Lila Abu-Lughod's Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?

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In Lila Abu-Lughod’s “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” the relationship between Islam and its female members is examined. Specifically, the “oppressions” put on women who partake in Islam within the boundaries of Afghanistan. “Oppressions” is in quotes here because Western civilization, such as the United States, assumes that women who participate in Islam are discriminated against and oppressed. Abu-Lughod goes into great detail about the politics of one of the greatest Western signs of oppression-the veil. People often believe that the Taliban is the organization that forces these women to wear burqas (veils), but the Taliban did not invent the burqa (Abu-Lughod, 785). While westerners think that this is a sign of oppression and terrorism, Afghan women hold it as a symbol of both the separation of men’s and women’s spheres and of religiosity (Abu-Lughod, 785-786). Additionally, …show more content…

Afghan women are not victims of their religion, their practices, or even their homeland. They are victims of stereotypes and underestimation. I learned that a veil was much more than what meets the eye, and Afghan women are also capable of depicting their own meaning of their burqa. They choose when to use it, how, and why. My favorite quote from this reading was “...we must take care not to reduce the diverse situations and attitudes of millions of Muslim women to a single item of clothing” (Abu-Lughod, 786). This statement is admirable because it points out how so many assumptions and misconceptions can be made a simple burqa, and it also points out how ignorant it all is. Overall, it was just really interesting to read about how simplifying things and overcomplicating things in the wrong areas can cause offensive/obtuse

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