Tennessee Guerilla Women's Red Burka : Is this what bigoted, racist, imperialist feminism looks like?

This burqua picture makes me so sad. I really thought we'd come further than this. I mean, there's such excellent blogwriting about The hijab that maybe we'd be able to extend it to a fuller range of cultural symbols.

On the other hand, I wouldn't like to wear one myself.

Would honor killings have been a more suitable target? A connection between the deadly policing of women's sexuality in one culture and another?

Or is that just aligning Western feminists with those awful babykilling libertine lesbians again?

"I can't even begin to describe how culturally insensitive and narrow-minded this little campaign is."

Lisa, I can't believe how culturally uninformed you are. You sit there in your blue state with progressive Senators representing you and think the rest of the country enjoys such enlightenment. Try a little travel to a red state and you'll see what I mean. Only then can you boast an informed opinion.

What IS insensitive and narrow-minded is the Bush administration and others who would pass Draconian laws regarding women's reproductive rights.

I'm very surprised you don't get such a straightforward message as portrayed by the image.

Helen! I mean, c'mon ... can't you get you're using a American cultural bias against Islam to counter forced pregnancy policies in the US? Don't you get how wrong that is? And you know what, I may live in New York City but I still have to deal with assholes calling me a spik or a nigger on a daily basis.

This campaign is too too wrong : too bigotted and prejudiced to be called truly a feminist campaign.

Thank you for this great post. How often do we see people co-opting the rhetoric of women's rights to advance an anti-Islam position? It is sad to now see some feminists buying into that.

I see plenty of Islamic women in the US wearing the hijab. They have the right to do so, or to refuse to do so, in this country. (I will say that I haven't seen a woman in public in a burkha in the midwest US, though I would concede that one might see this in WashDC or NYC). What the US hears about the burkha is that if a woman doesn't wear one in certain countries, she is likely to be beaten by the morals police - hardly a free choice of religious conscience. And even if she does wear the burkha, she might get beaten if she dares to appear in public without her husband, father, or brother. No, the burkha isn't the Pakistani or Afghani woman's main problem - merely a concrete form of one more regulation imposed only upon women by men. When women are allowed to wear what they themselves see as appropriate for their religious expression, without fear of being beaten by family or strangers, hijab and modest but practical shalwar kameez seems to be the popular mode. Therefore, US non-Muslims might be forgiven for assuming that burkha is more of a cultural practice than a religious practice. Of course there are Muslim feminists in woman-at-great-risk countries who aim for the big stuff (voting right, education right, marriage right, travel right, safety against honor killings and dowry killings), and consider complying with local non-religious dress codes to be tactically wise. Makes sense to me!

If you want the burkha to be seen as a freely assumed religious symbol, then Muslims in countries with freedom of religion (and no morals police) have to be willing to wear it and explain why.

Yes, the t-shirt is over the top. Our woman-abuse is sporadic and not tightly systematized in this country. We are still allowed to drive, read, etc. And we are allowed to protest.

First off, thanks for the links for futher reading. I hadn't heard of Nomani before.

Full disclosure: This is perhaps my second visit to this site, and I came this time via a link from TN Guerilla Women, to see for myself what the situation was.

I think the distinction between the burqa and the hijab is interesting to think about. Is it a different kind of cultural imperialism to conflate the two? Liza's point about the "strategic burqa" is a separate one, though, because she's talking about the burqa itself. But the very fact that it's strategic (rather than "natural"?) seems to indicate that all other things being equal, it wouldn't be the preferred choice of activists. Is that an accurate or inaccurate view?

I'm willing to be corrected on this point, but is there really that much difference between the burqa ad and the use of "American Taliban" as a derogatory term? If we eschew one as culturally insensitive, don't we have to eschew the other?

Finally, I have to say that I find NancyP's point persuasive. And this really gets into the thorny territory of cultural imperialism/orientalism, one that's been debated by smarter feminists than myself. But if I reserve the right to argue that the patriarchal practices of Southern Baptists are wrong, can I not also say that the patriarchal practices of fundamentalist Islam are also wrong?

Speaking of cultural imperialism, did it occur to the critics of this ad that accusations of bigotry, racism, and imperialism are not the most productive way to approach an embattled group of women in a state that teetering on the edge of its own South Dakotan laws? Is it often the case that one wins over a racist by calling them a racist? That doesn't sound like the opening of a dialogue to me...

This is what happens when American fundies get ahold of women's rights

Gee this sure does look like Elizabeth Smart is wearing a burka to me.

Burkhas are hot and awkward and inhibit full range of vision, and thus can present a safety hazard. Of course, if you are trying to impersonate someone or film on the sly, they might be useful. But I simply don't believe that working women, doing farm labor or cooking, or in theory trying to walk somewhere or get on a truck to deliver goods to market, wouldn't prefer pants, tunic, and headscarf draped to allow peripheral vision. Women don't wear them at home out of sight of the public. If the burkha is so great and comfortable, why aren't working men wearing them? After all, men wear kilts, the equivalent of shorter skirts.