# Are Muslim woman required to wear shawls in the hospital?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-muslim-woman-required-to-wear-shawls-in-the-hospital/638282>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 19, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-muslim-woman-required-to-wear-shawls-in-the-hospital/638282 "2012-10-19T22:17:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-muslim-woman-required-to-wear-shawls-in-the-hospital/638282/41 "2012-10-22T01:53:29Z")

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> [@am77494](#):
>
> Full disclosure - I live in the US, grew up as a Hindu in India and went to Catholic school and am not very religious. My views maybe biased so feel free to correct me if you find them lacking evidence.
> 
> The problems with mandatory Veils is that it is usually accompanied by male dominated cultures with women taking the backseat. In India there are many Muslims who are more liberal (do not adhere strictly to the Islam as interpreted by the Mullahs). Typically women in these liberal Muslim adherents are more likely to be well educated, have careers and do not wear veils. It maybe mere correlation but among Muslim sects/cultures you can predict how progressive they are by the mere fact as to how widespread hijab is practiced.
> 
> Culture, religion, geography, textiles, etc, all effect attires. To me, mandatory hijab is a sign of female oppression since the origins at based on female subjugation. I do understand that women who grew up wearing the hijab like to continue it - to me that is like Stockholm syndrome.

Actually, something I read once was an introduction to an alleged “unexpurgated” version of Arabian Nights. The intro mentioned that the Middle East had a very different view of female sexuality; where western morality says women are saints that are corrupted and led astray by men, the Arab view is that women can be just as horny and sexual as men. Western culture would guilt women into good behaviour by telling them if they have these urges they must be sluts and whores, middle eastern culture admitted they have normal urges, just controlled the chances of “straying” outside the confines of the family more literally than figuratively.

Of course, telling women what they an or cannot do, by guilt or physical means, _is_ repression.

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**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\
**Post date:** [October 22, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-muslim-woman-required-to-wear-shawls-in-the-hospital/638282/42 "2012-10-22T02:06:11Z")

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> [@md2000](#):
>
> The intro mentioned that the Middle East had a very different view of female sexuality; where western morality says women are saints that are corrupted and led astray by men, the Arab view is that women can be just as horny and sexual as men.

Got to be careful about periods here. The idea about women as morally pure shrinking violets is a more recent ( though obviously not modern ) view in the west.

In the medieval west women were considered puddles of smouldering hormones, slaves to their passions and apt to corrupt morally upstanding men. Sluts by nature basically and inherently immoral because of it. Truly outstanding women who rose above their “base natures” to enter the church were venerated of course. But most women were to be regarded with appropriate suspicion due to their barely or unconstrained libidos, unlike supposedly more rational men.

For example the romantic notion of Eleanor of Aquitaine ( accused of all sorts of infidelities, adultery and incest as broadly defined in the Middle Ages ) as being driven by a hopelessly jilted passion for the unfaithful Henry II ( see the _The Lion in Winter_ ) probably derives a lot from this notion, which comes down from speculating medieval chroniclers. The truth of their infighting may well have been ( it is unprovable ) more prosaically political.

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