Essay On Veil Or Not To Veil

The word feminism can have multiple meanings around the world, where what seems intrusive to some women may be considered to be culturally acceptable and unpretentious to others. In the Western hemisphere, women are taught to be outspoken from a very young age, where being uninvolved in women’s issues like fighting for equal wages or being a stay-at-home mother is viewed as moving backwards in the feminist movement for equality. In the article To Veil or Not to Veil? written by Jen’nan Ghazal Read and John P. Bartkowski, it looks at the notion of wearing a veil as making women submissive to men to some Islamic women while to others, it is a way of making them feel secure in going out to the world where they will not be judged based upon their

Women are blamed for men’s debauchery for being the source of seduction and responsible for humanity’s fall from grace and responsible for sins. In the bible, women are reprimanded by God, “But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God…For the man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man," (I Corinthians 11:3-9) and making women submissive to men. For non-Western feminist, religion isn’t always as oppressive as one would expect, where women support religious movements, “Indian women’s movement, together with movements for secularism, democracy and human rights, has been crucial in boarding-base the struggle for women’s rights…,” (Razavi and Jenichen, 2014, pg. 335). Religious movements have played a crucial role in advocating for gender equality where women utilize wearing a veil as a way to, “express their frustrations at the failure of corrupt, Westernized elites who were perceived to have sold their country’s national interests…,” (Henderson and Jeydel, 2014, pg. 82) where many women join movements as a way to, “rebuilding the county in the wake of a tumultuous revolution,” (Henderson and Jeydel, 2014, pg. 82). Women have come to utilize the hijab as a way to end the constant

In the article written by Kaitlyn Regehr, The Rise of Recreational Burlesque, views the use of burlesque as a way of freeing the female body by allowing women to embrace their sexuality to be their true selves. The problem is that by attempting to embrace their sexuality through burlesque leads to, “Self-objectification by subscribing to feminine ideals as defined by the male gaze,” (Regehr, 2014, pg. 507), where it succumbs women to men’s ideals of how a woman’s body should be. Western feminist would regard the notion of burlesque as objectifying women and making it acceptable for men to regard women as a sexual object rather than human beings that goes back to the notion of the hijab as a way of preserving a woman’s integrity, “View the veil as a divine remedy for such sexual differences…,” (Read and Bartkowski, 2014, pg. 302). Non-Western place more importance in a woman’s modesty which is associated with a woman’s integrity. Instead of empowering women it, “[Places] pressure on women’s physical appearance…had enforced an expectation on women to be sexual and beautiful,” (Regehr, 2014, pg. 505) which contradicts the notion on feminism – which advocates for issues of gender differences and advocates for gender equality. “Modern sexually empowered woman as simply the same slim, white, heterosexual patriarchal ideal,