Do clothes make people??? If burqa is sign of 'Subservience' then what is a sign...

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P'quaint!

New member
...of women's 'Emancipation'? Is there such a vast gap in the thinking of West and East that no bridges could be built? If I remember correctly, 'Bra Burning' started in the West...where women had 'freedom' to dress anywhich way they like! So, is it safe to guess that low-neck, high-hems do not guarantee 'liberation'?

Am I missing something here? Please provide the pieces of jig-saw puzzle to make the picture clear!!!

Thanks!

Please note: I do not...I repeat do not want this to turn into religious debate. So, lets keep it purely on social/philosophical lines!!!
Okay! So its about 'choices'! What if a woman wants to clad herself willingly in a burqa? Will the French allow that?

Here, I want to disclose that I'm not a burqa-wearing muslim...
 
This is a tough question.

For example, as a Westerner, the burqa horrifies me. I don't understand it - how a woman must hide her entire body and face except for her eyes.

However, I have seen on YA a woman say she wears the burqa by choice and feels free and good wearing it.

In other words, what I feel is oppression, she feels as liberation.

I suppose hiding or refraining from showing parts of your body could be seen as a kind of liberation from being a sex object to men.

But I want to be free to be sexy and not to hide that part of me.

Yes, it's a cultural issue and a matter of interpretation and perspective.
 
I think it is about what the clothes represent. Is it really a choice these women are free to make? I think there is still an image of oppression in having to hide ANY part of your body. That was the point of the bra burning, not having to hide a woman's femininity.

The true sign of women's emancipation will be for them to have the SAME rights as men when it comes to clothes and being covered in public. A woman should not expect anything less for herself than she would for a man.
 
P'quaint, I don't see it that way...not quite. The clothes do not make the person, but some items of clothing are symbolic of the culture, or the persons own viewpoint.
Your example of bra burning is perfect. It wasn't' so much that a bra made a woman, but that it symbolized restriction.
A burqa isn't so much a sign of subservience as it is a sign of modesty and submission. The burqa isn't worn anywhere but outside the confines of the home. Inside, among family and friends, women wear what they choose to wear. Just as wearing a hat and gloves to church was in the fifties.
We all choose, whether we are aware of it or not, to express not only our personal taste but our role in life, personality, viewpoint, etc in the clothing we wear. That society/culture can dictate the form of that clothing is less about making the people than it is about expressing the beliefs of that society.
As to the gap in thinking, no there isn't such a large gap.,,,not among people anyway. No matter where you live, people are basically the same. They want peace and security for themselves and their families. They want to have a place to call home, food to put on the table, hope for the future. Politically and religiously, yes, the gap is wide, and no bridge will ever come quite to the other side. Tolerance, the rallying cry, is something that, in the history of man, has never been found.
 
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