WNU Editor: The above video is quite a sight to see .... and it has been repeated many times when a region has been liberated from ISIS .... celebrations by women that the burka and all that it symbolizes is no more. In Canada where I live .... the opposite .... protests against those who want to ban the burka and all that it symbolizes when it comes to using public services .... Montreal protesters don surgical masks, scarves over new face-covering law (CBC). Two different places .... two different reactions .... and all happening at the same time. As to what is my take .... this issue is not a priority in my life, probably because I grew up in the Soviet Union where many girls and women have worn (and are still wearing) head-scarfs like this one. I have also given these scarfs as gifts (which can also be used as a neck scarf). Bottom line .... from my experience it has always been a personal choice, influenced by culture, and worn by women not because they are forced to do so, but because they want to. But what I find interesting about the debate in Canada is that the burka and niqab has long been associated with groups like the Taliban and the Islamic State to subjugate women. For these women, it was never a choice .... it was an obligation. And for those who have escaped that type of treatment (two of my friends are women who left Iran 25 years ago) .... I have found these women to be the most vociferous opponents on permitting this type of clothing in public. As one put it to me rather bluntly on Friday when I asked her about the debate that was happening in Canada .... she sees the burka/niqab in the same way that Blacks see people dress up as the Klan .... symbols of oppression and hate, and definitely not as a religious issue. But that is not how the debate is being framed in Canada .... which is unfortunate .... the women who have lived in that type of society do need to be heard, but for the moment their voices are being ignored.
WNU Editor: 2 minutes after posting this story, a reader of this blog (and a well know female reporter to boot) just emailed me on how do you put on a Russian scarf. Paula, the answer is here .... How To Style Russian Scarves. :)
3 comments:
Burkhas and niqabs are not a religious issue in the West, but on us versus them issue.
It is how Muslim immigrants choose to keep their community together to define the in-group and out-group.
Amish dress different, too. Amish typically do not go through airport screening with their faces covered unlike hostile in your face Muslims. Nor do Amish blow up planes or kill people left, right and center unlike Muslims.
probably because the US are not bombing , invading and interfering in amish comunity the same way US have been in muslim counteries
1) Amish are subject to U.S Law. You cannot get more 'interfering' than that.
2a) Does the shadowy Anon wish to debate the Invasion of Kuwait?
2b) Does the _______ly Anon wish to debate the UN sanctioned involvement in Somalia?
2c) Does the _______ Anon wish to discuss why the Taliban refused to hand over war criminal Osama? It the taleb-less Taliban had turned over Osama the coward, there would be no troops in Afghanistan.
Anon, I am seriously worried that you might be a Russian or ISIS troll. Maybe you want to rethink your strategy.
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