I’d take a hijab that might make my face and head a little sweaty over high heels that actually cause physical deformities of the feet. Whose culture is more barbaric?
From what I’ve read, most women prefer the hijab and traditional dress for one simple reason- they can go about their business without being ogled by men. Plus, it’s considered a sign of modesty- just like Western women not going to the office in a bikini. It just happens to be a little more modest than we’re used to.
But, to your question, perhaps you should try to be a little more tolerant of other cultures unless you have evidence that the women in question are being forced to dress this way against their will.
I wouldn’t call you a judgemental prick… But you never know, these people spent thousands of years in the desert dressed this way (both women AND men) so maybe these women were laughing at all the people in shorts and tanks tops who were sweating their ass off.
Just to ask a dumb question, aren’t light colored baggy clothes, which reflect rather than absorb the light, better than dark baggy clothes? If you’re going wear cumbersome and baggy, don’t you want to go light and baggy, instead of dark and baggy?
See, that’s what prompted my question those many years ago. We’d just been taught a bit about reflectivity, light vs. dark, why some stuff was bright and others weren’t, that sort of thing. My teacher used Arabs in the desert as the example and claimed it was convective cooling that did the trick.
Supposedly, the cloth absorbed more heat the darker it was. Hot air rises. Cool air must flow in to replace the hot air that’s leaving. Therefore, you have constant airflow, which wicks away the sweat you’re forming, thus cooling you off.
I don’t know if this is accurate or if he was just BSing me, but I have worn both light and dark clothing and can state that the dark + baggy combo works best for me. You still sweat, but you don’t feel as hot.
You’ve probably seen all sorts of offensive outerwear in your years. Teenyboppers dressed as streetwalkers, boys with their underwear showing in XXXL pants, body piercing overload. All of which you maybe don’t understand. Hell, we all saw Janet Jackson’s breast.
This strikes you as more offensive because you view it as subjugation. Even though you admit freely you don’t understand it. But blistering hot countries are chock full of women wearing this garment. I don’t know that you should be so hyper critical of something you willing admit you just don’t understand.
Judging muslim culture based on the view from the outside is a grave error in my opinion. Some see this particular choice/requirement (it depends) as an attempt to create an environment wherein woman are not judged or measured by the attractiveness of their bodies, the beauty of their hair, eyes, or faces.
If it was all a teenaged rage of fashion you’d be indifferent most likely. Be proud to live in a country without a dress code.
I’ve long thought that high heels were insanely sexist, shoes that hurt the feet and make it difficult to walk and impossible to run away while giving no benefit to the wearer, only pleasure to the (male) viewer. I think that women who wear high heels, while not actually forced to do so, do it because they are pressured into it by their culture, and that no woman who wasn’t subjected to a high-heel-supporting patriarchy would choose to wear them.
So I don’t wear high heels.
And not wearing high heels is about all I do about my belief, really. I don’t even think all that hard about women I see wearing them. We all have to decide for ourselves what kinds of compromises we’ll make with our culture.
Color aside, lets not forget about the importance of fabric content - I’ll take black cotton blouse over white polyester any July day of the week. Although according to my mother its not the fabric content that makes a difference, its how how tightly the cloth is woven.
I dunno, there are plenty of things women do because it makes other women and themselves think they look good, while not necessarily making men think so other than the self-confidence it instills in them. I for one don’t like high heels.
And I would never judge you, or even find you less attractive or feminine, for your refusal to wear them. Neither would anyone else I know. On the other hand, I’m under the impression that the cultural pressure for some Muslim women to wear the burqa is very strong.
When I meet a doctor, I always assume that she can wear what she chooses regardless of her father’s preferences, or even her husband’s.
Here’s a really good blog entry about wearing black versus white robes told by someone who knows. Here’s another entry from the same blog about the ongoing debate in Saudi Arabia about how covered up women should be.
When I worked in Saudi Arabia, flying in often afforded an opportunity to converse with Saudi women which was much harder to do when we were actually “in country.” My own judgmentalism was completely revised by these conversations: the women hardly consider themselves “property” and most of them will declare a strong preference for the full covering, for a number of reasons, but not because of tradition or coercion. They like it, the same way women in France like high heels - they couldn’t give a flip about what men think.
Perhaps a better comparison would be wearing a bra? No law that you have to, but if you are endowed enough to make it obvious when you aren’t wearing one, you will face pretty signifigant pressure to do so.
See, this fascinates me. I really appreciate you passing on this perspective to me, even second hand. I would love to talk to such a woman. Even more than that, I would love to talk to a woman who grew up in America and, by marriage and/or relocation, freely chose to start wearing the full covering as an adult, because that would eliminate my ready-made, “You only THINK you like it, because it’s what you grew up around!” argument. I know there are some out there, and I’m sure they don’t feel oppressed.
See? I want my ignorance fought, even if it hurts.
One of the biggest mosques (if not, the biggest) in North America is by my house and I’m going to go take Arabic lessons when they start up again. If you want me to get you in touch with someone, who, in turn, can probably find someone more local for you to contact, send me a private message or an email.
It certainly isn’t immune, but it’s probably more resistant to such a charge, simply because I think my upbringing was pretty diverse. I grew up in a biracial home (Vietnamese and American), with parents of two very different religions (Buddhist and Christian), in a community (Washington DC area) with adherents of pretty much every conceivable ethnic group and religious background. I grew up with a very broad concept of what different groups of people consider proper dress and conduct for women. For example, many of my friends growing up were Indian, and their grandmothers would never, ever go out in anything but a sari. I always thought that was pretty cool. Even against that broad spectrum, Muslim women in full cover bother me emotionally for some reason.
What I really need, I think, is to get to know some people in person. It’s really hard for me to look down my nose at people I’ve actually met.
I know that’s a Rick Ross site, but the article is from the Los Angeles Times. Read it and maybe you’ll understand why there are many in Utah trying to help FLDS women escape the cult.
