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Cover or Die
We often hear of the freedom from being judged by their sexual attractiveness experienced by Muslim women in traditional covering. Can we agree, however, that such freedom is compromised when it comes under threat of death? Here are two horrifying stories. In one, a young Shiite fighter in Iraq enters a girls' high school and says, "If the girls don't wear hijab, we will close the school or kill the girls." In the other, a Canadian Muslim immigrant is charged with strangling his teenage daughter. Her classmates say since she stopped wearing a head covering, her arms had been covered with bruises, and she was terrified her father would kill her. Where is the outrage from the Muslim community, from feminists, over atrocities such as this? Spokespeople for two Canadian Islamic groups say this murder was simply a sad example of "domestic violence" and, incredibly, the result of raging teenage hormones. It was about rage, all right, but not the teenage-hormone variety. I went to the National Organization for Women Web site, and I would be thrilled if someone could find the place in it in which NOW denounces forced covering and "honor" killing. When the Washington Post's fashion writer wrote about Hillary Clinton's cleavage, NOW was outraged. Their section on violence against women seems to cover every possible permutation except that of Islamic extremism.
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