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Christin Rosado WGS 100 Assignment 11: Constructing Humans Right

Lila Abu-Lughod is the author of Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving. In her essay, Lila discusses the Western world’s obsession with viewing Muslim women as people that need to be saved based on their cultural practices. One practice that many westerners believe “restricts” the basic human rights of Muslim women is the veil, also known as the burqa (Abu-Lughod, 2002). I believe that Abu-Lughod feels that a major problem with the Western world is that they fail to acknowledge the differences in cultures. The burqa is a big part of the Muslim culture as it pertains to women. What many westerners see as oppression for these women is not oppression to them. Many Muslim women wear the burqa to show what group they are a part of, distance themselves from men they choose not to reveal themselves too, and as a way to maintain a relationship with their god (Abu-Lughod, 2002). Lila tries to reinforce that just because women in the western world do not wear a burqa does not mean that women who do wear it in other parts of the world are being oppressed (Abu-Lughod, 2002).

I deeply enjoyed Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving because Lila really brings awareness to the different motivations behind various campaigns. First, by claiming that Muslim women need saving because they wear a burqa is insinuating that the western way in which women do not wear burqas is the right practice. This insinuation in a way condemns the practice of wearing burqas as not being “normal” and that it is an agent used to oppress women. Second, she states that the world has a tendency of using women as victims like Muslim women as a way to persuade the public into agreeing to things like war (Abu-Lughod, 2002). I believe that as it pertains to the burqa, Muslim women do not need saving. The burqa is a part of their culture and it is a part of their identity. Just because they choose to cover themselves for various reasons does not mean that their freedom is restricted. I also believe that the world, in particular the western world needs to embrace the differences of cultures and stop trying to impose their beliefs on others similar to what they are trying to do to the Muslim women and their burqa.

Abu-Lughod, L. (2002). Do Muslim Really Need Saving? Anthropological
(Abu-Lughod, 2002)Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others. Harvard University Press.