It was “World Hijab Day” yesterday.

What shall we do next? World Yellow Star Day? World Bound Feet Day? World Chains Day?

I know; many non-Muslims who observe the day don’t think they’re celebrating patriarchal religion and the subordination of women; they think they’re expressing solidarity with Muslims who are subject to racism and xenophobia. In a sense they are doing that, but they’re also expressing solidarity with theocrats who force women to wear hijab, and they’re expressing unsolidarity with women and girls who refuse to wear hijab and those who want to refuse but can’t.

And in the process they are sometimes teaching very young girls that female people need to Cover Up.

I was going to post the Grade 6 tweet but it disappeared while I was typing, so I guess those 149 replies weren’t all approving. (I saw a few disapproving ones before I left to start typing.)

Don’t do that. By all means be in solidarity with despised minorities, but do that without telling the girls in your class to wrap a large cloth around their heads and necks. Do that without telling the girls in your class to muffle and conceal and shroud themselves while the boys remain free to run around without thick fabric wrapping their heads and necks. Do that without telling the girls in your class they are so radically different from boys that they require wrapping, like a piece of meat that will attract flies.