Man punches nurse for removing wife's burqa during c-section

[Ms. Toad]

72. Religion and culture are not always clearly delineated

and whether something which, historically, has both cultural and religious aspects currently has religious significance to its practitioners is not up to outsiders to reject as "not religious." I don't get to define someone else's faith for them.

I oppose Muslim women being forced to wear the burqa, or any other covering - whether that force comes from the men in their lives, their religious community, or the government in the country in which they live.

There are many women, and all by all indications this woman is one, who are participating by force (which ranges from real physical force, to laws, to "merely" emotional coercion by threats of being expelled from their family or faith community.)

On the other hand, blanket statements insisting that no woman could ever make the choice to follow certain practices of the Muslim faith which we see as patriarchal (or worse) are insulting to those women (and I know some of them) who have made that choice.

Just as I oppose forced covering, I also oppose forced uncovering - and that includes laws like France has enacted. It violates the religious freedom of any woman who is wearing a burqa not by force, but because she chooses to accept that discipline. It may be something which enriches her spiritual life. It may be something something she merely puts up with because other aspects of her faith enrich her life, and her sense of integrity requires that she follow all of the restrictions rather than picking and choosing among them. Whatever the reason, she has the right to make that choice.

Such laws also further isolate women in the first category who need our support - whose movements are further restricted because their husbands/faith community force them to wear a burqa, which then prevents her from being able to enter the public square.

Your earlier post, and the one I replied to, seem to me to be designed to insult not only Muslim women who make a choice you cannot imagine making - but DUers who have expressed concern about the sexism and bigotry inherent in the assertions any Muslim woman asserting she has made such a choice of her own free will is lying (being duped, acting like a puppet, saying so because she is forced to, etc.)