US Judge jails Muslim woman over head scarf.
Why am I calling this religious privilege? Because you know that if a woman not overtly identified with any religious group (and therefore assumed, by default, to be Christian) came in wearing a covering of some sort - hat, scarf, wig - because she's undergoing chemotherapy, she'd not have been asked to leave. I suspect, although I do NOT know, if a nun wearing a veil walked in, she'd not have been asked to leave, either.
Actually, I pretty much suspect that if *I* walked in a headscarf tied according to Jewish modesty - leaving the entire face and neck exposed - there's a good chance I'd be allowed to stay as well. Because here the privilege is being part of a "standard" US religion.
But this woman wore hijab, proclaiming herself to be Muslim. And that was sufficient for the judge to toss her out.
There are those in the comments who were surprised that she could say an expletive but not remove her scarf. That's because, as privileged people, they don't have to assume that other cultures might have differing value - that a curse is nothing, but removing an article of clothing is a sin. One commenter said that Gd doesn't have a dress code. Of course, forcing people to uncover their heads is adhering to a dress code all by itself, but since that's the norm for this culture, no one notices.
To a woman who covers her head, removing the covering is tantamount to asking her to remove her blouse in public. To acknowledge that, though, is to admit that other religious views have value. And that doesn't occur to the privileged.
Why am I calling this religious privilege? Because you know that if a woman not overtly identified with any religious group (and therefore assumed, by default, to be Christian) came in wearing a covering of some sort - hat, scarf, wig - because she's undergoing chemotherapy, she'd not have been asked to leave. I suspect, although I do NOT know, if a nun wearing a veil walked in, she'd not have been asked to leave, either.
Actually, I pretty much suspect that if *I* walked in a headscarf tied according to Jewish modesty - leaving the entire face and neck exposed - there's a good chance I'd be allowed to stay as well. Because here the privilege is being part of a "standard" US religion.
But this woman wore hijab, proclaiming herself to be Muslim. And that was sufficient for the judge to toss her out.
There are those in the comments who were surprised that she could say an expletive but not remove her scarf. That's because, as privileged people, they don't have to assume that other cultures might have differing value - that a curse is nothing, but removing an article of clothing is a sin. One commenter said that Gd doesn't have a dress code. Of course, forcing people to uncover their heads is adhering to a dress code all by itself, but since that's the norm for this culture, no one notices.
To a woman who covers her head, removing the covering is tantamount to asking her to remove her blouse in public. To acknowledge that, though, is to admit that other religious views have value. And that doesn't occur to the privileged.
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2 comments:
Follow up
Ya know, a big common thread among the commenters on that story was "America has laws, you gotta follow them, love America love its laws, or go back to Iraq. We got laws, unlike Somalia or the Gulf." And "Security overrides religious belief."
Huh. Laws. Like, say, the First and Fourteenth Amendments?
The Constitution has 27 Amendments, not just the Second. Read them, learn them, internalize them. Live them and truly love America. Or go to some country where security really does override religious freedom, like, oh, the Gulf. Or pre-1991 Soviet Union.
America is advanced citizenship, and that whole speech.
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