Can a segment of the population truly be equal if their faces can't be viewed in public?

[Liberal_in_LA]

Serious question: Males try to imagine if you were required to cover your face in public or your gender couldn't be shown in public. Can you achieve true equality?

???

[Cid_B]

1. I remember my last time in Afghanistan...

The girls get more and more covered the older they get.

Little babies wear regular clothes, young girls progress to the head wrap, young teens get the full sleeves and a head wrap and then they finally "graduate" to the full coverage.

We knew a girl who's family was getting her ready for her wedding and I was thinking that this was the last time I'll see her face. Saw her wandering around afterwards in the full garb.

Real shame... pretty girl too...

[Drale]

2. No and honestly

Everytime I see a women in full cover up garb, I think that husband is an ass. In the end that is why the women have to wear that, because their husband force them too. They may claim that its part of their religion, but it would have never become part of the religion, if the men had not wanted complete control over their women. This is coming from a 23 year old male btw.

[Sal Minella]

3. Hillary was subjected to the ultimate burkha -- complete invisibility.

Or perhaps that should be "nonexistence."

[provis99]

17. +1.

[leftynyc]

27. That you would compare the two

is typical for around here. How did what the stupid Hassids did hurt Hillary in any way shape or form? The OP is asking about millions of women who are FORCED to cover their faces in public and of course, someone here has to make an absurd comparison because it makes progressives "uncomfortable" to have an opinion on stupid religious rules (but only Islam causes problems, feel free to bash Christianity or Judaism).

[Sal Minella]

28. I really try to bash all stupid religious rules even-handedly.

Sorry if I slipped up somehow.

[Skittles]

4. no

[Demoiselle]

5. I have a visceral, angry reaction to the hiding of women anywhere.

Hair coverings, long robes, I'm fine with it. . But If a person's face is totally hidden, we have no idea at all of her mood, personality. thoughts, awareness, age, experience. In other words, not a hint of her unique humanity. All we know is that she has a vagina. If that isn't the ultimate dehumanizing sexual labelling, I don't know what is. My answer to your question is HELL NO!

[Merlot]

15. Agreed. It's obscene in it's own way.

Reducing a woman to only her sex turns her more into a sexual object.

[EFerrari]

23. It's a form of social death. n/t

[CrispyQ]

29. I had never thought of it like this before.

Thanks for the thoughtful perspective.

[Kurska]

6. The face and facial expression are critical to the very nature of humanity.

It may sicken me, but it ultimately doesn't surprise me that cultures demanding women cover their face end up being treated as something less than completely human.

Knowing that I don't know how people can accept or advocate for that.

[LibDemAlways]

7. I once dined in a Seattle restaurant seated near a group of women in

burquas and their husbands. The husbands were all in western dress and sat at the opposite end of the restaurant from their wives and children, who sat together. When the men were finished, they simply got up and left. The women noticed and hurried out after them. Several of the women hadn't finished eating, but it made no difference. The gender inequality was painful to watch.

[Liberal_in_LA]

9. Warm California day - man in shorts, 2 women in burqas. He strolls toward store door, hands in

pockets. When he reaches door, the women scurry to open it for him. He never takes hands from pockets.

[LibDemAlways]

11. I suppose the women are conditioned to accept their status, but from

the outside, it's tough to watch.

[readmoreoften]

8. No, but I've never met a muslim woman forced to cover their face in the US. All those I've met

choose to do so of their own accord and I support them in their religious freedoms. Now if a woman is forced to do so, I'd oppose this, but I'm not going to assume she is. I don't really like the hysteria about the hijab in the US because it's generally a cover for liberalized anti-Muslim sentiment. Moreover, most women wear scarves, not niqabs (face coverings) or burqas. I have one student who wears a niqab on religious holidays and a regular hijab many other days, but sometimes she wears no hijab at all.

In short: women both in the US and abroad have bigger problems than headgear.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

30. Who told you that? The Easter Bunny or Santa Claus?

[riderinthestorm]

34. Full burqa or niqab is not religious. It's cultural and can and should be challenged for our culture

imho.

Hijab is something completely different.

[WatsonT]

10. If it is required by law

or by threat of violence, no.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

12. The first time I ever saw women in full burqa was in London

during the heat wave of 2006.

So the women are covered from head to toe, with just a slit for their eyes. Meanwhile, the men with them are wearing short-sleeved cotton shirts and Bermudas. In other words, the men get to be comfortable and the women don't.

The reason that women are expected to cover up is so they don't tempt men. It's an extreme version of "she asked for it." The men don't have to take responsibility for their own behavior.

One of my grad school friends was constantly groped while traveling alone in the Middle East. Because she went around with her head uncovered and short sleeves, she was seen as a "loose women." After she put on a scarf, wore sunglasses to hide her blue eyes, and put on a long-sleeved shirt, no one bothered her. It's sad that she had to do that.

[Merlot]

13. Big difference between a scarf, long sleeves, and sunglasses and a burqa

I think the wearing of the burqa in the US should be banned. Not because it's anti-muslim, but because it's anti woman.

I would not like to explain to small children why a woman is walking around covered in cloth. I would not want any child to be aware of this and what it stands for.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

21. Either one is uncomfortable when it's 95 degrees out

Look at pictures of Iran, Saudi Arabia or any other place where women are required to cover up. The men get to wear what they please.

[Incitatus]

14. No nt

[scheming daemons]

16. Where in this country is a woman required to cover her face in public?

Strawperson argument.

[Demoiselle]

18. The post is not about this country, but a custom that is worldwide.

[provis99]

19. required by the husband or religion.

Try not to be so deliberately obtuse.

[astral]

20. BANNING it in the US is just plain wrong.

Here women will follow whatever cultural traditions they want, nobody is "forcing" them to do anything. We can't regulate that any more than we can regulate whether a woman is forced to have sex with her husband against her will behind closed doors. Only the woman herself can do something, and that is completely HER business.

Don't be fearful of the differences.

[Mojeoux]

22. It WAS ruled that the woman who wanted her face covered on her driver's license,

was out of luck. Good sense has no religion.

[EFerrari]

24. We've banned a number of social practices oppressive to women.

Difference isn't the problem here. The oppression of women is.

[Demoiselle]

26. Um...it may be a hard case to prove...

but I am given to understand that forcing a woman to have sex against her will...even with her husband...is called rape in this country.
How do you feel about female circumcision?

[riderinthestorm]

35. We can and do regulate what women can wear in public.

"Disappearing" women via shrouding or entirely as with the case of the Hassid newspaper and Hillary Clinton's pic definitely deserves discussion. Our society has a long history of debating what women (and men) are legally allowed to wear in public. I don't think practices that disappear women get some kind of pass from that kind of public debate and scrutiny.

[RandomThoughts]

25. Also the argument against media control.

[NNN0LHI]

31. Here ask these two guys on the left if they feel equal

[NNN0LHI]

32. Damn, I didn't mean for this post to be a thread killer

But it was.

Don

[Liberal_in_LA]

33. Yep. You killed it.

[Withywindle]

36. Well, I think if a woman wants to grow a beard like that, it's her choice and her right.

There, I kicked it.