If you want gender
equality, let women be free to choose whatever they want to wear. It’s as
simple as that – forcing a woman to wear something is just as bad as forcing
her to give it up. Turkey has realized it too, finally, after years and years
of banishing the hijab, the traditional headscarf. Ever since the founding
father of the Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, took power, anything that could
be related to the “old fashioned Islam”, the Islam of the obsolete empire, was,
at the very least, strongly discouraged.
For years, women have
been fighting for the right to wear the hijab everywhere – especially
universities. It has nothing to do with religious fundamentalism; it’s just
about women taking the power to decide what to put on their own bodies. It
could be a headscarf or bunny’s ears, it just shouldn’t matter, as long as it’s
not offensive to anyone.
As Shalina Litt, a
popular Muslim radio presenter in Birmingham says, “Much of the negativity
about headscarves and veils comes from a lack of understanding about what they
mean and why women choose wear them. […]Wearing the veil can be surprisingly
empowering”, especially when talking to men, who “are having to listen to my
words, not judge me by my clothes or my face, but paying attention purely to
what I have to say." One could or could not agree with this statement, it
doesn’t really matter. The point is, let women be free to choose! No one ever
tells men what they can or cannot put on their own bodies - and God
knows, sometimes it wouldn’t be such a bad idea – so why should anyone feel he
or she has the right to tell a woman what to wear?
Sources:
I agree that there should be freedom of choice to wear the veil or not, but let's not forget that the ban in public buildings is not imposed only in countries such as Turkey, but also in "extremely" modern and pluralist countries as France. In my opinion we must not confuse the secularity as neutrality of the state towards all religions with the "laicism" of certain states, such as France, that reject a priori the display of religious symbols that do not trouble the conscience of the people.
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