Last week, Ashley’s Flora’s Friday Films event featured the movie “They Call Me Muslim” and it led to one of the most interesting conversations I’ve had with my floor-mates. I somewhat liked the movie in that it portrayed types of women with an Islamic background and the idea that there are alway choices. Unfortunately, the movie had sparked an entire discussion on how societies have been manipulated by men. Perhaps, it was just the angry ranting of a couple of annoyed girls late on a Friday in the middle of prelim season. However, we realized that no matter what you do, a woman almost never fits the idea of the ideal. If she’s quiet, they find a flaw in her quiet nature but at the same time if she’s loud and wants to be heard,  they need a way to keep her quiet. Decency is cited as a way to keep women who do not want to cover up to cover everything up yet, other times, when other women are following that definition of decency, that manner is critiqued as well.

There is almost no way out. In our rant, we decided that the movie opened up the idea of freedom. It should be a choice. Wearing a hijab and deciding how religious you are should be left up to you. Who is to judge what type of faith will be accepted? The fact that your choice will be taken away from is extremely disappointing and it has been a feature of life for many women. I’m trying not to write up a feminist rant but, it’s unfortunate how we can’t have control over decisions that affect us directly. For example, in the movie, a professor was discussing how men would see girls hijab and started to pressurize their female relations to do the same. Why is that a trend? How would forcing your daughter to wear a hijab help you accomplish anything? Similarly, why would you force your daughter to take off her hijab if that is what she identifies with?

I have had friends in both positions and, to speak my truth, the girls who are forced have and will take off the hijab the moment they are out of sight.  Likewise, the girls who believe in the hijab and that definition of modesty will cover up in the ways they can.  If it was just the issue of a hijab, a burking, and clothing in general, I might be able to see how men would try to cover up women. I mean we all know how distracting spaghetti straps and naked shoulders are to the male population. However, the issue of decision-making does not end at clothing.  Others are always making decisions for women whether it be for marriage or healthcare.  Regardless of how progressive we think our beloved country is, we treat our women based on the same principles that other societies do but we cover it up by giving examples of countries that have very obvious wrongdoings.

http://blogs.cornell.edu/rosescholarsfall16/2017/03/04/women-societies-…ons-and-religion/

I had this blog post in the fall area by accident. oops!