Soccer / Hijab

[infernale]

Yep. This here is one of dem serious posts. Rare as they may be, when they involve anything outside of music, I do think about other things. I think I probably don't write about other things (aside from my general woe is me *headpalm*) simply because I work with people who are of sufficient intellect that I can vent and rave and have a good old

Comments

[sebastianne]

RE:Yes, but where do you draw the line on this concept?

I think as long as it doesnt grossly violate my personal beliefs or cause me physical harm then I am happy to modify my behaviour for others if it's a big issue for them. So I decline food offers from Ethiopian clients if it contains meat even if it is impolite for me to do so, but I'll accept their coffee as it doesnt harm me to drink it, even if I'm not needing another coffee at that point. Likewise I modify my behaviour in my own culture according to the context. For example my behaviour at work differs from my behaviour at a nightclub. I swear a fair bit in general but not at work meetings as it would be considered inappropriate and offensive, so I see no difference from that and accommodating something like eye contact with certain people. I also dont believe in absolute cultural or moral relativism, but rather on a harm minimisation and egalitarian approach to others, so as long as someone's social practice doesnt cause harm then I dont consider it any more or less better than my own customs :)

[infernale]

I wasn't neccessarily advocating the outright ban of the covering, but certianly think it is a debate worth having. I realise that banning anything of that sort would not only be difficult, it would ultimately be divisive and for those that rally against our indulgent western lifestyles, meerly more proof of why we should be so dispised.

A few things though I think worth considering. Nuns wear habits - they do not cover the faces. In western society, generally, cover the entire face, or most of the face, is considered to be a sign of disrespect, or, of guilt. I know that doesn't make it right to criticize, but it is worth considering i think, when assessing how and why people react so strongly to face coverings. I think there is clearly a religious bent to some of the fear, but I remember from my days back in Centrelink, pre-sept 11 when the general public didn't openly fear muslims so much, there was still a dislike of and complaint towards, their covering of their face. Sometimes it was veiled (pardon the pun) as it being a security issue (photo ID matching), but I think that was really beside the point.

My main problem with muslim face garb, is not with women who chose to wear it as a symbol of religous, social or personal freedom, it is with those that are wearing for quite the opposite reason. Again, from my time at Centrelink, where I dealt with a great many refugee's and new entrants into the country, many of whom were muslim, I can tell you that in a significant majority of cases, the women were not wearing the garb freely. They were not breathing freely, they were not allowed to so much as speak without getting a look that indicated what a flogging they would get (incidentally, sometimes in the carpark right outside work).

I think any practice that is in place to subvert and crush the will og any gender or race, is not at all welcome. Likewise, any practice that is in place simply because of years of indoctrinated dogmatic practice, should be openly questioned.

[sebastianne]

I know a lot of people get worked up over the covering the face part, but that's also culturally relative. Just because something is a cultural norm in the majority of the world doesnt make it right and the minority wrong. Yes I personally have a major issue with the religious based gender inequalities in any religion, but I think if a woman chooses to adopt that practice of her own free volition (that term being used loosely because religious doctrination and free will is another topic entirely)
then she has a right to do that. And some things we do, like covering female breasts because they are apparantly sexual, whereas men's are not, is a concept that is entirely foreign to a lot of African cultures. I agree there are a lot of women who wear the face veil against their choice, but to me the issue isnt the peice of fabric, it is the religious based patricarchal subordination of women, because these women are also often exposed to a whole barrage of other inequalities, and I think this is what should be focussed on and not just the face veil.