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Random thoughts on veils
This will be brief (as the tooth is aching), but I was listening to an interesting phone in on Radio 4 this afternoon which had a number of very intelligent contributions.
It seems to me that a Muslim woman's veil has very different meanings in different parts of the world.
There are parts of the world where it can, and is, used to subjugate women; but in Britain, some women wear it very much as a positive gesture - as an outward declaration of their faith. (I felt really sorry for one woman who had worn it until recently and had been forced to give it up as she could no longer bear the name-calling from people in the street) There are families where some daughters freely choose to wear it and some do not. There are women of Anglo-Saxon ethnic origin who choose to wear it after converting to Islam.
It actually seems to me that wearing the veil in many countries shows a lack of freedom/independence for women, but that in Britain (for some women at least), it is the wearing of it that demonstrates freedom and independence.
I don't like it - I find it alienating not to see someone's face - but I'm starting to understand why some women choose to wear it.
It seems to me that a Muslim woman's veil has very different meanings in different parts of the world.
There are parts of the world where it can, and is, used to subjugate women; but in Britain, some women wear it very much as a positive gesture - as an outward declaration of their faith. (I felt really sorry for one woman who had worn it until recently and had been forced to give it up as she could no longer bear the name-calling from people in the street) There are families where some daughters freely choose to wear it and some do not. There are women of Anglo-Saxon ethnic origin who choose to wear it after converting to Islam.
It actually seems to me that wearing the veil in many countries shows a lack of freedom/independence for women, but that in Britain (for some women at least), it is the wearing of it that demonstrates freedom and independence.
I don't like it - I find it alienating not to see someone's face - but I'm starting to understand why some women choose to wear it.
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In the Quran it merely says women should "dress modestly and cover their hair" - which means that unless they've got a beard, a veil *should* be optional. Any religious authority (e.g. the Taliban) who says otherwise are therefore apostates by their own logic, and deserve all they get, by their own logic...