Free at last, free at last
Oh so that’s how you combat violence against women – by volunteering to wear a hijab.
The purpose of Scarves for Solidarity is to help save battered women while spreading awareness about Islam. The Muslim Student Association is working with sponsors who plan to donate $5 to Battered Women’s Shelter for every female who volunteers to wear a head-scarf/hijab on Monday, April 7th 2007.
That helps ‘save’ battered women because…because…because the hijab broadcasts the message that women need to be concealed. No. Because it conveys the message that women are a distraction to men and therefore have to be muffled from head to foot so that men can get on with their work. No. Because it shows that women are submissive to a male god and a male prophet and a lot of male clerics. No. Because it shows that women obey stupid rules that keep them in their place. No. Because – I give up.
Head-scarves will be available (FOR FREE) at the Union lobby between 12 pm and 3 pm throughout the week of Monday, March 31st. All that is required from you is to wear the scarf provided for you from 10am until 7:30 pm on April 7th. The scarves will all be the same color so that you can recognize other women volunteering to save battered women.
Oh is that all! All that is required from you is to wear a stifling piece of cloth wrapped tightly around your head and face and chin for nine and a half hours – a mere trifle!
There isn’t a set way to wear hijab. You can be as creative as you want as long as your body is covered (except your face and hands) with material that is long, loose, and not transparent.
Oh thank you. Thank you thank you thank you – you are so kind, so generous, so liberal, so relaxed. I can be as creative as I want provided every bit of me except my face and hands is covered with long loose opaque material. Why, my creative little mind is already buzzing with plans to embroider birdies and seashells and feathers on my robes.
They’re so sweet, they even provide an illustration of how it’s done. You pin the fabric at your chin, then you pin it again at the top of your head, and bob’s your uncle, there you are, with your whole head all nicely wrapped up like a corpse. Don’t you feel wonderful? That’s the way to combat violence against women! Well done Stony Brook Muslim Students Association.
I may be mistaken but I am under the impression that Sharia law says it is OK for husbands to beat their wives . . . yet they’re claiming women are safer if they are Islamic.
Sounds a little like doublespeak to me. “Saving” women by propagating Islam . . . what an oxymoron.
The more examples you produce, OB, the more I wonder. Can the insanities of religion never cease? What is the matter with people? Isn’t it obvious that by wearing the hijab they are not supporting battered women — they’re joining them? In the last two or three days there has been evidence of Jewish insanity, Muslim insanity, Christian insanity — and now, just plain insanity (but with a Muslim face (but only a face))?!
Okay, this isn’t quite on topic, but I’ll use this post as a screed against my favorite hijab ridiculousness. I live in an area of California that has a significant Muslim population. Many seem to encourage their daughters to wear the headscarf just about the time they’ve made it past diapers! Now, I live in the suburbs, where children ride bicycles. California state law requires children to wear helmets. So I see young Muslim girls zipping about on their pink bicycles with helmets over slippery polyester scarves. The helmet will do very little to protect her head in an accident; it’ll just slide off. GRRRR.
You pin the fabric at your chin, then you pin it again at the top of your head, and bob’s your uncle, there you are, with your whole head all nicely wrapped up like a corpse.
Corpse?
What?
I think it would be lovely if someone took one of those scarves, lit it on fire, and then mailed a large check to the local women’s shelter.
BTW, the last comment up above was taken from Wiki.
“The purpose of Scarves for Solidarity is to help save battered women while spreading awareness about Islam.”
Charming, is it not indeed! Methinks it should have been called Battered Wives in Solidarity against Violence.
“Scarves” is the first word used in the ‘head’ing of the caption. They have to have the last word.
Sheer manipulation of defenceless women.
Whats next from the stony brook moslem students, 5 dollars for the United negro colledge fund for every black person spending a day wearing klan robes? or maybe 5 dollars for the holocaust memorial fund for every jew that wears a yellow star for the day?
dzd,
The cheque mailing, I understand, but the burning business. Why?
Bit over the top. Bit petulant.
I live in a part of east London with a large muslim population. Five years ago there were many women wearing the hijab (hair covered and face visible). But now, the number of women wearing the niquab (face and hair covered, with only one cut in the fabric for the eyes) has increased to the point that I see more than one of them, each time I go shopping on the high street and pop into Sainsburys for a pint of milk. I still can’t get used to the weirdness of raising my eyes from the dairy counter to stumble into one of these mummies.
Obviously, it’s not possible to tell who hides beneath thes walking wardrobes, but judging from the slender figures and fast walk, quite a few of these women are young and possibly wearing this customs as a sign of rebellion (against the west etc).
It makes me really sad that women want to transform these grotesque symbols of oppression and turn them into a sign ‘identity’.
Why not burn a symbol of oppression? It hurts no one.
Although I must say that complaints about “petulance” from foetid-corpse-man ring, shall we say, a bit hollow.
What was petulant about dzd,s quite reasonable sugestion of protest against this sort of creeping moslem facism?
It’s petulance when you can be pretty sure that dzd will never perform such an act.
Nice bit of Ad Hom, too, dzd. Did you actually get to read the context of that statement before it was deleted?
Lucy, have you ever discussed this issue with anyone who wears the hijab as a sign of rebellion?
interesting how so many of us are
arrogant enough to think we can rant on and on about something we know little about. ya?
the insanity of religion? when will the insanity of people cease? democracy and liberation we claim out here in the west but slavery to society has yet to be abolished. religion insane? it’s the priests abusing little boys, but what drives middle-easterners towards terrorism? no, really why? mere hatred? what drives the hatred? if it’s religion why is Islam the fastest growing religion? hmm I really wonder though because not everyone that converting is stupid. they must have seen the niqabis, watched television, the terrorists, the oppression the….
what is this world comming to!
we are better than these ‘moslems’. we shouldnt have to pause to even wonder if they got real people under those covers or robots walking around in ’em; who cares! we cant see ’em anyway why bother wondering. eh i figured it doesnt really matter. even though i hear that who we are matters not what we wear, but hey i must be flippin out ’cause today?- even kids start training measure looks to size up their values. they learn fast and they are true to what the surrounding culture holds right?
one thing that really confuses me is about the value of women though. i mean you know how we keep valueable things in safe places, like gold, money, important documents and the such and we say women are important too in society. why do they have to strut themselves in ads, magazines, beaches…. arent they supposed to be valuable for humanity? you know they are the bearers of life, ya? well if we care so much for their safety from rape, abuse, and assault, why hand yourself out in public with the most vulnerable aspect of womanhood- chastity? maybe the ‘moslems’ women covering are trying to protect themselves, or maybe just are too shy. wait but maybe we westerners are too ‘civilized’ to have to think about covering up for protecting our chastity, i mean who does that anymore? right?
well i dont know, but you guys are right in implying, what is this world coming to!
lov all of your comments, says good stuff about you, nothing like good gossip! hope you can keep on posting. my aspirations of monotonous blogs just got higher….
Hi, moe. We (women) are not the equivalent of inanimate valuables like money or documents. I know a lot of people still seem to think we are objects whose value is determined by our precious chastity and life-bearing abilities, but the fact is we can do whatever we bloody well like, provided it’s not encroaching on other’s liberties (and no, nobody has the liberty to insist I cover up every inch of my body). If chastity is so important, why aren’t you insisting the same for men? Why are men strutting themselves in ads, magazines, on beaches? Aren’t they supposed to be valuable for humanity? You know they are the bearers of sperm (which is, you know, kind of important for creating new life). Also, you are assuming that all Western women go out and strut themselves in magazines, etc, with very little on, which is very far from the truth; a lot of women have a problem with this media objectification, and some women don’t like donning skimpy swimwear and going to the beach. Disliking the hijab does not mean you’re prepared to become a bikini model. My personal view: I dislike the hijab too, but on the other hand I dislike showing my bare legs (mainly because I refuse to shave them)…I feel that if you are going to argue for the hijab as being so oppressive, you’ll have to argue that covering other parts of your body is oppressive as well. Then again, perhaps it is – why are we so afraid of nudity? I shouldn’t be afraid to strut my hairy legs, but fear of social stigma keeps me down. Ah, cultural constructions…Anyway, I just don’t get too bothered about the hijab because I feel it would be hypocritical, for the reason I’ve written above. Anything covering the face, however, is a different matter, the face being the seat of the emotions and so on; but not seeing someone’s hair shouldn’t be an impediment to communication.