Nike announces new hijab/burka active-wear.
Keeping the women fit... and in line...
"Cuz otherwise we'd have to let 'em burn to death!" Linkage.
So weird that Nike is catering to this outrageous institutionalized sexism, a rotting part of Islam that shouldn't have lasted much past the 1300s.
Wowzers - that almost sounded like a Leftist statement I just made! Haha - but seriously, it's worse than just sexism. The institution of hijab is a transparent and obvious enslavement of women. Be quiet, do not speak to men, do not go outside, do not let yourself be seen, and never ever be recognizable. It says two things: 1.) that Muslims traditionally cannot develop a reasonable solution to their problems, and that 2.) the female form is somehow bad.
So, the first thing, the whole "reasonable solution" thing. I can respect the fact that Muslim men recognize that the female form, just looking at it, can be a temptation to sin. I recognize the same thing. Just look at all the miniskirts college gals are wearing these days. Legs, hips, breasts - they're all over the place. I suppose I'm presented with the same two options that the followers of Muhammad had: to cover up the women, or to cover up the eyes. You can either stop watching, stop dwelling on that girl that's jogging in her bra and panties... or you can force her under pain of death and brutal beatings to wear a bedsheet over her face her entire life. Which makes more sense...?
And the second thing I mentioned, that the female form is somehow "bad." If we are truly made in the shape of our creator, and our creator is a personal and loving God (which I believe), then we accept both the good that comes from our creator, and the bad that comes from the Fall of Adam. Men and women are inherently Good in that we are made by and nurtured by God. But we are inherently Bad in that we are mired in original sin. If you take a man or a women and hide them for their whole life behind a veil, behind institutionalized fear and enslavement, you are greatly diminishing that which God has made. You can't deny our tempestuous existence frought with choice and temptation to sin by trampling over (what I believe to be) human freedom of someone weaker. Yeah, you might be able to backhand her at home and cow her into whimpering, but the physical domination has in this case been transposed into the religious and sacred. Muslim men and women both believe that the only way to be holy for a woman is to be in a state of perpetual hiding. How sad this is. In essence it is a denial that the thing that you are hiding has any worth other than that which, were it to be seen, drive another man to steal it from you. It's about possession and mistrust, two things that one should strive to overcome, not shunt off and ignore.
Just an opinion. I could be wrong!
(Edited 05/17/06.)
Keeping the women fit... and in line...
"Cuz otherwise we'd have to let 'em burn to death!" Linkage.
So weird that Nike is catering to this outrageous institutionalized sexism, a rotting part of Islam that shouldn't have lasted much past the 1300s.
Wowzers - that almost sounded like a Leftist statement I just made! Haha - but seriously, it's worse than just sexism. The institution of hijab is a transparent and obvious enslavement of women. Be quiet, do not speak to men, do not go outside, do not let yourself be seen, and never ever be recognizable. It says two things: 1.) that Muslims traditionally cannot develop a reasonable solution to their problems, and that 2.) the female form is somehow bad.
So, the first thing, the whole "reasonable solution" thing. I can respect the fact that Muslim men recognize that the female form, just looking at it, can be a temptation to sin. I recognize the same thing. Just look at all the miniskirts college gals are wearing these days. Legs, hips, breasts - they're all over the place. I suppose I'm presented with the same two options that the followers of Muhammad had: to cover up the women, or to cover up the eyes. You can either stop watching, stop dwelling on that girl that's jogging in her bra and panties... or you can force her under pain of death and brutal beatings to wear a bedsheet over her face her entire life. Which makes more sense...?
And the second thing I mentioned, that the female form is somehow "bad." If we are truly made in the shape of our creator, and our creator is a personal and loving God (which I believe), then we accept both the good that comes from our creator, and the bad that comes from the Fall of Adam. Men and women are inherently Good in that we are made by and nurtured by God. But we are inherently Bad in that we are mired in original sin. If you take a man or a women and hide them for their whole life behind a veil, behind institutionalized fear and enslavement, you are greatly diminishing that which God has made. You can't deny our tempestuous existence frought with choice and temptation to sin by trampling over (what I believe to be) human freedom of someone weaker. Yeah, you might be able to backhand her at home and cow her into whimpering, but the physical domination has in this case been transposed into the religious and sacred. Muslim men and women both believe that the only way to be holy for a woman is to be in a state of perpetual hiding. How sad this is. In essence it is a denial that the thing that you are hiding has any worth other than that which, were it to be seen, drive another man to steal it from you. It's about possession and mistrust, two things that one should strive to overcome, not shunt off and ignore.
Just an opinion. I could be wrong!
(Edited 05/17/06.)
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