So, girls on campus in Toronto are doing the 'wear a hijab for a day' thing. And naturally, Little Green Footballs is going berserk.
Of course, the wingnutters at LGF are convinced to the core that all expressions of Muslim cultural pride, or even Muslim college-kid whininess, are the immediate forerunner to a jihadi takeover of the Western world, so I'm not surprised that they're going bonkersola. But this does raise for me the same questions that I always have when The Hijab Issue arises:
1. Religious Jewish and Christian women of various backgrounds cover their hair. Mennonites and frum Jews come to mind. Why did no one in college ever feel that it was a great idea to put us all in tichels or prayer caps for the day?
2. How does LGF feel about Mennonites and frum Jews? Are women allowed to 'oppress themselves' if LGFers don't think they're plotting to take over the world?
3. Why don't they ever have 'wear a Muslim head covering day' for men? Seriously. I have NEVER seen an appeal for dudes to cover their heads for one of these things.
Just askin'. I know the answer to the first one, I'm just being snarky. (After all, the entire Women's Studies department was in Fiddler on the Roof in high school, so they already got into the whole Jewish thing.) The second one I have more curiousity about. The third is just snarky frosting.
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I think it's the double-standard thing....like, in, my kid had to have special permission to wear a kippah in the classroom of his public school BUT girls wearing hijab were applauded for being ethnically correct.....the local high school wouldn't allow a Christian Bible study group as an after-school activity group, but put in a "prayer room" so their two Moslem students could "pray" during school hours....etc.
I personally live in a neighborhood full of hijab and think they're much prettier than tichels and can actually see how the tichel evolved from the hijab (take tichel and add headscarf--that's what a hijab is). Here, they're color-coordinated, often two-tone, two-textured, and matched to the outfit of the day and accessories. It's very attractive.
I have no problem with hijab as a head covering, and somewhat envy it....I have no problem with women wearing hijab for the same reason I cover my own hair (note to LGF: it's a religious statement, folks, not a political statement)BUT I DO have a problem where Muslim sensibilities are handled like an etrog and Jewish (or Christian or Buddhist or whatever) are shunted aside as irrelevant or unimportant.
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