‘—

Assignment 11

In the essay, Abu-Lughod seems to have the argument that western culture has decided veiling is a restriction on women’s rights and feminism, when in all actuality, we have created the stigma that these things are in fact a restriction at all. The essay seems to have two main questions of “who are we as people removed from this culture, to decide what is oppressive to these women?” and also, “of all the real injustices happening in the world, why are we so focused on this idea of veiling when we could be helping with actual causes worth our time?”
This essay had a large impact on my ideals about veiling, and I hope I can find out more about what motivates women to practice veiling, as it is something that I had rarely seen before moving to New York. I think the essay brings to light an important fact which is that western culture has a tendency to victimize the “other” groups we have created so as to pity them and help them become more superior like ourselves. This mentality seems ridiculous to me since what about our culture is better than theirs? Even the New York Times seems to have this same take with the article mentioned in the text.
We want to save others and we see it as helping, but in reality we are not always helping others, but in fact we are simply trying to make them more like us; we are trying to take away what makes them seem “other” to us. As Americans we have this idea that our way is best and everyone is or should be like us, when it simply isn’t true. Man countries do nearly everything differently from us; however this does not make what they do or what we do wrong, it simply makes it different.