timeimmortal

Ugly Duckling — another IslamUnity blogger — provides a helpful diagram to explain the reason why the women of Islam should be clothed in hijab, the headscarf.

What is this picture saying, exactly? Is it comparing Muslim men to flies, driven only by their instinct to paw up every “uncovered” “treat” that they come across?

I see that York University’s student government is once again trying to ban pro-life groups from the campus, on the grounds that “pro-life organizations seek to deny women of their basic human right to choose.”

Of course, Gilary Massa, the vice president of the YFS, doesn’t call them “pro-life” — she prefers the term “anti-choice.”

One of the ladies at ProWomanProLife points out an obvious problem with that misleading label:

I always am skeptical of a body that insists on calling a pro-life organization “anti-choice.” It pretends abortion to be the only valid ‘choice.’ (Note to pro-abortionists: Choice and abortion are NOT synonyms.)

Then again, perhaps in the minds of many pro-abortionists, abortion is the only valid choice out there; after all, Canada’s dismal birth rate has to come from somewhere.

The plain fact of the matter is that the YFS is just looking to censor those with whom they disagree; this isn’t really about human rights or women’s rights. Pro-life groups have no power to deny anyone access to anything in particular — most are only interested in introducing additional information back into a discussion that has become increasingly one-sided (and then in favour of rampant birth control use and pro-abortion advocacy). It’s becoming increasingly difficult to discuss pregnancy in a university campus’ health centre without having the option of abortion rammed down one’s throat as a first option.

If anyone here is anti-choice, it’s those who would deny pro-life groups their right to hold and articulate a contrary opinion. What’s truly odious is that at no time has abortion been legally declared a human right in Canada. Meanwhile, the freedom of expression of these pro-life groups, which York University is seeking to deny, is enshrined as a human right, and is being taken away in favour of a demand that York students only be exposed to approved opinions.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how the truth is precisely the inverse of the rhetoric of the progressive elements in this story?

Update: What the heck?

I was extremely shocked to discover that the increasingly notorious Gilary Massa is a hijab-wearing Muslim woman. I mean, radical pro-choice activist does not bring the hijab to mind. Islam is against abortion. But one thing I unfortunately do associate with Islam in Canada right now (but not all Muslims, of course, and especially not the ones I know personally) is assaults on Canadian freedom of speech. In Halifax. Against Ezra Levant. Against Mark Steyn. Against the MCC, which suffers death threats from fellow Muslims. Ditto Irshad Manji. What, I ask, gives here?

Maybe she’s a progressive Muslim, you know? One of those moderates we keep on hearing about in the various mythologies that percolate through political discourse these days? She’s just fine with the hijab and what it represents, but don’t you dare get between her and the right of a woman to “control her own body.”

Sorta like those pro-choice Catholics, O Reader. Except, in a headscarf.

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

So it appears that, at a cost of $5 million taxpayer dollars, Quebec has determined that the Islamic hijab is “no real threat to Quebec values,” despite acknowledging that it sometimes “signifies submission and oppression, pure and simple.”

Meanwhile, over in Ireland, people are a bit more sane:

If Muslim men are so keen on seeing their headscarf introduced into Irish society, they should wear it as well as their women. Let them cover up, too.

Otherwise there must be no place for the hijab in civic life here. Not in banks, hospitals or libraries, not in the guards or civil service and most definitely not in schools.

…

Here’s what banning the headscarf is about: the State demonstrating our belief in gender equality. It’s about removing a symbol of repression and submission. Showing we don’t condone marks of separation — either between men and women, Muslim and Christian, or native born and immigrant.

…

Today the hijab which covers the hair and shoulders, tomorrow the niqab or full-face veil, the day after the burqa hiding everything from tip to toe — described as a mobile prison by women obliged to wear it.

You can bet your bottom dollar Islam will complain about discrimination. That’s fine, we allow freedom of protest unlike many Islamic counties. But it is not discriminatory to ban the hijab in a country that is culturally Christian.

Conclusion: don’t move to Quebec. Move to Ireland.

(photo credit: Engadget)

A great man (or was it Tim Gunn) once said that fashion had to be culturally relevant. To that end we bring you the CharmingBurka. The kit sends a “self-defined” picture of the woman beneath to every Bluetooth mobile phone in the vicinity. According to the project’s mastermind — Markus Kison — no laws of the Koran are broken.

Just to be clear, it is a device within the burka itself that sends out the image.

Look…the Reader who has been here before will probably understand that I am absolutely not a fan of the hijab, and even less a fan of the burka. I think these garments represent everything that is bigoted and misogynistic about Islam, and I think that they relegate women to the status of, at best, second-class citizens in cultures and countries where the wearing of the garment is, at least, strongly encouraged (if not mandatory). Even in nations where women ostensibly have the freedom to choose to wear such garments, I feel very uncomfortable with the concepts, because it would be all too easy for the men in the lives of these women to impose it upon them, regardless of the fact that they all live in…say…Canada.

So it should come as no surprise to the Reader that I’m actually rather intrigued, and more than a little happy, for a subversive little tool like this. I think that if a woman wants to be seen for the person that she is, rather than as a walking curtain, she has every right to do so. And this…is certainly an interesting step in that direction. While I doubt it will ever become widespread in its use — it just has “novelty item” written all over it — I think at least a few kudos are due for its designer.