Man Of Straw

[poliphilo]

So here's Jack Straw- our weaselly former Home Secretary and Condi-groupie- doing his bit for community relations by saying Muslim women need to ditch the veil.

There's an intelligent debate to be had about this issue, but I don't want it initiated by someone indirectly responsible for killing Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq.

And how come it's always the women who get in the neck? Why doesn't Straw have a go at beards or turbans?

What's this fithy war of civilisations really about? It's about two sets of blokes fighting over who gets to control  the women.

Comments

[frsimon.livejournal.com]

I do not think there is anything to be had about the issue. People have the right to wear what they wish, unless doing so impinges on the rights of others. No compromise. I matintain this against Jack Straw, on the one hand, and people who would force women to veil, on the other.

Not only do I take this right to prohibit State coercion, I also take it to render illegitimate other effectively co-ercive intrusions into clothing rights, such as wall-to-wall purient media discussion of peoples' clothing choices. I understand this as a means of psychological coercion.

[frsimon.livejournal.com]

Sorry, the first sentence should read '...think there is any intelligent discussion to be...'

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Trinny and Susannah you mean? Yeah I hate them too.

There are reasons for and against wearing the veil- some of which I approve and some of which I disapprove, but basically it's none of my damn business.

[happydog.livejournal.com]

isn't it always?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

The more it changes, the more it stays the same...

[ex-adarog.livejournal.com]

What's this fithy war of civilisations really about? It's about two sets of blokes fighting over who gets to control the women.

You are so right. *sigh*

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

I respect the coverings. I think, in fact, that sex has become a total bore in our countries because we are always running about almost naked. Nothing is forbidden--what is there to strive for?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure about it being a total bore.

I mean, I'm still sort of faintly interested....

[besideserato.livejournal.com]

LOL.

[qatsi.livejournal.com]

I'm not necessarily agreeing with Straw, but to provide some counter-argument and attempt an answer at your points:

1. When *we* Westerners go abroad, we are told to 'respect' local customs in terms of 'covering up' etc. In our culture, though there is a wide range of head-wear, generally we don't cover our faces, male or female.
2. Facial hair is no longer a discriminator in terms of race or religion (in the Cambridge Latin Course, one can always tell the barbarian Britons from the clean-shaven Romans in this way).
3. The turban doesn't cover the face.

One might say that if the women need to cover up to prevent temptation in the men, that is at least as much a problem of the men's self-control.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Like I said, I think there's a debate to be had...

But the people who should be having it are the women and men of the Islamic community.

[kaysho.livejournal.com]

I have always looked with wry amusement on arguments that Muslim women should actually be forbidden to wear the veil on the grounds that it's sexist. That is every bit as sexist as demanding that they DO wear it. :)