An interesting discussion that comes to us thanks to the Norwegian Kafir:
Sanctioned by the holy text of the Quran, hijab, or any item of woman’s clothing, especially that which cancels her beauty, is assumed to protect women from men’s unpleasant advances in the public sphere, where she might be seen as a sexual object if she roams around without hijab. The real-life experiences of millions of Muslim women show that the hijab provides no protection against unpleasant sexual advances of men and that a variety of social consequences result when women in different cultures are made to wear hijab. The two different cultures that I am going to consider here are those of Pakistan and Norway…
In Pakistan the hijab is simply unable to protect women from being seen as sexual objects in public. Women with or without hijab, any kind of hijab, are stared at, followed and harassed by men on roads and streets and at bus stations, shopping malls, and other public places. This harassment of women in public places is known in Pakistan as “Eve-teasing.” Women in Pakistan experience Eve-teasing wherever they go in the country, although there are variations from region to region, city to city, and even within regions and cities. For example, in the northwestern region, the conservative and supposedly most Islamic region of Pakistan, women without or with any kind of hijab are likely to be stared at by nearly ten out of every ten men on roads, streets, shopping malls, etc., while in such cities as Islamabad and Lahore women are likely to be stared at by, for example, four out of every ten men. Similarly, women in some regions are most likely to be followed by strange men almost from their doorsteps to their destinations and then back to their doorstep every time they leave their homes. Women in some other regions of the country might not be followed every time but often, occasionally, or at least sometimes when they go out in public places. When these women are in a good mood, they jokingly say that they’ve acquired a free escort or bodyguard. But in fact this is no joke. It scares women to death. If their father, brother, or husband comes to know about their “escort or bodyguard,” the women must surely expect that limitations will be placed on their right to movement outside the home, or, even worse, that they will be the victims of honor killing…
When I came to Norway in 2002, the first cultural shock I got was that men in public places did not stare at women. I had observed and even experienced so much staring by men in Pakistan that I thought it was a universal reality. When I found that it was not so in Norway , I was upset for some time. I thought; “Am I so ugly that Norwegian men don’t even give me a second look?” Soon I realized that men in Norway just don’t stare at any women in public places. Imagine my feeling of excitement in my exposure to Norwegian society when I discovered that Eve-teasing is not a universal reality. This is one of the most cherished discoveries I have ever made whole my life…
Read it all.