion and appreciate that it is the woman's choice. One video I posted shows a women's soccer team circle and shield an opponent from the public as she fixes her hijab after it was shifted during the game. The other players did not even think twice before gathering around her, even though they did not wear hijabs and maybe were not Muslim they still respected her choice and knew that it was important for her hijab to cover her hair fully. That is what being a true feminism is about, you support women even if you do not share a common choice while also fighting for their right to that choice. The rest are aimed at showing the power Muslim women feel from wearing the hijab. That is what other women should be focused on, celebrating the beauty in them deciding to wear these covers and supporting their decisions. This is the biggest thing I have taken away from this class. I have taken away the knowledge about other cultures and other women's issues and have been able to use it to be a better fighter for women's rights. I have taken away that there is such beauty in other cultures and the beauty in the female spirit and everything women have endured to get to the place we are. That being said, there is still so much work to do and the only way to make progress is through understanding and education, two things I gained through this class.