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Andrew Bolt actually has a point in his post about the emerging criticism of the burqa by feminist commentators such as Jill Singer and ABC journalist Virgina Haussegger.
On her blog Haussegger says: ” … There is no place here for the burqa . Australians must rally to have the burqa banned.”
To which Bolt says “Is it still racist to say such things? Or is it now an ABC-approved feminist cause? I get so confused.”
He has a point, but it still does not excuse those who use the burqa as an excuse to denigrate Muslims.
What shits me about feminists and Islamaphobes who decry the burqa is that none of them have actually asked the women who wear them if they feel oppressed. My ex-wife’s mother was a nurse at a top private hospital in London. Many of the patients she cared for were Saudi women (many getting cosmetic surgery) who would walk into the hospital in their burqa and then in the privacy of their suites remove them to reveal revealing Prada and Chanel clothing. If they felt oppressed she never noticed. After all if they were always covered by a burka why would they be getting nose jobs?
It’s worth noting at this point that the burka worn by Arab women predates Islam in some cultures and is less about the hiding of a woman’s face from men than the chadris worn by women in parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan, which covers the eyes. Most of the covered Muslim women we see in Australia wear the former and their reasons for doing so having nothing to with extremist groups like the Taliban. In fact some would argue that it liberates them from being treated as a sex object.
Their critics have probably not witnessed what I did recently at a DFO outlet in Melbourne. A woman in a burqa was walking with her husband and children when two women right next to her yelled out how “disgusting” her attire was and continued to make patronising and insulting remarks. I’m sure that did wonders for that woman’s self-esteem, not to mention her children. It seems these women are all for women wearing what they want as long it conforms to the muffin-topped cougar look.
And why is it oppressive for a woman to be required to wear a burqa because that’s what her culture dictates, but OK for women to be forced to wear skimpy clothing if they want a particular job or play particular sports? I’m sure that there are women who in Australia wear the burqa but would prefer not to. However, they make up a fraction of the Australian women who are confronted by some form of sexual harassment based on their appearance at work or in a social setting.
