Short Response 12/02/10

In Some Aspects, They Do.

I was quite persuaded by Lila Abu-Lughod when reading Do Muslim Women Really need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others. Abu-Lughod argues that burqa should be viewed as an ““religiously” appropriate” (Lila Abu-Lughod) clothing. She also states that some people even regard burqa as kind of liberation to Muslim women because it enables women to walk outside home without risking being disreputable. Therefore, it is not necessary for Muslim women to immediately throw off their burqa while risking their religious rules.

Her arguments seemed quite reasonable to me at first. Indeed, people from outside Muslim world should not view veiling as a way of repression on women simply because women in major society do not wear veiling. However, veiling such as burqa should not be discussed simply about sign of repression, it should be considered more about health effects as well as social effects.

Burqa causes various diseases. Because burqa, especially Afghanistan style, covers almost the entire body of women and only leaves a small region about the eyes which still covered by net or grille, women’s field of vision is largely restricted and their vision is threatened. And lack of sunshine because of wearing burqa also threatens the wearers’ lives. As many medical experts have pointed out, women who wear burqa are more vulnerable to osteoporosis due to a lack of sunshine which causes a lack of Vitamin D and their newborn babies are more likely to get more seizures for the same reason (1). Burqas can also cause hearing loss, skin problems, headaches, cardiac disorder, asthma, and also can contribute to mental health problems (2).

In addition, burqa largely restricts women’s spheres. Because burqa is so heavy and women need to support the whole weight of burqas simply by their heads, moving with burqas is actually painful. And how can women really socialize outside their homes if they could not be recognized by their faces with difficulties in talking and hearing with others.

Indeed, it is inappropriate to “save” these women under burqas before knowing their actual will and their opinions. However, how can we ask these women to be satisfy with the burqa which nominally has made them more liberal while we ourselves never stop campaign for more rights for ourselves outside the Muslim world?

Resources:

1. Adriana Stuijt, Women could endanger their health by wearing burqas, http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/272307.
2. Stephanie Dubitsky, The Health Care Crisis Facing Women Under Taliban Rule in Afghanistan, http://www.wcl.american.edu/hrbrief/v6i2/taliban.htm.