Why do Muslim women cover themselves in America?

Question

I just don't get it. What the hell is the point of moving to a country where there's freedom if you're not going to exercise those freedoms?

Answer 1

It's just.... drilled into their head. A learned, automatic behavior that's near impossible to break. You teach a dog to flinch when you raise your hand to it, then it's going to flinch every time it thinks you're raising your hand no matter what. Same with these women... the mandatory dress code is second nature and doesn't just undo itself when the necessity is gone.

And to the folks here saying it's JUST a religious thing... NO... it's also an OPPRESSION thing. The asker is wondering why so many women are voluntarily continuing to follow an oppressive dress code. I thought more people would catch onto that. Obviously not.

Answer 2

All women should cover themselves in public! Men and women cover themselves because it gets cold and there are laws against public nudity. If America is so free, then is it not fair to extend that freedom to women who want to cover their heads with hijab as a sign of faith? Christians are free to stick bumper stickers on everything that moves and Jews are free to make statements that are really questions? So are Muslim women free to wear the hijab?

Answer 3

Have you seen the Jewel? Why is it that the people love it while it is simply a piece of stone? It is because it is not so easy to see it, nor can you touch it except by paying an exorbitant price. Similar is the case of the woman – it is forbidden for a man to see her or touch her, in order that he does not dishonor her. She is like an untouched (pure) jewel, which is affected by the least touch




Naheed Mustafa graduated from the University of Toronto with an honours degree in political and history. She is currently studying journalism at Ryerson Polytechnic University she said ;

WOMEN are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness. We feel compelled to pursue abstract notions of beauty, half realizing that such a pursuit is futile.

When women reject this form of oppression, they face ridicule and contempt. Whether it's women who refuse to wear makeup or to shave their legs, or to expose their bodies, society, both men and women, have trouble dealing with them.

In the Western world, the hijab has come to symbolize either forced silence or radical, unconscionable militancy. Actually, it's neither. It is simply a woman's assertion that judgment of her physical person is to play no role whatsoever in social interaction.

Wearing the hijab has given me freedom from constant attention to my physical self. Because my appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed.

No one knows whether my hair looks as if I just stepped out of a salon, whether or not I can pinch an inch, or even if I have unsightly stretch marks. And because no one knows, no one cares.

Feeling that one has to meet the impossible male standards of beauty is tiring and often humiliating. I should know, I spent my entire teenage years trying to do it. It was a borderline bulimic and spent a lot of money I didn't have on potions and lotions in hopes of becoming the next Cindy Crawford.

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Answer 4

wow. this is a very culturally ignorant question. its a part of their culture. they are exercising their freedoms. their freedom of religion. not everybody in the world wants to live exactly as you do. it would be like a christian moving to china and the chinese saying, "why do you still pray? you don't have to do that here. you're free from the opression of religion."

Answer 5

Why do American's not understand their own freedoms? Why do they let their government push them around like sheep? The Patriot Act ... just another excuse to be a big bully and take away the rights that YOUR forefathers fought and died for.

But hey, I guess being a sheep isn't all that bad ... until it comes time to clip the fleece.

Answer 6

Im Catholic, but I still know of other religions. They cover themselves because its not a freedom or a country thing, its part of their religion, its like if i would move to the states will I stop persignating myself just because its a free country??

Answer 7

Some muslim women like to be modest and not expose all their body like many american women do. Its their personal choice, and they choose to follow the religion. They don't feel that their freedom is taken away from them. It's their choice.

Answer 8

They take the Koran Seriously... and it says women, as a sign of modesty, should be covered. The Bible says the same thing, but we in the United States ignore that.... interesting, they seem to take their Holy writings more seriously than we do.

Answer 9

By choosing not to conform to American standards, they are exercising the freedoms of which you speak.

Answer 10

what, in america do muslim women not have the freedom to practice their religion without you bitching about it? muslim women cover themselves in america because they WANT to, and i dont blame them, western culture is ridiculously focussed on turning women into sex objects. bravo to the muslim women for refusing to be a sex object.