BurkaBaby
I read bits of the Globe & Mail (Canada's leading newspaper, as it calls itself, for all my international readers) this past weekend and, as per usual in these times of terror, there were a few articles about The Muslim Menace. The weren't titled "The Muslim Menace", of course. But they may as well have been. I mean, really. If there isn't a Muslim Menace out there - why the hell are we in a War on Terror?
Anyway, since it's sort of, kind of, politically incorrect to go on and on about the ongoing and neverending threat of Islamic Fundamentalism perched on the other side of the world, its tentacles reaching out across the miles to deposit pods of evil everywhere amongst us here in the socially progressive, peace loving West - the Globe was focusing this past weekend on The Burka.
Now, I've read articles by men (always men) on the right of our political spectrum (some might say on the right of Attila the Hun's political spectrum) and although these men believe in modest apparel for White Western Women (one of them even seeming to believe that modest apparel on girls will prevent homicidal paedophiles from commiting rape/murder) - they are offended, nay - frightened - by The Burka.
I'm not afraid of The Burka, myself. Although, I am afraid of some of these rightwing scaredycats having their way on uniforms and I'll end up having to pay for my kids to wear some Japanese animator's dream come true of an outfit while they sit in class wondering why they should have to learn math when the President of Harvard says there's no point in trying because only boys can learn enough math to become President of Anything.
When I see a woman wearing a Burka - and she is inevitably wearing it while shopping in the grocery store - I think, "I wonder if she's wearing that Burka by choice..." and continue shopping. Like Michael Ignatieff and the Lebanese civilians killed in that whole war crime episode - I don't lose any sleep over it. And I certainly don't lose any sleep over it because *I'm* afraid. I worry - a bit - about what this other woman's life is like and whether or not she's aware of her right here in Canada to NOT wear The Burka. But I don't lay awake at night worrying about her, either.
Now, I don't for a minute buy the Muslim argument that The Burka is anything other than oppressive. Even their denials are proof of oppression because the reasons for women wearing The Burka come out of The Koran. And The Koran, like The Bible, is patriarchal. In the extreme. Both Holy Books are patriarchal. Women do NOT do well by religious texts. They just don't. The Burka being the least of the oppression.
But this past weekend I read an article that contained this passage:
"Chapter 34, Verse 30 of the Koran reads, "believing women should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; they should not display their ornaments except as normal." According to Hamida Ghafour, The dispute among Muslims ever since is the question of what "except as normal" means."
Uh... okayyyyyy. What about a dispute over what "display their ornaments" means? 'Cause that's what I want to know. What the hell does "disply their ornaments" mean? If "ornaments" mean what *I* think they probably meant back when men were men and women gave birth in stables - isn't The Koran talking about... boobs? I mean, I'm just asking. It seems to me "display their ornaments" is the key phrase here. Not "except as normal". Or am I just being an infidel whore? Again...
In any case, if that passage is what all this fuss is about "except as normal" when "display their ornaments" is hanging right out there, too, so to speak - we've got a long way to go, BurkaBaby.
