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Just to follow on from what redtara said above- if there has been an increase in wearing veils as a reaction to percieved antipathy between Muslim and other communities in Britain and the Iraq war, then is the right way to go? If that is indeed the intent of veil-wearing Muslim women, or even some of them, then how is the message ('I am wearing this to state my opposition to the Iraq war') being recieved? You've got a signifier, the veil, but where is the signified to the vast majority of the British population? To many them the 'statement' is one of seperation, or oppression, or unwillingness to integrate with British society. Hell, even a 'The Only Bush I Trust is My Own' t-shirt would do the same job better.
And, to follow on from Our Lady, I can certainly see the freedom angle here. Considering how much pressure young women are put under in British society to look and act certain way, and how sexualised this certain way often is, the wearing of veils could seem to be a useful get-out clause available to Muslim women, and when a large portion of the native populus hates or misunderstands you, the option of opting out of parts of British culture, particularly the get-so-drunk-you-can-barely-see-shag-stranger-repeat part, must seem like a tempting possibility. Perhaps if the various forms of Muslim dress were secular and global as opposed to religious and cultural many more women would wear them, perhaps many less. (Yes, I'm aware that many cultures have similar veils, but currently our culture says veil=Muslim, which is why we and Jack Straw are discussing it in that context)
In other news, The Sun has a full page spread today* on 'Issues dividing Britain'. All of which involve Muslims, two of which involving veil (the third, in which a Muslim pharmacist refused to sell a morning-after pill to a woman is pretty much open and shut, for me at least- denying contraception puts you in charge of somebody's entire life from then on, which isn't a right anybody should have for any reason).
Of particular interest is a Muslim school which intends to make non-Muslim girls (about 10% of the projected pupils) wear Hijabs as part of their uniform. Now I hate to agree with The Sun on pretty much anything, but they're right to be ticked off about this in my opinion. No matter what the morality of wearing Hijabs etc. is, it's something for Muslims and Muslims alone, that I think we can all agree on, and forcing it on people is no different from forcing it off.
*= Or perhaps every day, can somebody confirm this? |
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