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A post by Maynard

Here’s an interesting article about trends of dress in the Islamic world. There are tensions between secularists and traditionalists, but the odd point is that the battling viewpoints tend towards authoritarianism and violence. That is to say, either they’re going to make women dress such-and-such a way, or they’re going to prohibit women from dressing in such-and-such a way. The extremists squeeze out the potential for peaceful co-existence and individual choice.

In almost every other part of the Muslim world, controversy over female headgear is growing. Turkey and Tunisia are at one end of the Muslim spectrum; both ban female civil servants, as well as students in state schools, from covering their hair. One Turkish judge was nearly assassinated after decreeing that teachers could not wear scarves even on their way to work. But in Saudi Arabia and Iran, the rules go the other way. No woman may appear in public with more than face and hands exposed.

Currently in Iran:

Police are busy with their annual spring campaign against “bad hijab”, prowling parks and stopping traffic to enforce dress codes. This year’s drive is the strictest for a decade. Thousands of women have received warnings; police cars have been parked outside shopping malls, scrutinizing every customer; vehicles with improperly clad ladies at the wheel have been impounded. The crackdown also targets men in short sleeves or with extravagantly gelled hair.

Such policies stand in sharp contrast to our troubling cultural inability to persuade Lindsay Lohan, Paris Hilton, et al, to wear underwear. However, for all our faults, I think we in the West can struggle through this argument without blowing each other up.

A recent incident in Tunisia:

In January a clash between Tunisian police and Islamist rebels left 12 dead. The rebels said they were “defending their veiled sisters against oppression”, a reference to the fact that Tunisia’s president dismisses the hijab as an alien form of “sectarian dress” and has sent police to toy shops to seize dolls with scarves.

For American ladies who would like to check out those Islamic garments, look here.

This discussion would not be complete with mentioning the Ferengi from Star Trek. (The term “Ferengi” presumably derives from “farangi”, a Persian (Iranian!) word meaning “foreigner”.) According to Wikipedia: “The Ferengi Alliance operates on a strictly patriarchal society in which women are forbidden to wear clothing or leave the home, and can absolutely never make profit.” In the interests of tolerance and multicultural harmony, I will refrain from commenting.