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injunjaneAnother thought on the same topic. A text by a Muslim female writer defending wearing hijab even in a non-Muslim cultural environment caught my eye. There she promotes the idea that hijab is a way to maintain cultural uniqueness as opposite to 'colonial values'.
Poor girl, for a Western women hijab or any veil or scarf is by no means a 'cultural uniqueness' but a religious burden demonstrating that a woman of any cultural background is submissive to a man. Europeans abandoned that custom several hundred years ago and not without serious reason.
And your Muslim culture is not 'unique', it was brought by force and conquest from Arabian peninsula to many other countries while destroying their original cultural background.
If you want to be unique, why don't you do it through your absolutely stunning national music, dances and folk dress? Are you Turkish? There are so many exquisite Turkish folk costumes. Moroccan? Show your national colours and styles. Malaysian? Wear your national dress and ornaments. Egyptian? Show us you're from one of the oldest civilizations on the planet.
Be like Frieda Kahlo who was proud of her Mexican identity and demonstrated it by wearing her exquisite national garments.
But no, instead you're wearing ugly and dull pan-Arabic robes and head covers that make you look like a runaway nun who's just learned to paint her face and nails rainbow style.
Because it's not a sign of cultural identity, but indeed a symbol of the religion that conquered your part of the world, and nothing else.
Poor girl, for a Western women hijab or any veil or scarf is by no means a 'cultural uniqueness' but a religious burden demonstrating that a woman of any cultural background is submissive to a man. Europeans abandoned that custom several hundred years ago and not without serious reason.
And your Muslim culture is not 'unique', it was brought by force and conquest from Arabian peninsula to many other countries while destroying their original cultural background.
If you want to be unique, why don't you do it through your absolutely stunning national music, dances and folk dress? Are you Turkish? There are so many exquisite Turkish folk costumes. Moroccan? Show your national colours and styles. Malaysian? Wear your national dress and ornaments. Egyptian? Show us you're from one of the oldest civilizations on the planet.
Be like Frieda Kahlo who was proud of her Mexican identity and demonstrated it by wearing her exquisite national garments.
But no, instead you're wearing ugly and dull pan-Arabic robes and head covers that make you look like a runaway nun who's just learned to paint her face and nails rainbow style.
Because it's not a sign of cultural identity, but indeed a symbol of the religion that conquered your part of the world, and nothing else.
