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In reply to the discussion: Video-Amina: Topless Tunisian Protester Tells Femen She Was Beaten,Kidnapped & Drugged By Her Family [View all]BainsBane
(53,032 posts)Last edited Sat Apr 27, 2013, 06:16 PM - Edit history (2)
The same reason I don't use my cell phone or other electronics when I attend shabbat dinner at the home of an Orthodox Jewish friend, or that I don't bust in and sit among the men at temple. They have invited me into their community and I respect their customs.
Foxes guarding the hen house is a good point, and you identify the principal Fox--the US military. Do you know how high rape is in the US military? Yet you focus on the fact they veil in Saudi Arabia? What exactly disturbs you about their veiling? That Americans don't get to determine how everyone dresses across the world? That these might not satisfy the male gaze for a short while? So you're worried that they veil while out in public in Saudi Arabia, not that half of them are raped by fellow American soldiers?
Islam is a religion that like all, is multi-dimensional. It has a 1700 year old history with an array of different interpretations of the Quran. The difference is you take one thing you hear in the news and think that substitutes for knowledge. It isn't. All Muslim women do not veil, and some actually choose to do so. Women in Iran under the Shah had veils torn from their faces by the police, who agreed with you that the only acceptable role for women was to emulate Western dress. Muslim women and girls in France are forbidden from veiling in a variety of places, including schools.
I submit that when it comes to women's rights, those women themselves get to decide. Who doesn't get to decide is someone who can't be bothered to educate himself on the differences between Islam and Islamicism or Salafism. Who doesn't get to decide is a bunch of Westerners who pay tax dollars for drones that drop bombs on the Muslim women they claim to care about in places like Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen. How can you possibly claim to care about the human rights of women abroad if you don't even respect them? They do not target Islam as the object of their oppression. They are far more likely to name the US, you and me as their oppressors than Islam itself.
Is it really so hard to focus on particular acts against individuals or particular practices rather than condemning an entire religion and billions of people around the world? That really only depends on if your concern here is Amina or women in Algeria or if your goal is to instead denounce Islam.