Would you wear a Hijab in solidarity?

[Ryika]

Recently, Alexander Van der Bellen, president auf Austria, has sparked quite a debate after answering a question by suggesting that:

"Is is the right of every woman to wear whatever she wants, that's my opinion on the issue. Not only Muslim women, every woman can wear a head scarf. And if it goes on like this, and with that I'm already on the next question, the actual rampant islamophobia goes on like this, there will come the day when we will have to ask all women to wear a headscarf - all! - out of solidarity towards those who wear them for religious reasons."

I translated it from German of course, my English isn't that good, so the translation may not be perfect. If you want the full context, search youtube for something like "Van der Bellen Hijab", I couldn't find a version of the video that doesn't have a comments section that is full of swear words, so I can't link it directly. (;

There is of course some delicious irony in saying that women should be allowed to wear what they want and then following up with the suggestion that it might be the moral duty of western women to wear a hijab in solidarity to those attacked for wearing it, but I think that was mostly him not thinking too much about the way he phrased it.

More interestingly, his statement and the debate about the statement made me remember an article I had read a while ago, of Iranian men also wearing the hijab in solidarity of their women. Of course the situation is a bit different, because these men wore the hijab in protest against the laws that force their women to wear it.

So, I'll go a bit further than Van der Bellen and also extend that invitation to all non-female identifying members of this community.

Three questions I have for you:

Assuming these apply to you, would you wear the Hijab in solidarity to...
...women in the west who are targeted for wearing the hijab?
...women in the middle-east who are targeted for not wearing the hijab?
Do you think we should actually follow through with Van der Bellen's idea and ask women to wear the hijab in solidarity if rampant islamophobia gets worse?

(After re-reading my post... knowing these forums, I expect some people will read this and come to the conclusion that I'm trying to make an example for how wearing the hijab out of solidarity in the west is absurd even though I never actually made any suggestion about that, so let me tackle that issue now so it doesn't have to be a discussion in the comments: I am not. I am very aware that both issues are separate from each other, and that while there is some irony to the whole thing in the greater picture, both types of wearing the hijab in solidarity may have some validity to them, and are tackling different issues.)

My personal response:
No, I would not wear the hijab in solidarity in either case. In the context of Iran it doesn't really seem to solve much, and in the context of the West, being asked to put on a religious item to make a social statement seems like a pretty ridiculous request to me.

 

[Cheetah]

No. The hijab, while having religious significance for some, is also a symbol for a totalitarian, political ideology and system which oppresses women, takes away freedoms, and wants me tortured and murdered for my unbelief.

Frankly, I find any and all suggestions of this type to be deeply offensive to myself, and extremely offensive and inconsiderate to all the women who are forced to either cover themselves, or be arrested and tortured. And that is not even mentioning all the other missing rights and privileges all the women and men who live under these tyrannies suffer. This is very disappointing from Van der Bellen. I'd thought he was wiser than this.

PS: I will mostly drop my criticism of hijabs and these stupid suggestions when no woman in the world need to fear that the state will come after them for not covering up.

 

[Farm Boy]

I'd consider it. I'm not entirely convinced that me wearing it as a political statement wouldn't be a bit condescending towards those who actually wear it as a statement of dedication to their God.

 

[inthesomeday]

To me that's the equivalent of "wear blackface in solidarity with black people".

 

[SS-18 ICBM]

No, I don't approve of the hijab.

 

[BvBPL]

No, I wouldn’t. It would not be respectful.

I considered how I would feel if someone wore a crucifix in solidarity. I wouldn’t feel good about. Outward expressions of faith are just that, expressions of deeply-held belief. They are for statements of faith and belief, not statements of solidarity and politics. Having someone who does not accept a faith wear its forms of expression is inappropriate. There are much better ways to express solidarity than to wear a hijab.

 

[Leoreth]

While I personally don't like the hijab, I think women should be free to wear them in secular societies without being harassed.

However, I don't think wearing a hijab as a male non-Muslim in any way helps Muslim women who want solidarity, and I suspect at least some of them would react negatively to me doing so. I believe that people are entitled to express their cultural and religious identity in their clothing and me doing so when I share neither of these backgrounds isn't helpful because it does not actually reflect this reasoning.

It is much more useful to take a public stand against people who want to police how others dress themselves, and only care about the liberation of Muslim women to the extent of telling them that what they wear is wrong.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I wasn't addressed as someone who is a "non female-identifying member of this community" but I'll throw in my two cents (or however many):

1. Do they still force women to wear the chador in Iran? Chadors and hijabs are not the same.

2. Back in the 1960s, in this region, it was just expected that a lady (and sometimes girls) would wear a scarf or kerchief in public. After all, it was seen as "ladylike." This was a custom left over from an older generation of women, and when I found out that most of my female classmates in school didn't have to wear a kerchief, I put my foot down and refused to wear one as well.

I always found them uncomfortable, and they hamper a person's hearing. And if the fabric is even a little bit scratchy, they can drive a person up the wall after awhile.


When I was active in the Society for Creative Anachronism, many of the women wore some sort of head covering, but in that situation, we were in costume - we could choose to wear them or not, and the reason any of us did was because we were role-playing a woman of a particular region of a particular time, and of a particular social status.

I realize that one of my usual SCA costumes would be frowned on if I wore it in public now. It's a long black dress with flowing long sleeves, black cloak, and black head covering held in place by a headband. I had various leather and embroidered cloth pouches, black shoes, and silver jewelry to go with it. Nowadays, some people would mistake that for a modern Middle Eastern outfit. I always found it comfortable to wear, and usually got requests for photos when wearing this outfit at science fiction conventions (some different accessories turned it into a Dragonlance costume).

The last time I wore that dress was in 1998, when the only ignorant comments I ever got from people on the street were "Are you supposed to be some kind of Hutterite?".

 

[warpus]

No, I would not wear a hijab, because of the sensitive nature of that religion. I might be mistaken as someone who is mocking the religion or worse.

Besides, hijabs are fine. It's the burqas that are a problem

 

[rah]

Add me to the "afraid it would be seen as mocking" crowd.

 

[Synobun]

I wouldn't. I wouldn't do it because while I respect someone's right to appropriate an aspect of something that would ordinarily oppress them, I have no personal desire to be a part of that particular concept.

Should women be allowed to wear hijabs? Sure. It's entirely possible that they want to on a personal level. That's not up to us to decide. The best we can do is ensure they aren't wearing it out of obligation or under threat. Beyond that, it's their call and we should not stand in the way of it.

So with that in mind, me wearing a hijab is meaningless. It does not validate the woman's choice. It does not tell them it's okay to wear a hijab. It just tells them that I think the idea is simple enough that I can don a tool of oppression and say it's easy-peasy lemon squeezy to feel validated and/or safe since I'm rockin' a hijab and I'm fine.

It's a situation where you're either making light of their plight or you are setting yourself on fire to make another person set aflame feel better about burning. In both scenarios, I feel there are better ways to address it. I don't believe everyone en masse adopting a characteristic for a day or two changes anything, nor does it drive home that it's okay to "be what they are" simply because you, someone who isn't them, decided that it was so.

People who are inclined to attack those who wear hijabs won't care if their coworkers Jonathan and Margaret wear a hijab on Casual Friday for eight hours. Those that do care, will care aggressively.

 

[Perfection]

No, because I'm too cheap to buy one.

 

[VicRatlhead5199]

Nah, but I'd have no problem doing what this guy did. He's the type of American I can actually be proud of.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I might if someone gave me one for free, but there is no way I'd pay for one.

 

[civver_764]

I wouldn't wear it myself because I don't give a damn about that sort of solidarity, frankly. Power to anybody else who wants to wear one though.

 

[Hygro]

I didn't spend the past 18 months growing this skullet to not show it off.

 

[FriendlyFire]

There is of course some delicious irony in saying that women should be allowed to wear what they want and then following up with the suggestion that it might be the moral duty of western women to wear a hijab in solidarity to those attacked for wearing it, but I think that was mostly him not thinking too much about the way he phrased it..

If women can wear whatever they want ?
I suggest Austrian women wear Waffen SS uniforms and we'll see how long that tune will last for.

This idea is frankly dumb.

 

[Akka]

No, because I have little sympathy for people who display their religious opinion, and even less sympathy for religion which requires such kind of clothing.

 

[Timsup2nothin]

If I wore a hijab it wouldn't be in solidarity, it would be in a squad car. The local cops would still know who I was and would assume my "obscuring my identity" was with criminal intent.

 

[Mouthwash]

However oppressed Muslims are, the fact is you're still wearing a tribal honor-shame veil whose original purpose was to dehumanize women.