chickenfeet (
chickenfeet) wrote2006-10-11 03:20 pm
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Why is religious belief privileged?
I find the debates over the wearing of veils interesting. Generally speaking I think that if someone wants to wear a veil they should. Not because it's part of their religion but because I can't think of a good reason why they shouldn't. I note though that the debate is couched almost entirely in religious terms. That prompts me to ask the question why religious beliefs should be held to justify behaviour that would be be banned or discouraged if indulged in because of other beliefs, however deeply held. For example, why should a committed nudist not be permitted to meet Mr. Jack Straw or attend a lecture at Imperial College in a state of undress? They certainly couldn't be held to be a security risk! It might be argued that nudity offends some people but that, of course, is precisely the argument used against veils.
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Is that really so very different from the equivalent male 'uniform'? I'd argue that in fact professional women have a lot more clothing options than professional men. Things have changed a bit in the last ten years but for two decades for work I wore a suit (with few degrees of freedom of design, pattern or colour), a long sleeved shirt with collar and tie and lace up black Oxfords. That's a more rigid dress code than most professional women face.
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But I brought dress code up because the sorts of comments that Straw made often degenerate into "oh, aren't those poor Mohammedan womenfolk so oppressed with their funny veils; we need to save them from themselves," and that sort of faux-sympathy makes sense only from a culture where standards for masculine and feminine appearance are equivalent. Which isn't ours.
I never know if this anti-veil sentiment is more of a gender thing or a race thing, not that the two are mutually exclusive. As you mentioned above, no one says anything about a (presumably white and male) cop wearing shades that disguise his eyes. But so many people get the vapours over women (presumably of colour) in hijabs.
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