9th
The hijab will not protect a woman from harassment or rape.
Her clothing will not stop the jeers, the wolf whistles, that accessing, lingering look men give women they ‘appreciate’. She can be draped in black cloth from top to bottom, and she will still be harassed, she can still be raped.
The problem, you see, is not the woman. The problem is those men. The problem is the culture that makes it okay for men to look at women that way and blames in on the woman for being attacked. Except, you know what? That’s like saying “hey tree, it’s your fault for being a tree, if you weren’t a tree, you wouldn’t be chopped up for wood”. The tree can’t help being a tree. The tree didn’t ask to be chopped up and used. The tree was just being a tree in the forest.
The hijab will not protect a woman from being harassed or raped. Men who want to will look all they want, and she will not be able to help it, no mater what it is she does. But what it will do, I have found, is give her personal peace of mind. Later, when she sits there thinking, “what did I do wrong?” because that is how the culture has trained her to think, she may come to terms with the fact that she did not, in fact, do anything wrong. She was covered, and just the knowledge that her body was covered will make her stop panicking. Because trust me, she probably will, even with something as simple as an unwanted, lingering gaze.
This means no one has the right to tell the woman to cover up. The woman can do whatever she chooses to with her body. What it means is that men have to stop using the bodies of women for their pleasure. Have to stop looking. Lower your gaze please. It is your fault that you looked. Saying she tempted you is like saying “but that wallet was just lying there, with a hundred bucks in it, it was too tempting”. Well, you know what? That wallet isn’t yours, it doesn’t belong to you, you do not get to have it. Return it, please, that’s the right thing to do. Maybe that’s hard to do, but the right thing is never the easy thing to do. Oh well.
This post is here for the men who like to tell women to cover up because they cannot restrain themselves. And it is here for the people who say “well then, why wear the hijab?” Because we want to. Because it makes us feel better.
Bug off. Our personal decisions are personal and none of your concern.
(via warriorsrise)
