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A Western Feminist Defends the Muslim Veil

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Naomi Wolf, a third wave Western feminist, has written an article defending the voluntary use of the veil by women.

Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality - Opinion - smh.com.au

from article said:
The West interprets veiling as repression of women and suppression of their sexuality. But when I travelled in Muslim countries and was invited to join a discussion in women-only settings within Muslim homes, I learned that Muslim attitudes toward women's appearance and sexuality are not rooted in repression, but in a strong sense of public versus private, of what is due to God and what is due to one's husband. It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling - toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home.

Her article has caused a bit of controversy:

Feminists face off over the veil - Broadsheet - Salon.com

What do you make of Wolf's article?

What do you make of the controversy?
 
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Yerda

Veteran Member
Hi, Sunstone.

I agree with her (Wolfe) qualifying paragraph where she states that women should have a choice. Of course they should. If a woman wants to wear the burqa or niqab or any other covering garment because she feels more secure or less "objectified", I can't see how anyone has a right to argue.

My impression is that the rest of the article is fairly shallow. Women in Muslim countries are as sexual as the rest of the world? That' bloody obvious, they are still women. Or that taking a garment that restricts and overheats the wearer can be a splendid affair? I'm hardly surprised. I don't know a great deal about these issues. I read what reports come out about the abuse of women and the penalties imposed (including barbaric treatements like stoning) upon women who refuse to wear a veil and I dabble in the fiction and non-fiction from the region (Asne Sierstad's The Bookseller of Kabul is a great read). Why the hell a feminist would waste time deliberating over the sexual lives of veil wearers when women are being routinely abused and reduced to property for men to accumulate perplexes me a little.

From that second link: David Horowitz is absurdly proclaiming on NewsReal that "if Naomi Wolf and her radical friends had their way, America would be disarmed and radical Islam would be triumphant and women would be back in the Middle Ages, and the rest of us along with them."

That man is repugnant.
 

Alceste

Vagabond
What do you make of Wolf's article?

Makes sense.

What do you make of the controversy?
Nonsense. To believe women should have the right to wear (or not wear) whatever they like, but with the caveat that the range of choice is limited to Western clothing only, is not much different from other cultures telling women they have the right to choose what they want to wear as long as their hair isn't showing. You either believe women should be able to wear (or not wear) whatever they want, or you believe women should wear what you want them to wear. There's no middle ground, IMO.
 

elisheba

Member
modest clothing and immunity,overheating, and libido

*****************************************************
There is always a range. In modern countries it is usually total nudity. In some states in the U.S. total nudity is allowed unless someone complains about it and says that they are offended.

The skin is an organ - it is not a good idea to expose an organ in public places just due to the diseases prevalent. The pores absorb. In the medical setting we are told to wash our hands within 20 minutes if blood or something similar gets on our skin - before it is absorbed.

About overheating, sweating is healthy - just drink plenty of water. I hear alot of complaints in my job and elsewhere about female lack of libido. Maybe their bodies are hibernating because of all the air-conditioned indoor spaces.
 

dogsgod

Well-Known Member
What happened? Woman's liberators and labour union leaders have been reduced to whimpering masses of jelly.
 

elisheba

Member
The women I work with wish they could be liberated from having to go to school and also work outside the home.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
What happened? Woman's liberators and labour union leaders have been reduced to whimpering masses of jelly.

Are you saying that Naomi Wolf has been reduced to a whimpering mass of jelly just because she recognizes that wearing a veil is not a childishly black and white issue?
 

YmirGF

Bodhisattva in Recovery
Should we be overly interested in or concerned with the latest opinion piece by Naomi Wolf, Sunstone?
Do you think she has anything important to say on the subject that others have not covered or already surmised?
Her perusal of the subject matter is fairly superficial, at best.
 

Tiapan

Grumpy Old Man
It is not that women have the right to wear the veil, it is the fact that none dare through freewill not to wear the veil and that is the ironic contradiction.

Cheers
 

TheKnight

Guardian of Life
Naomi Wolf, a third wave Western feminist, has written an article defending the voluntary use of the veil by women.

Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality - Opinion - smh.com.au



Her article has caused a bit of controversy:

Feminists face off over the veil - Broadsheet - Salon.com

What do you make of Wolf's article?

What do you make of the controversy?

I think that makes sense...BUT

It is not that women have the right to wear the veil, it is the fact that none dare through freewill not to wear the veil and that is the ironic contradiction.

Cheers

as Tiapan implied, in Muslim countries women don't necessarily have a choice to wear the veil.

Here, that's fine. I don't think anyone in America believes that American women who wear a veil are being suppressed.
 

Sahar

Well-Known Member
It is not that women have the right to wear the veil, it is the fact that none dare through freewill not to wear the veil and that is the ironic contradiction.

Cheers
On which planet do you live?

There are millions of Muslim women who don't wear hijab.
 

dogsgod

Well-Known Member
I think that makes sense...BUT



as Tiapan implied, in Muslim countries women don't necessarily have a choice to wear the veil.

Here, that's fine. I don't think anyone in America believes that American women who wear a veil are being suppressed.
Are Americans that stupid?
 

TheKnight

Guardian of Life
Are you serious? Where do you think the pressure comes from to wear these veils?

Their own choice. You can't assume that they wear the veil because they are oppressed. Unless they say that it is not their choice, you have to assume that it is.
 

dogsgod

Well-Known Member
Their own choice. You can't assume that they wear the veil because they are oppressed. Unless they say that it is not their choice, you have to assume that it is.
So no one wears the veil because their father or husband pressures them to wear it? America must be a real special place.
 
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