The veiled irony of the Dutch Minister for Transportation

Peaktalk quotes Dutch Minister for Transportation Karla Peijs:

Minister Peijs sees the Islamic headscarf no longer as a sign of repression. The scarf "gives women freedom" says the minister in an interview with the Telegraaf

I find it ironic that the veiled woman can be a Minister for Transportation in her country but wouldn’t be allowed to leave the house unless chaperoned by a man if she lived under Sharia law, and would not be allowed to drive her own transportation.

Barcepundit:

The point is not whether Muslim women are free to cover themselves up. It's whether they're free not to; it's what happens if they decide not to use a veil, what counts. And we know what happens: in most Islamic countries, and in Islamic areas in Western cities, at a bare minimum it means at least not being able to leave their homes.

Where's the "liberation" in that?

Or in this?

Sadr's idea was that, by wearing the headgear, Shiite women would be clearly marked out, and thus spared sexual harassment, and rape, by Yasser Arafat's Palestinian gunmen who at the time controlled southern Lebanon.

In every culture where this [i.e., where women are completely covered up] is the norm, women are oppressed.


One final thought: why is it that thirtysome years ago we were supposed to think that burning a bra was liberating, and now it's the veil that's liberating. What is liberating is being able to decide by yourself how you're going to live your life, and living in a society that allows you that freedom.

(related post)