Hijab
 

I remember reading about France passing a law that prohibits people from displaying religious symbols in public schools, so students cannot wear crosses, star of Davied, Islamic head coverings, etc. French legislators even admitted that the main point of the law was to get women to stop wearing hijabs (head coverings) so that it could promote "equality.
After I read that, I noticed that non-Islamics don't seem to tolerate women wearing hijabs well. People would give the women strange looks and snicker.
What is it about hijabs that repulse people?
Is it that it symbolizes oppresion of women? If that's the case, then for a moment ignore countries like Iran and Afganistan and regard other Islamic countries like Turkey, Lebanon, and Egypt which are fairly liberal. I know for a fact that Turkey is not the stereotypical oppressive Islamic country because I grew up there. Anyway, women are not required to cover themselves or wear hijabs, it is their choice. So if a woman chooses to hear a hijab because she feels it is faithful to her religion, would we still regard her as oppressed or just plain weird?
Maybe I just live around fairly narrow-minded people.

i know some people who think they are "Weird". Then again, the Hasedim around here in their black coats, long hair and yamacas get about the same response.

i think a lot of people see it as "weird" because it shows a lack of assimilation into the culture. Unique cultural dress isn't something you just go into a store and take off the shelf. It is partly a show of being seperate from the rest of the culture. So i don't see it as suprising the people are like "Wtf?". it is annoying when people find it necessary to point it out all the time. and outlawing it is retarded.

or so it seems to me.

Agreed. Outlawing that kind of stuff makes my blood boil, as does forced cultural assimilation. If a country deserves to have it citizens assimilate, they will. If not, they'll stay unique. Forcing it just makes things bad for everyone.

As for Hijabs...I dunno. I imagine many people just have some sort of wierd misconception about Hijabs that makes them think they're doing Muslim's a favor by outlawing them.

I r t3h s3xeh!
 

Maybe it's because, regardless of whether it's the woman's choice or not, it still does manifest a more/near completely submissive feminine roll that is seen as outdated, or 'barbaric' in most western culture.

As a simple comparison, I can't stand my grandparents on my father's side because my grandmother is completely submissive to any men around. I got into an arguement with her, that turned into a shouting match when I was five and my grandfather sided with me, and she just quieted down with one comment from him. She does everything he tells her... she does everything any other man tells her that happens to be in the house (within reason). It's totally her choice, but it still irks me.

I could see the same thing with hijabs. Doesn't mean I think it's a good idea to outlaw them, however... it's just silly. Although, in public schools, at younger ages, I imagine it's the women being trained into said submission and being made by their parents to wear them... I don't know whether it's necessarily good to make them take it off, but it's certainly not bad to expose them to the fact that they do, indeed, have a choice about being submissive women in society, regardless of what their parents' views/religion says.

And, I do think that how you are raised into a religion/life style really does STRONGLY affect you later in life. For instance: even though through much inward philosophical debate, I'm now agnostic instead of christian, and accept that all faiths are equally valid/invalid. My mind still falls back on the christian god, though, as a default, because I was raised that way. And, even though I realize that all cultures have their merits, no matter how barbaric they may seem, they still SEEM barbaric, because I was raised to believe that they are... etc. etc.

(Note: This post has the best title ever.)

That's a misconception about hijabs. The Koran says a woman must be modest not submissive. The thing about the Koran is that it is open for interruptation and it encourages Muslims to adapt it as the time changes. So the question is, what is modest? In a country like Pakistan, their idea of modesty is covering up as must as possible. In a country like Turkey there are women who cover themselves head to toe and women who dress just as provacatively as European women (I swear I saw more nudity on Turkish tv than I did in American rated R movies).
The point is, some women wear hijabs because they feel their faith wants them too and some women don't because they feel God is not telling them it's necessary.
I do believe culture influences religion and vice versa so that probably plays a big role in what people think.

btw Thanks for the compliment Krylo.

This law that France past was so god damn stupid! If they want to make so that muslims dodn't have to take anykind of crap from narrowminded people they should trie to affect those who are narrowminded and give crap tp others and not the other way around...if you get what I mean...

yeah i get what you mean oster. its not the muslim's fault that they are taking crap. the root cause is the racism and narrowmindedness of others. so why should the muslims be foreced to change?

Exactly! I myself live in a country where we have racists a lot! And that sucks. It's the racists that should be dealt with...they are the problem. I wouldnt og arpund imprisoning racist though cause many times those who are racists whn they are young aren't racists when they grow up anymore.

either France is punishing the wrong group (the Muslims instead of the racists), or France is attempting cultural assimilation. The first practice is a sign of incompetence, the second is a technique used by Imperialists to "civilize" (or, when Russia conquered Poland, "Russification") the nations they conquered. Either way, it's still a stupid law.

I agree with almost everyone else that its a stupid law. I think its wrong if a law was past to force them to wear the Hijab, but its just as wrong to pass a law forcing them to not wear them. They should have harsher crack down on the racist not the victims. The only part of the law I liked was while they admitted it was to get women to not wear the Hijab, they didnt pass a law that said ALL WOMEN MUST NEVER WEAR A HIJAB IN PUBLIC, thats a VERY small step up in my oppinion