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I'm so confused.....
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Lump Of Green Slime
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Edited Nov 22, 2015, 15:53
Re: I'm so confused.....
Nov 22, 2015, 15:49
As an aside, according to Elizabeth Bucar, bans on headscarves in public institutions have also occurred on and off in Turkey since the 1960's. In 1993 there was a failed attempt in Egypt to ban the veil in schools. Azerbaijan, Albania and Uzbekistan all ban religious clothing in universities. Tajikistan bans the headscarf in public and Islamic schools and universities. Finally, during Suharto's regime, Islamic headscarves were banned in Indonesian schools.

It might actually be interesting to find out how many Muslim men would be in favour of compulsory veiling because it is something that they themselves wish to do (or at least some of them).

For example, in the Berber Muslim Tuareg tribe, men, not women, veil. Known as 'the blue-veiled men', Tuareg males wear long, flowing robes and a head covering known as tagelmust , which consists of a low turban and a face veil. Ideally, all Tuareg men wear this veil from the onset of puberty, as it identifies them of being of marriageable age, until death.

There are also Muslim men who wear women's dress as part of their ritual or gender performance. Dating back to the 14th Century, the bissu are Muslim men in South Sulawesi who wear women's dress in religious rituals. Common still today in this region of the world are also Muslim transvestites called 'waria', a combination of the Indonesian word 'juanita' for woman and 'pria' for man.

I offer these examples to counterbalance yet another one-dimensional assumption, namely, that the Islamic veil is everywhere and always a symbol of patriarchal oppression and women's subordination.

Accounts of women heads of state in several Muslim countries and of the enthusiastic participation of female leaders in the Arab Spring uprisings have done little to dispel this impression. And when Muslim women in prominent public roles do receive attention, they are often depicted as exceptions to the rule. It is not surprising therefore that her commitment to Islam as a driving force for her advocacy of female education is rarely mentioned in Western accounts of Malala Yusufzai's public career to date.

Having said all that, whenever I see someone wearing niqab around London, I do find myself wondering which lame version of Salafism they probably adhere to. It puts me in mind of turkeys voting for Christmas and that sort of thing.
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