With Liberty and Justice for All

In July of 2014, the French government initiated a ban on the traditional burqa or niqab head-covering for those of the Islamic faith.  The European Court of Human Rights rejected a claim that a young woman made that disallowing her to wear a burqa violated her rights as a citizen.  The most common of the arguments is a pitting of those who are proponents for religious freedom against those who believe that the burqa headcovering is demeaning to women.  Those on the side of the law argue that it does not issue disproportionate punishments, and it is in favor of the safety of all citizens.

In A Thousand Splendid Suns, Rasheed uses the burqa as a means of brute control over both Mariam and Laila.  Mariam, who cannot see and trips when she wears it, is physically incapacitated by its very nature.  She views it as a tool of imprisonment, and envies the women of the city who walk around in pants and without head coverings.  Laila uses the burqa as a way to hide, and veils her shame of being married to Rasheed behind its covering.  It is little wonder that many are against the burqa because of the women it does oppress, but it does not give the right to an entire community of innocent individuals to pay for the sins of others.

Religious freedom states that there must be separation of government and religion.  Laws may not be made favoring one religion over others, or demeaning one religion.  I understand that the safety of an entire nation cannot be compromised for the needs of a few, but the banning of an entire facet of a religion is persecution.

A girl who was banned from wearing her niqab in North London's Camden School for Girls writes the following, "I like to use it to promote feminism, however it is very hard to express it because of how people view it. There ARE a lot of women who are forced to wear it, and I think that's really wrong, no matter how religious or what country.

“The hijab is forced in some places in the world, or by certain people - especially men in many cases. I will not deny this. This is not feminism. I want to take this hijab and make it my own. First choose if I even want to cover or not. Define WHY and HOW. I will choose what colors I will wear. What materials. Not just black and white.

“I control if I want to use hijab pins, rhinestones, lace, or brooches. When I will wear it, how I will tie it. When I choose to take it off. It is my right. Also I will choose WHY I wear it. NOT wear it because someone told me to. These points combined promote feminism within women.

“If women can choose WHY and HOW, they are exercising basic rights. You decide if you want to, decide why, decide how.”

#YesAllWomen

In this blog post, I wanted to address a topic that has come up a lot recently even at lunch time or in my independent study period.  The concept and terms of feminism have come up a lot, and there seem to be three distinct demographics, from what I have witnessed:  first, there are the women who address feminism, whom I deem, as radicals.  These women usually operate under the assumption that all men are oppressive and hate-driven and that women have gained little to no status improvement.  This is the minority faction.  A large portion seem to exist in the second demographic- women should be equal to men and that is it.  Equal pay, equal job opportunities, equal anything and everything.  But many, however, cannot explain where the line of equality lies.  The third demographic is where the creators of #YesAllWomen lie.  The hashtag came up after a shooting at U of California, Santa Barbara, where the shooter (a man) expressed the notion that he retained the right to shoot women who spurned his advances. 

The wave hit overnight- by the morning after, over a million Tweets appeared with the hashtag #YesAllWomen in response to the #NotAllMen hashtag.  #NotAllMen aimed to express that not all men are psychopathic killers who objectify and view women as property.  #YesAllWomen did not disagree, which is where the distinction between the second and third demographics of feminism lie.  The notion that not all men are the perpetrators, but ALL women are the victims.  Every woman is forced to think immediately for her safety when she meets a guy, has to carry her keys between her fingers in the dark parking lot, and has pepper spray in her purse.  I looked into the movement about a month ago, and as we read A Thousand Splendid Suns, I was absolutely floored by the connections of the characteristics. 

Women everywhere were shown by #YesAllWomen that they were not crazy or alone just as Mariam and Laila did for one another under Rasheed's oppressive hand.  They learned that they should not have to live in fear for their lives every day, and that they were worth more than Rasheed made them out to be.  It is horribly sad, to me, that the western world claims to be so much more civil to women than the Middle East or than Asia, but women here are still oppressed every day.  It is almost worse to have a problem but not recognize it, and that is what #YesAllWomen aims to do.

Gina Denny, a friend of the woman who created #YesAllWomen, states "while, yes, we know not every single man is part of the problem of violence against women, it is all women who must deal with the fear of catcalling and any other type of harassment and sexual assault."