Re: if a women is Free…
I am gonna off on a bit of a tangent from the article because I think the perception we have of freedom and oppression is interesting. It’s not just about religious interpretation, but also according to common sense and an understanding of fitrat. Unfortunately we are living in times where many women believe that they will earn greater respect and approval with the shedding of their clothes. Look at message sent to young women through music videos in the West, item songs of Bollywood, and celebs like Lady Bla Bla and Miley Cyrus, etc. Sadly the West and other parts of the world see this as a form of emancipation, freedom, exposing is better than concealing. I watched a news segment on sex education and learned, to my horror, that they now have lingerie for 5-year-olds. There’s nothing cute about that. Where is the world headed? Look at the pageant shows for little girls and the provocative ways these 3-5 year old girls are dressing and their mannerisms. People will argue that this example is in the minority and that most people don’t support such pageants. The disturbing reality is that majority of society will have a much bigger problem with a burqa clad woman than a 3-year-old, skankily dressed, and acting like a lil’ hoochie on stage. The latter will earn you a trophy, a headline in the newspaper, and tons of fame while the burqa is infamous, and shunned.
Actually I’ll say this is really another aspect of the core discussion. This type of argument is also used by the people who oppose burqa, presumably on the basis of women’s rights, when they’re told that the women who wear it do so out of their own choice. They’ll respond with something along the lines of “she’s been raised to think that she has to dress like that, it’s not really a free choice.”