New York Times shills for the oppression of women in Islam

Well, I personally don't have an issue with this piece except that if it be published, that it be published along with the thousands of reports the NYT has missed of Islamic violence and oppression.

"For someone who passionately studied and works for human rights and women’s empowerment, I realized that working for these causes while wearing the hijab can only contribute to breaking the misconception that Muslim women lack the strength, passion and power to strive for their own rights."

And he'll be sure to tell her present or future husband that, if he's not occupied with wife number two or three at that time of course.

Ayesha:

You need to cover what ever you choose to cover because under Islam a woman is a source of sin, bad in other words. You can have one or two masters but under sharia law you are always going to be inferior to a man. Also,you can keep your rags for yourself. Women have beautiful bodies and I will continue to show my legs, my arms, my cleavage as long as I want and feel like it. I do not have to cover all of my body because I do not perceive men as sexual maniacs and perverts. Too bad for you.

"let me tell you as a woman (with a master’s degree in human rights, and a graduate degree in psychology) why I see this as the most liberating experience ever. "

Let me tell you that as a man (with an MSc from a top UK university) I completely fail to understand how wearing an outfit that is designed to mark women as owned, and to stop other men from seeing anything other than their eyes (and with some outfits not even that!) can provide any experience other than feelings of shame, fear and degradation.

But of course, she is doing this in the West, where she has a choice. Let's see her try doing without the veil in a mohammedan country, and then let us know how liberating the acid burns feel!

'The freedom of the bikini"

Can women go around in bikinis in Mecca, Medina, Teheran, Islamabad, Kabul... etc?

Besides thieves, buffoons.

You know what leaps to my mind? Rickets.

A story from England:

"Paediatricians found that deficiency rates were higher among children of south Asian families, particularly girls.

Many Muslim women are at higher risk because Islamic dress codes prevent the skin absorbing ultra violet light at high enough levels."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bradford/5116438.stm

a classic from Fallaci:
http://www.jihadwatch.org/2010/02/oriana-fallaci-asking-a-moslem-about-his-women-is-like-asking-him-about-a-secret-vice.html

Why the half measures, Ayesha? Go to the full burka and get a clitorectomy while you’re at it. Think of how “empowered” you’ll feel.

She describes voluntarily putting on a hijab the "most liberating thing in the world". Wow. Repealing slavery, freeing tortured prisoners of war from pits or Jews from Auschwitz, all these things pale in comparison to putting on a headscarf. Great perspective.

What drama-queen idiocy. Like another poster said, choosing to walk around downtown Riyadh in a bikini would be an expression of freedom. NOBODY on Earth has EVER said you can't wear a hijab, only that you should have the right NOT to wear it if you don't want to.

What exactly did she learn when she earned her "masters in human rights"?

I'm given to wonder whether this quote came from Tony Blair's sister-in-law.

What a laughable puff-piece! She's lying--the hijab isn't liberation for her--it is ADVERTISING for islam (as is the article itself). So, when she attends all those "interfaith" meetings, she looks DIFFERENT, distinctively muslim. Which serves her well, because her islamic clothing gains her lots of attention, lots of opportunities to tell the clueless "interfaith" types how "liberating" it is to hide your body and be a willing tool for a male-supremacist cult. And they all gush, "She's so brave! A muslim woman fighting for womens' rights! Islam must be pretty cool, after all!" Her target-audience would never stop to think that REAL bravery would be fighting for womens' rights in a MUSLIM country--not here, where women already have rights! Duh!

She's just flying the flag, doing the da'wa, working the gullible. She should've included her degree from the Imam Rauf school of Taqiyya with those other puffy credentials, which she uses so freely to dignify her shameless da'wa...

Excellent! You all make very intelligent, well-reasoned points.

How interesting: I see that there is no opportunity on the NYCrimes to post comments. Too bad, because perhaps Ms Ayesha would learn a thing or two about her completely off-base assessment of her decision.

why doesn't NYTimes publish stories of "honor killing" done right here in good old US of A instead of publishing this garbage. Oh they can't deal with the truth and are still in Duranty Times mode!! Or maybe they are in Abdullah Times mode!

Looks like Ayesha is deeply embedded with post brainwashing suggestion. Displayed by her lack of logical reasoning ability. All will, and reason, is lost to only what is allowed, by mohammadinism!

From a soley aesthetic point of view, I don't find colourful hairwraps offensive per se. .as long as I can see the face.
What bothers me more is that I have never seen a Madonna or a Star of David on a hijab, let alone a rugged Cross.
No prizes for guessing why.

If she has been sexually molested or traumatized body wise,
the hijab can surely give her a liberating experience! Some sexually molested women protect themselves from the trauma by wearing extra clothes even in the summer, an extra layer of skin, so to speak.
What she tells us is that she had issues about being seen, and now she hasn't. Not too bad for someone who has found a comfort zone, too bad for someone who claims to be a psychologist.

Her donning the hijab is likely mainly a bid for extra preferment when it comes to hiring or promotion. Like the Massachusetts Democratic candidate for Senator who started claiming American Indian ancestry (at best 1/32) to get in on the affirmative action sweepstakes.
I guess she realizes she needs more than a degree in "human rights", and thinks the hijab will give her an edge.

Demonstrative of how there is no limit to what is wrong being described as something which is right---if you put what's left of your mind to it.

Here's a companion piece for Ayesha's.

A Useful Idiot of the most obvious and grovelling kind.

http://www.newenglishreview.org/blog_direct_link.cfm/blog_id/42913
Thursday, 12 July 2012
World's Greatest Authority Martha Nussbaum Tells Us Not To Worry About Islam

The dawa machine is going into overdrive, and then some.

The Mohammedan female slave rag symbolises Sharia, and functions as a summons to submit to Sharia.

It's Gang Uniform for Mohammedan females; it designates the wearer as a Gang Moll of the Ummah, or Mohammedan Mob, and therefore advertises the presence and proclaims - in a boastful and aggressive fashion - the dominance of the Mob.

It is, therefore, the functional equivalent of 1/ the ku klux klan hood and robe and 2/ either the Nazi Swastika or the SS deathshead badge.

See this classic article which summarises the work of disaffected Muslimah (or even, perhaps, apostate) Chahdortt Djavenn, in France. (Read it: it seems that Djavenn makes absolute mincemeat of the specious claim that the Islamic 'veil' represents either 'modesty' [she argues it represents the exact opposite: the sexual objectification of women, and that making little girls wear it is child abuse] or that it should be permitted in the name of religious freedom).

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=148041

Outlaw the hijab
N. Maruani
07/08/2009 20:54

The money quotes?

:"The veil has never been innocent or innocuous. It has always signified the submission of women to men and the denial of legal rights to women in Islamic countries."

"The political, ideological and psychological impact of the veil goes far beyond its appearance... If this weren't the case, why would the Islamists make it their main focus?...

"It constitutes a constant call to order by Islamic law."

To repeat: "It [the veil, the Islamic female slave rag - dda] has always signified the submission of women to men and the denial of legal rights to women in Islamic countries."

"It constitutes a constant call to order by Islamic law."

In other words: the 'veil' represents Sharia, and the demand that all persons should submit to Sharia..or else.

It's about as much a symbol of modesty and 'freedom', as would be a Swastika armband.

And what about the right of a woman to be safe in her person, not at the whim of her husband's lust or held responsible for a rapist's evil desires and violent action? What about the right of a woman to be near and talk to others, men and women, as a fellow human being, instead of having to hide in an anonymous tent? What about the right of a woman to be who she was made to be, even expressing herself in her hair style, her clothes, and her jewelry? What about the right of a woman to be a woman without being shamed into hiding the fact? Voluntarily wearing the hijab is denying a woman's individual dignity and worth by taking on the responsibility for and blame from every man who sees her, as required by Islam.

But I believe my hijab liberates me. I know many who portray the hijab as the placard for either forced silence or fundamentalist regimes; but personally I found it to be neither.
… I am a hijabi….

She's a slave. Why would anyone care what she thinks, just a slave of Islam. She's lucky not to be stripped from the waiste down and made to stand naked before men, kneeling. That's what Islamic slaves do.

This article would be more useful as an opinion piece had she given reasoning why she finds wearing the article of clothing more liberating. I know such fine points of journalism are usually missing from the NYT, but still.

This is just a goody-goody piece of garbage from the NYT, really no more usefull than a guy on the street corner telling everyone that his preferred brand of beer is best then walking away without another word.

Bravo lady. I just put a piece of cloth on my head and it made me modest all day. I take it off and I turn back into my old modestest self. I put on and I am back to modest again. Wow this piece of cloth is like superman cape.

Thanks Mohammad even though you commanded your wives, daughters and all Muslim women to cast their body with an outer garment so they are not molested. but a lonely head scarf does the trick and it liberates a woman. I don't know what it liberates her from but it works. Damm immodest Kafirs are nuts they don't understand. I think this lady was constantly molested by Kafirs without the scarf at last she is liberated. WOW

...and before you race to label me the poster girl for oppressed womanhood everywhere, let me tell you as a woman (with a master’s degree in human rights, and a graduate degree in psychology) why I see this as the most liberating experience ever...

I am abundantly aware of the rising concerns and controversies over how a few yards of cloth covering a woman’s head is written off as a global threat to women’s education, public security, rights and even religion. I am also conscious of the media’s preferred mode of portraying all hijabi women as downtrodden and dominated by misogynist mullahs or male relatives who enforce them into sweltering pieces of oppressive clothing. But I believe my hijab liberates me. I know many who portray the hijab as the placard for either forced silence or fundamentalist regimes; but personally I found it to be neither.
..........................................

What Taqiyya! Ayesha Nusrat makes it sound as though this view of Hijab was something ginned up by the "Islamophobic" Western media.

Especially now—when more women are being forced into Hijab in Aceh and in Egypt, and with the Taliban poised to seize power again in Afghanistan, more women than ever are being threatened over Hijab.

And this is happening in the West, as well—teen Aqsa Parvez was *murdered* by her father in a comfortable Toronto suburb for refusing to wear Hijab.

More crap, from the article:

In a society that embraces uncovering, how can it be oppressive if I decided to cover up?
..........................................

Ask Aqsa that...

More:

I see hijab as the freedom to regard my body as my own concern and as a way to secure personal liberty in a world that objectifies women. I refuse to see how a woman’s significance is rated according to her looks and the clothes she wears. I am also absolutely certain that the skewed perception of women’s equality as the right to bare our breasts in public only contributes to our own objectification. I look forward to a whole new day when true equality will be had with women not needing to display themselves to get attention nor needing to defend their decision to keep their bodies to themselves.
..........................................

I am *so* sick of this—as though Western women are forced to walk around in bikinis or Victoria's Secret undies all day long. The idea that wearing the slave rag is "feminist" is ludicrous.

And the implication that Purdah leads to equal rights could not be more grotesque. The places with the strictest forms of Purdah are the very worst for women—Somalia. Afghanistan, Iran. And the first thing most "Islamists" do when they come to power is to enforce some form of Hihad. This has happened most recently in Mali, where "Islamists" imposing Shari'ah have forced women into Djellabas—full-body robes.

More stupidity:

My reflection reminds me of the convictions that made me take up the hijab in first place — to work for a world where a woman isn’t judged by how she looks or what she wears, a world in which she needn’t defend the right to make decisions about her own body, in which she can be whoever she wants to be without ever having to choose between her religion and her rights.
..........................................

Yeah, good luck with that. Odd that a woman named for the loathsome "Prophet's" child bride—a little girl who was raped at nine years of age—wouldn't realize the irony of such a statement.

Hijab is all about controlling women—and about imposing Islamic norms in the West.

I wear my waist-length hair free, or occasionally tie it back into a ponytail if the weather is hot or if I need to keep it out of my face.

I'm never going to wear one of these vile slave-rags.

Another moron rears her stupid head.

Sulzberger goebbelses who are always damn wrong. A neoliberal rag. The Zionists are pride of the Jewish race. And the neoliberals and neocons are disgrace to the Jewish race.

Glory to Zionism!

Down with the nn's!

Ruslan Tokhchukov.

Oh, it's seen before: she's "liberated" in the sense that she no longer needs take anything other than Islam into consideration.

Ah yes, the liberating freedom sack!

Does it come with useless degrees now?

These burqa promo pieces are a dime a dozen these days. But some stand out like dogs balls:

"They seek spirituality, a higher meaning, and tend to be deep thinkers.” (Daily Mail)

Still waiting for the first Islamic Einstein.

My favorite one was this:

“What’s liberating about Islam is that one is spared from having to think.” (Frontpage Mag)

So enough pretzel logic.

Now can we have some really liberated Musel females who climb out of their shrouds with the blessing of their extended clans?

"[wearing the headscarf is] the most liberating experience ever" --from the article.

Not surprised NYTimes published this absurd and dubious, naive and misleading gushing of a 23-year-old Muslim woman about the alleged wonders of the headscarf. Had this been published in a reasonable source, I might have guessed from the initial paragraph ("most liberating experience ever"!) that this was a spoof or a parody of some sort.

Contrary to what this young woman implies about the Islamic requirement to cover up, it is not optional but is a mandatory element of the faith. Ayesha herself (Muhammad's child bride) said that the veil was "imposed" on the Muslim women. Moreover, the original reason for imposition of the Islamic dress code on Muslim women was so that they would not be sexually harassed, i.e., so that sexual harassment would be directed instead toward non-Muslim females.

Some stats from ARDA, based on surveys of several Muslim majority countries:
http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Codebooks/ISLAMVAL_CB.asp
http://www.thearda.com/Archive/Files/Descriptions/ISLAMVAL.asp

155) In your opinion, how important are each of the following traits in a woman? Woman wearing a veil. (WOMVEIL)
75% Important
17% Unimportant
8% Neither important nor unimportant

165) It is up to a woman to dress whichever way she wants to. (WOMDRESS)
13% Agree
56% Disagree
28% Neither agree nor disagree
3% Don’t know

164) A wife must always obey her husband. (WIFEOBEY)
76% Agree
15% Disagree
9% Neither agree nor disagree

419) Islam requires women to dress modestly but does not require covering of the face with a veil. (ISLMVEIL)
65% Agree
8% Disagree
26% Neither agree nor disagree
1% Don’t know

---------
Notes:
1. On average about 86% of the respondents in the above samples were Muslims; the rest were non-Muslims. Thus the support among Muslims for elements of Islam such as the veil is likely to be somewhat higher than what is reported here.
2. I calculated the percentages based on those who had received the question and had given a response.
3. On the three clothing-related items mentioned above, there was only a 1 or 2 percent difference between male and female respondents.

These data suggest that, for most Muslims, Muslim women wearing the veil and dressing "modestly" is important and required, but that going to the extent of covering the face (e.g., niqab, burqa) is not mandatory. I should add that support for the face-covering veils may have increased in the past several years since the survey was conducted; there is often-reported in recent years an increasing trend of seeing Muslim women wearing the face veil. Moreover, contrary to what the author of the NYTimes piece implies about her own views on the issue, most Muslims--including most Muslim women--do not think it should be up to the woman to wear whatever she wants.

I object to the term 'modest clothing' or 'modest dress' referring to wearing islamic garb. It implies that other clothing especially western women's clothing is IMMODEST. It's subtle but it's there.

If women wish to wear that midieval nonesense it's their choice. But...don't try to rationalize that form of oppression as something noble. It's just another method to promote the soft jihad in our society.

There is nothing more beautiful than the female form displaying her independence and freedom in every way....spirit, dress, attitude, and every endeavor of life.

The Cycling Tuscan

I'm sure the other members of her wacky interfaith group have been reinforcing every word that comes out of her mouth, too. "A headbag?? Wonderful!!"

She should be placed on the No Fly list immediately. I found a photo of her holding up a sign reading "My faith has been empowering women since 610 ce." She's creepy looking and demented, which are the hallmarks of the Black Widow suicide bombers, for instance.

I don't know what "ce" means either.

I am *so* sick of this—as though Western women are forced to walk around in bikinis or Victoria's Secret undies all day long. The idea that wearing the slave rag is "feminist" is ludicrous.

The Western (most American) feminist movement has a great part of responsibility in this particular meme -- not only in its movement's propaganda but also as it became insinuated into the curriculums of Western higher education (if not also public education).

Then we get the curious schizophrenia which only the modern West breeds: women who may seem more reasonable and who find that kind of puritanical feminism amusing, and who therefore more or less flout it cheerily, yet who still buy the larger PC MC package in which it is symbiotically ensconced, leading them to -- a la Whoopi Goldberg, Joy Behar, Oprah Winfrey, et al. -- tend to evince the pro-hijabi reflex spasm anyway, without thinking through the logical problem taken residence along with all the other logical fallacies lounging around among the airy and breezy patio furniture of their wide open minds.

Yup. And those Nazis sure put on beautiful parades, didn't they!

No matter how hard they sling it, it's still the New Durante Times/Slimes.