The hijab (etc) is immodest

[Leonardo17]

The original purpose of what has now become traditional dress was modesty, and arguably justified as a way to protect women from rape in a barbaric time and region, but now it's purpose is tradition and a way to announce that you're a Muslim.

Disagree. Compulsory garb is exclusively for the sole purpose of subjugation of women. There is no getting around it. And I state that as a man.

I don't like it. I really don't like it.

Give me a feisty equal any day, not a letterbox.

I have two daughters ( or at least born as daughters) and nothing gives me greater joy that to have them tell me "Dad you are wrong" followed by a logical demolition of whatever the topic du jour might be.

I may have made many errors or mis-steps or whatever, but at the very least I can rest assured that I have provided my children with the tools of critical thinking.

And the upshot of that is equality. One lives and dies according to the facts, not some mad superstition about the "roles" of the genders.

So what is it that stands in opposition to gender equality? Well religion stands in opposition to gender equality. All of religion.

Sure, there are a few exceptions, but those are not many.

To this view I usually reply like this:

  The headscarf is more of a cultural phenomenon than a religious one. Let me explain:

Here, if you go to the Anatolian Civilizations Museum in Ankara (I believe it to be one of the beast archaeological museums in the world) you will see 1st milenium BC reliefs depicting women with covered heads from Hurrian or Neo-Hittite times. Similar reliefs can be found in the middle east starting from 3000 BC. at the time it wasn't even a sign of modesty. It was simply their usual way of dressing. Also there are theories that say that could have been a sign of prostitution. There are also sources that state that in the 6th century arabic culture, free women used to wear the hijap while non-free slave women were not allowed to wear this garnment even if they wanted to.

Whatever the connotation in the past, in todays world I can only aprove of the modesty or simplicity argument (because it is true). Does a women of adult age not have the right to adopt a way of dressing that remains totally plain and simple (may is be for religious or personal reasons)? The second argument I am willing to accept is the cultural argument. Here in villages there are women who are dressed the way they were dressed since perhaps before İslamic time. So they should get a green ticket too.

Yet I believe that someone who wants to display a certain interpratation of İslam (because I totally disagree that Islam itself is promoting the headscarf and the attitude behing it) is totally being immodest and even pretencious. I even believe that they have made themselves (willingly or unwillingly) tools and militants of a political worldview that is completelly artificial an is only being articially kept alive to support the dictatorial / monarchic regimes of the middle-east and north Africa and/or the so called sharia regime in Iran or the so called islamist partie in Turkey, Pakistan, Egypt etc...

- And of course I totally dislike it. Some people are acting as if evryone has to accept their way of displaying their religious beliefs. Of couse I that women choses to act in that way I will at least try to respect it. But do I have to like it? Of course I hate it. It's a totally barbaric and outdated cultural phenomenon that has more political than religious connotations.