How to Dress: Changing Rights of Muslim Women

Today, we in the Western world see Muslim Women and think they’re oppressed, hurt and under male rule due to the forced dress codes in some countries. But before we make assumptions on a group of people, in any one place we should do our research, look back, see why, when and where this all started and why it’s still happening today. We need to see if this is really hurting them, or if it’s just their way of life, there’s a fairly prominent cartoon that shows a Western perspective on Muslim life versus a Muslim perspective on Western women’s life. In the Cartoon the Western Woman is thinking to herself “Everything covered but her eyes, what a cruel male-dominated culture!” which shows how most of the Western World thinks of Muslim women, oppressed by their male counterparts. But at the same time the Muslim Woman is thinking to herself “Nothing covered but her eyes, what a cruel male-dominated culture!” which shows the topic through a different lens, it can be said that they prefer to wear it because they feel more respected wearing it and feel as equals, but we must stop just looking at the surface and judging another group, we need to dig into the information and figure out why before we deem another culture “male-dominated.”

“Purdah is a religious and social institution of female seclusion observed by some women in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Northern India, and other countries.” Basically it is used to keep men from seeing women, this happens in two ways, segregation of the sexes and concealing their bodies with clothing. One way the woman would conceal herself is by using a burqa and a veil, this conceals most to all of their face. Depending on where in the World you are the variance of restrictions on Purdah can vary, some countri...

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...e constitution allows neutral rules that apply to everyone, such as a rule barring all head coverings, whether religious or not.” This way they can let no one have a head covering at all, but it can still be mainly directed at women who are practicing Purdah since other people would have no real reason for wearing the head covering, this is a direct infringement on their rights but it is perfectly legal because it applies to everyone not just their particular group of people. Many women who practice Purdah are mostly discriminated against at their jobs, either they will not get the job, will not be able to keep the job( being fired for unlawful, discriminate reasons) and or will be yelled at in lewd comments or just discriminated against in the workplace just for the way they’re wearing their clothes, head dresses and our mindset of people who are not just like us.