Islam: How Can A Woman Feel Like Somebody With A Black Tablecloth Over Her Head?
Okay, to be fair, a black tablecloth with an eye-slit.
This woman was across from the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris, which is across the street from Paris' main mosque.
There's all this bullshit put out about how burkas "empower" women. Please.
Of course, Muslim clerics argue that the objects/possessions of men that we commonly think of as women would be raped but for being covered up from male eyes and removed from existence like this. (Of course, this speaks poorly of Islamic culture, not uncovered Western women or any women.)
Also, consider the life you'd have if you went around all disappeared by a big black tablecloth. I was on rue Turbigo yesterday -- near where I've stayed in various apartments over the years -- and passed the wine store guy with the long white hair walking his dog.
For a moment, neither he nor I knew quite how we knew each other, but we both smiled and said bonjour.
You can't do that when a woman's erased from existence by black cloth.
Meanwhile, in China...
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 28, 2012 5:59 PM
Who else dresses in all black with only eye holes? The only ones I can think of are ninjas and hangmen...maybe some bank robbers. Only people who don't want others to know that it is them doing what they are doing.
The Former Banker at November 28, 2012 7:04 PM
Actually, Amy, I agree with you; and, further, you are spot on with what this says about the culture, not the women.
I am going to be rude and say considering how Muslim men treat women in public; covering up is very much a safety issue for women in such bastard cultures.
If I were a women in such a culture I would most likely cover in head to toe as well; or, maybe not even venture out without a male guardian.
Charles at November 28, 2012 8:11 PM
Personally I think she looks quit attractive.
HungryMoose at November 28, 2012 8:45 PM
Oops-that should be quite attractive.
HungryMoose at November 28, 2012 8:48 PM
I remember a comment by some Imam that having women dress the way they do in the West was like tossing meat in front of a pack of wild dogs.
I don't remember his exact wording, but was quite clear that he mean to insult women by comparing them to meat. It was equally clear that his didn't realize what he really was saying: men raised in Islamic cultures behave like wild dogs.
a_random_guy at November 29, 2012 12:09 AM
And as the native French aren't reproducing at a prodigious rate, while the muslims are, this will be the norm in, say, another half-century.
Islam in Europe: be there or beheaded.
mpetrie98 at November 29, 2012 1:50 AM
Its the whole point, of course.
But perhaps things will be better for her children. I hope they are able to assimilate better than she is.
Or she might be a tourist. We get a lot of rich Saudi tourists here. Most of the Muslims who live around here are of the headscarf and modest clothing variety. But a lot of the tourists you see in the hotels and such are of the abaya and niqab variety.
NicoleK at November 29, 2012 7:01 AM
If I were a women in such a culture I would most likely cover in head to toe as well; or, maybe not even venture out without a male guardian.
Posted by: Charles at November 28, 2012 8:11 PM
_________________________________
From what I've heard more than once, in Egypt, at least, it doesn't matter how modestly an Egyptian woman is dressed; if she's unaccompanied, she's considered fair game for molestation or worse. So it clearly has nothing to do with the clothes. Besides, I don't remember, offhand, any stories of Muslim men coming to the U.S. and immediately attacking women in the streets because "they can't help themselves."
Side note: Let's face it, even in the U.S., there are still men, especially young, angry, uneducated men, who honestly think a man is owed (in every sense) sex when he says to a woman, in effect: "I'd like to take you to dinner, no strings attached" and she believes him. This is why Katha Pollitt said in 1989:
"What we should be asking is not how the most sensational crimes against women are different from run-of-the-mill threats, rapes, bashings and murders, but how they are the same. We need to stop thinking of male violence as some kind of freak of nature, like a tornado. Because the thing about tornadoes is, you can't do anything about them. The onus is all on potential victims to accommodate themselves or stay out of the way (What was she wearing? Why was she out so late? Why didn't she flee/scream/fight back/stay calm?).
"Could it be, for example, that defining a Joel Steinberg as a monster is mostly a way of not having to think about how he resembles the millions of men who hit but don't kill? That those good guys who make 'mistakes' only look good because society takes their nonfelonious forms of misogyny so lightly?
"Perhaps we are too quick to assume that men who mutter obscenities on the street, or run female joggers off the road with their cars, or cheer the rape scenes in movies, let it stop there. Maybe they're testing the waters, and getting the message that it's clear sailing ahead."
lenona at November 29, 2012 7:42 AM
Why shouldn't Islamic men act horribly?
Their leader was a pedophile.
Radwaste at November 29, 2012 8:24 AM
Speaking of insane religious nonsense, here we are in the 21st century and people still have to turn to religious symbols to keep the vampires away.
http://news.yahoo.com/vampire-threat-terrorizes-village-215244600--abc-news-topstories.html
Don't we have an app for this yet?
Gog_Magog_Carpet_Reclaimers at November 29, 2012 2:33 PM
And, I might add, even Miss Manners has said about burkas, in effect (I can't find the column) "there is nothing ambiguous about enforced invisibility."
lenona at November 30, 2012 8:54 AM
Late with this
Crid [CridComment at gmail] at November 30, 2012 9:59 PM
"Perhaps we are too quick to assume that men who mutter obscenities on the street, or run female joggers off the road with their cars, or cheer the rape scenes in movies, let it stop there. Maybe they're testing the waters, and getting the message that it's clear sailing ahead."
Ms. Pollitt, as well as those who agree with her, not only presume guilt and advocate the presumption of guilt as public policy, they ignore the violence actually demonstrated by women. Both, of course, are wrong.
One might ask, "Where did these violent men get the idea that women should be so inconsequential?" After all, they were raised by mothers, at least. Now, take a look at what values are prevalent in the lives of single mothers in the USA and what happens to their sons.
Not a pretty picture, is it?
Radwaste at December 1, 2012 6:09 AM
I was in Penang, Malaysia a few weeks ago. It is something of a tropical paradise kind of place, so there are lots of tourists from the area stretching from Saudi to Australia.
It is eery to see these invisibilities -- which is really the perfect word for them. There is nothing where a human ought to be.
Particularly jarring is to see them in the same place as Aussie women who aren't particularly shy about displaying their secondary sexual characteristics.
Jeff Guinn at December 1, 2012 6:20 PM
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