This comment was posted on my Facebook page in relation to this article, and I thought it worth putting into this debate. The person who left the comment spent some time in Malaysia and draws on the experience of interacting with women who wore the burqa.

"i have a better acceptance now [of the burqa] - i don't feel anymore it is subservient/repression - but a power - the majority i was around and close contact with were where the eye area only were showing and these women were made up beautifully its hard to explain they all seemed very in control sophisticated, mysterious and powerful - i now no longer look at the covering of the head (whether it be coloured scarfs or full black) as men controlling women - women"

runner
How are feminists disrespecting their husbands?

The fact that you would condone the forced wearing of the burqua over mutually respectful relationships shouldn't surprise me.

I don't believe any deity constructed in the image of perfection could condone such a thing. That is the trouble with fundamentalism, it allows moral relativism on any matter that one does not agree and to suit one's own prejudices or beliefs. Often nothing to do with religion.

From what I have read about Jesus (if he existed) is he condoned respect and equality for all men/women and I really cannot see a movement to force women to wear a particular item of clothing as a positive move for mankind.

Briar Rose:
the article was posted here: http://muslimvillage.com/forums/topic/60805-intelligent-debate-will-respect-women-wearing-the-burqa/

One way or another you may get some feedback.
salaams

Amicus, you're still in the grip of a visceral, emotional response to something that is foreign to you.

>>it's perfectly acceptable evidently for part of the community to impose medieval traditions on other Australians .. after all "they have their freedom"<<

C'mon. Who is imposing "medieval traditions on other Australians"?

You are taking this far too personally.

And to make my position perfectly clear, I would be the first to protest, if anyone tried to impose their "medieval traditions" on you.

>>...clearly this falls within their freedom to impose whatever they like, because "we're so tolerant"<<

Now you're just exaggerating. No-one has the "freedom to impose whatever they like", as you very well know. But they do have the freedom - that you want to take away - to make decisions for themselves on what clothes they wear. Within the limits of legal decency, of course.

>>...for some it's just the intellectual sport of defending our "freedoms', even if it means a whole community is bound up in ancient and out of place religious laws<<

I don't tell you what community you should belong to, or what arcane rituals you may or may not indulge in. So long as it is legal and decent, go for it.

Why should you grant yourself the privilege of telling others what to do, just because it "makes you sick"? (Heaven help us if vegetarians are given that power).

>>we get people who want to defend freedoms, even if it means defending the people who impose their will to make other people less free<<

Don't forget that last part is an assumption on your part. I'm assuming that the burqa is a choice made by women, for their own reasons. I most definitely do not support the idea that men should be allowed to force women into wearing it.

>>it seems anyone who does not like the "intellectual" POV is attacked<<

You seem to believe that defending individual freedoms is somehow an "intellectual" point of view.

I suggest to you that it is just as important to non-intellectuals.

Pelican I was pointing out that in my opinion the worse of the 2 evils (being some forms of feminism and enforced burqa wearing) is actually radical feminism. I was not endorsing enforced burqa wearing. IN my opinion it is a disgrace when women try and wear the pants and demand their way all the time in a marriage. Much of feminism is about selfishness and me and ignores respecting the wishes of the husband or the best interests of the children. Many men have been emasculated by dominant feminism.

runner: << IN my opinion it is a disgrace when women try and wear the pants and demand their way all the time in a marriage. >>

Ban women from wearing pants! They just want to impose their will on their husbands. Banning them from wearing pants will prevent such sickening repression of men, just like banning the burqa will prevent repression of Muslim women.