Before we do anything else, we need to conduct an easy test: we, men and non-muslim women, accept to wear the various forms of modest Islamic garb for a week in summer or, better, while swimming trying to save our children. Just wearing a veil would make me very uncomfortable, without speaking of a full hijab or other forms of torture imposed on women in extremely hot climates. During a recent visit to an orthodox church in Greece I was ordered to wear a long skirt to cover my hiking shorts. I gave up after 15 minutes, as I was very getting very uncomfortable – and I love heat. After living under a veil or behind a hijab for a week, we may be able to speak about Islam protecting women and empowering them with some notion of what it actually means – and we are not even touching on the fact that women are forever minors, under the tutelage of men in their family, whatever their age and level. Can a western woman imagine enjoy asking her father or brother for permission to study or travel? Or the husband for permission to see a doctor? Or die rather than see a male doctor, if a female with sufficient qualifications is not available?
A few weeks ago I went to a lecture about feminism- in Islam. That is what got all these thoughts stirring in my head once again. The lecturer was a Muslim woman in hijab; she spoke so passionately that every person in the room, guy and girl, had no choice but to immerse themselves in her words. After a quick hour and a half, I could not help but think about all our Free the Nipple group representing a trendy feminism and how some trends need to die. I realized we have been conditioned to think that American women are the free and that Muslim women are the suppressed, but this is twisted to me. I finally understood who is really oppressed by a patriarchal society and it is us. Woman who wear hijab have freed themselves from a man’s and a society’s judgmental gaze; the Free the Nipplers have not. They have fallen deep into the man’s world, believing that this trend will garner respect.
So I urge my Free the Nipple gal pals to take a look at your Muslim sisters and collaborate with them to create a feminism that treats the female body as a temple and not as a toy. Let us see feminism in a different light—through modesty and the courage to savor our sugar. Let us call on the Muslim feminists of the world.
Source: Muslims Are the True Feminists