I am not a Muslim woman. I am a woman whose ancestors were killed in ethnic conflicts with people who happened to be Muslim, but I do not buy into this rhetoric that Islam is evil and inherently sexist. I back the hijab. Well, I back women wearing the hijab by choice, if they choose to. THe state should not mandate its presence or its absence on women's heads. SO, no, I do not defend IRan's hijab policies, but Turkey's refusal to let veiled women serve as civil servants or members of government is also wrong.
What Turkey doesn't get is that you can have a secular state with no official religion while letting individual citizens practice their religion. Veiled women cannot attend medical school there. WHy not? If I am not veiled and you are, our society should be tolerant enough for me to understand that's your choice, and not being imposed on me. Indeed, if women can choose whether or not to wear the veil, then it is not being imposed on them. THis is why secularists and pro-Muslims are fighting in Turkey! They don't get that you can have a society where people can openly practice religion without having a theocracy or any kind of state religion. SO in Turkey, the 66% of women there who choose to veil must choose between de-veiling (something they consider a sin according ot Hadith and the Qur'an) or abandoning any dreams they might have of being doctors, civil servants or actual politicians. Turkey thinks secularism makes it more progressive, but for veiled women (most Turkish women) it's nothing but oppressive.
The right to cover my body as I wish is often shrugged off in the West. Jack Straw in Britain decried the hijab and refused to fulfill the rights of his veiled constituents to meet with him because of it. Feminists don't seem to mind though. Well, at least Western feminists don't mind. But doesn't everyone see that my right to control who sees my body (and wear a hijab) is just as important as the more favoured western right or women to reveal their figures for all to see. Wearing the hijab is a basic body right. I get to control who sees my body. So to all second wave feminists who support abortion because women have the right to control their bodies and what grows in them, you should also care enough about body rights' of muslim women to control who sees their bodies and how. If you support abortion, you should support the hijab! This is the biggest issue in body rights for Canadian women right now. No one should be able to tell a woman what she must wear! NOt her husband, and not a stupid MP like Jack Straw or an Islamophobic goalie at a Quebec hockey game...
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