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Assignment 11

In Lila Abu- Lughod’s essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?”, she talks about how muslim women are seen as needing to be saved by the western culture and how what they see as feminism or being saved is different from what we think they need. One point she makes is how we see the burqas as something that muslim women are forced to wear by Islam and it is somehow constricting them of what they are allowed to do and wear. However, she points out that the burqas is something many muslim women choose to wear and it can separate what they consider their private or public lives. The burqa is also representative of their culture and religion, which also shows what part of society muslim women belong to and relate themselves to. She makes a further point where she says that seeing the burqa as old fashioned or oppressive instead of seeing it as a important representation of who the muslim women are and what they choose to be, is putting ourselves, the western people, above them in society when truly this sort of hierarchy shouldn’t exist. The sole act of thinking muslim women need saving is making us seem like we think we don’t need saving and that something about their society, culture, or religion is wrong. We shouldn’t be enforcing our western ideas of what is ideal on them. As for the “vocation of saving others”, she says that it shouldn’t be seen as saving them. Instead, it should be seen as bettering people around the world in general, men or women, and being aware that there are many different cultures. While trying to “save” these women we should be able to see what is truly good for women from their point of view and not solely a western point of view.