To Veil or Not To Veil
Alright it is my night to complain about the lovely governments governing us today. Btw I just realized that in my previous post what i didn't say was that whenever I talk about a country, I am talking about their government obviously. It is just too complicated to make people responsible for their government... hmm, although i know that sentence is true, it is sad that it is true.
Anyway so next source of complaint. I've already talked about the government of Australia and US. Lets go to UK now. Actually this also involves France. A couple of days ago the lovely Brinda sent me this article about Blair backing Jack Straw in "his opposition to Muslim women wearing veils by saying it was 'perfectly sensible' to discuss the issue in the context of breaking down barriers between communities."
It amazes me when non-mulsims insist on women not wearing veils etc. Why do they do that? Really, it comes down to two things: (1) they believe women don't really want to wear them and they are doing them a favor by backing them; (2) they want to deliberately disrespect the beliefs of muslims by forcing them to reject their beliefs. And then they use the excuse of assimilation. Why is it that society wants everyone to be the same? Why is it that the 'different' is accepted only when it is a westernizes difference (does that make sense?). Remember a while ago, the French forcing school girls to take off their veils if they wanted to go to school? why? I still don't agree with their excuse of taking religion out of school. So for example, is it correct if the muslims use the excuse that we don't want there to be differences and so when you come to our country you should wear a veil?
Anyway it is getting late and I am not making sense. But before I go, the last two paragraphs of the story above really annoyed me and made me think that westerners who 'insist' on women not to wear veils are trying to be sympathetic to women:
In his weekly column in the The Lancashire Telegraph he expressed concern that "wearing the full veil was bound to make better, positive relations between the two communities more difficult".
Mr Straw said he had been mulling over the issue ever since a veiled woman attended his surgery and said she was pleased to meet him face to face at last.
4 comments:
This are serious matters, and I can't be serious :(
But I'm glad you decided to make this type of blog, not like your husbands that has let his go to waste.
OK, I'll try to give my less childish opinion.
Unfortunately I agree with you. And the only thing I can do about it, is whenever I meet someone from different culture, encourage them to tell me more about their history, belieaves etc, and start an anit-westernization (I made that one up, sue me :P) propaganda. That unfortunately as I am, it envolves irrationaly attacking everything US.
Unfortunately some people from Taiwan didn't like my views.... I still play Chinese chess with them though.
To break barriers between communities maybe all women should wear a veil :)
On the other hand you say:
"is it correct if the muslims use the excuse that we don't want there to be differences and so when you come to our country you should wear a veil?"
doesn't Iran forces all women to wear a veil? I am not sure about this actually, but I tend to see reporters wearing veils. What happens if you are zoroastrian, or Bahai or jew or christian?
I like the way you point out how soceities are comfortable only certain differences and these are acceptable... I also feel that western democracies and societies are *proud* of individuals being able to live the lives they choose and somehow by making a distinction of what choices are acceptable and not may actually harm the very fundamentals they trumpet ...
But how do *foreigners* behave/live in a foreign land? for instance if I visited Tehran (as Alvaro points out) I would wear a veil - and if you visited India - I dont think you would walk around in a micro-mini. But when someone from a country visits a less conservative land .. how do they handle this transition?
yup I knew my comment about Iran was iffy at best :-) In Iran all women have to wear veils even though it is much more relaxed for foreigners. I remember when i was there last, I saw some japanese women wearing baseball hats. And the funny thing was I couldn't stop looking at them. it wasnt as if the sight by itself was unusual, rather it was the context that made it so interesting.
Back to Iran and their reason for forcing everyone to wear a veil. Iran has its own excuse for the veil but they could have used the above excuse as well - the point is, Uk is proud of the freedom offered to its people where as noone claims any such freedom in Iran. So have we reduced the freedom in Uk to that of Iran?
Brinda's comment about how foreigner should act in a 'foreign' land is also really interesting. The less->more conservative transition I guess is easy. You adopt the more conservative ways. But the more->less conservative transition is less easy. Now it becomes a question of why we change what we wear. Is it because of respecting another's culture? or what causes offense?
Any comments?
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