The problem with the Cairo speech IMO, is that it gives women permission to wear hijab. But it does not really give them permission NOT TO.
Oh, sure, the President says the covering of the hair should be a "choice." But he says nothing about the real reason why it is NOT a "choice" for so many. No mention about violence, honor killings, "intolerant" husbands and brothers. Instead he pretends as if it is an intolerant, secular America that would take away such a "right."
Is Obama even aware that we have a long history of "tolerating" women who cover their hair in this country? Be they nuns or Mennonites. To be frank, nobody I know has problems with the freely chosen covering of hair.
It's not the freely chosen coverage of hair that disturbs the Americans I know.
It's the hair that is covered under threat of violence that gets our panties knotted.
Posts
Dat be true.
ReplyDeleteObama is caught up in the neoliberal "choice" rhetoric. Its a mantra of neoliberalism.
as an aside, I recall having to wear a scarf as a kid going to a Catholic church. Most women--esp the older ones still wear something on their heads in church. But men never had to.
In my early years as a Catholic kid, I wore a "chapel veil." But only in church. And Vatican II did away with that "rule."
ReplyDeleteIt was actually against the rules to wear it *outside* in public, as I seem to remember it. It was considered to be a kind of "flaunting" of one's spirituality.
Women in this country... including Muslims... do not need Obama's "permission" to wear the veil. But they may well need permission to NOT wear it. And that is what makes his little rant on the subject so lame.