I’ve been to Israel just a bit (and loved it), but I didn’t pick up on the dominant culture there being conservative Muslim; doesn’t change the logic or the facts at all, however.

OH I can think of some other spurious choices. Like outside abortion mills, you will see lots of women ‘choosing’ to kill their babies. They must be hanging back, being drug in by busy mothers or busy boyfriends, because they lack the courage of their true convictions. I saw a girl ‘choosing’ death just the other day, and her boyfriend and she entered the abortion mill just like two lovers should, his arm around her shoulders. Oh that was love of course, never coercion. And when they came out two hours later (we were still there praying), she had to run to keep up with him, as he was half a block ahead, already leaving her.

Dylan used to sing, ‘Freedom is a word I never use/without thinking.’ Yeah, choice. A word we should consider deeply.

“She obviously haven’t spent much time in the Mideast”

As an Israeli citizen, my familiarity with the Mideast likely eclipses even yours.

-Mande

The burqa issue as addressed by Sarkozy is certainly debatable, but Wilkes’ contention that it’s “as much about preservation and mystique as ‘subjugation’” is just flat out crazy. As required public dress, the burqa is just one part of a thorough, effective, centuries-old system for the subjugation of women. Do women in cultures effectively requiring the wear of burqas also enjoy not driving an automobile? Arranged marriages (often at really creepy, young ages)? How about the quaint practice of honor killings? It’s probably just a coincidence that in Afghanistan burqas were almost never seen anywhere but in the tribal hinterlands until the Taliban took over, at which time ALL Afghan women suddenly “chose” preservation and mystique over a good old-fashioned public stoning.

Does some small percentage of the “burqa set” genuinely choose to wear them? Sure, but the notion that such a choice is usually made freely is truly spurious. The only real analogy I can think of would be the slaves during and immediately after reconstruction who “chose” to stay with their former masters as sharecroppers and servants of various stripes versus migrating to the north. Although technically a “choice,” there weren’t many other viable options on the table for an illiterate former slave with no money, land, or non-agrarian skills.

I can assure you I’m no “neo-feminist,” but the “choice” for most women in conservative Muslim cultures is about as voluntary.

Culturally, the burqa is as much about preservation and mystique as “subjugation.” At least for those women who choose to wear them . . . and there are plenty who so choose, as much as neo-feminists want to convince us otherwise.

Except they have been the leading voices against global misogyny for decades, including the Middle East. Either you know this and are a stone face liar, or you are too lazy to do even a five minute search of the internet. You pick.