BASIC FACTS ABOUT ISLAM

NICOLAS Sarkozy’s campaign to ban the Muslim face veil and other religious garments to feather the bed for his bid to be reelected to France’s highest political office has been deemed among high ranking members of the French political system as hypocritical to the country’s long held position of religious tolerance. He claimed that Muslim women who wear such garments are too ‘ostentatious’ and ‘provocative’ which he claims undermines French nationalism.

The transparency of Sarkozy’s rhetoric although seen as an obvious ploy among rival political factions to garnish support from the country’s growing anti-immigrant movement, his opponents were unsuccessful in mounting a defense against it. Though internationally condemned as racist (even Obama had to show a little grit and come out in principle against it), Sarkozy continues to defend his position by calling the veil blatant subjugation of women by Muslim men.

Well Sarkozy got his way – the veil, the niqab, was banned.

I followed this saga with interest. I was surprised that a country with 10 million Muslims managed to lay down for the old back door without too much fuss—particularly in France, the birthplace of democracy and where the term ‘feminist’ was coined. I suppose everybody’s got a plan.

Women in the West have only had rights for a 100 years thanks to the advocacy of feminism. Muslim women have been able to vote, own land and run their own businesses for about a little over 1400 years.

Before you can understand the full irony of the situation, I must explain how I came to know about Feminism. Let me start with a little tale called Becky’s Slap.

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Becky’s Slap

Being an adolescent in the 1960’s and 70’s was a pretty exciting experience in the United States. America was going through ideological growing pains: redefining and re-assessing its values in its social and political arenas. Everyone was talking about drugs, concerts and liberation.

I was about 15 amidst all of this when I met my first feminist—a perky white girl name Becky, a college student who volunteered to work in ghetto (today known as the ‘hood’). She had big blue eyes, long brown hair and wore ‘daisy dukes’. She smelled like honeysuckles. Being at the height of discovering what a man was, my raging hormones and me welcomed her unsolicited conversation with intense attention.

“Leroy,” she said, “do you know what sexism is?”

Not knowing what it meant, I was hopeful it was close to what I thought it was. Before I could share those thoughts, she continued.

“It is the exploitation of women by men,” Becky said as serious as her Minnie mouse like voice would allow. ‘Exploitation’ was also a new word to me and seemed reminiscent of ’expose,’ a word my little ghetto mind did recognize. She reached in her blue jean satchel and pulled out some fashion magazines. During those days, they were thick like dictionaries due to the ads.

“Look at this!” she commanded me, flipping the pages. She was starting to sound a little ticked off. “These women are being used and are brainwashing other women to believe in their own inferiority,” she declared. Read the rest of this entry »