A Burqa In Manhattan
So I’m walking to catch the bus home today, and as I round the corner onto Broadway right there by the naked bull in Bowling Green what do I damn near bump into but some scowling fellow wearing muslim garb and a woman in a toe-length burqa. I was stunned.
You know, I’m a big believer in the freedom of religion. You can worship, or not worship, whatever deity floats your boat. And I will defend that right until my dying breath.
But you do not, no matter what your god or prophet or spaghetti monster says, under any circumstances, have the right to enslave another human being. We’ve spent hundreds of years, and spilled the blood of hundreds of thousands of our fellow Americans, as we’ve stumbled towards the dream f all of us being equal before the law and each other, and I will be god-damned if I’m going to quietly sit around and allow people to be treated like chattel in our country.
Morality | Mr. Bingley | 
May 8, 2008 6:52 pm
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I have two objections. Mainly because I consider that my role, to object.
1. No one has any right to practice a religion that cuts people’s heads off. When these people start denouncing those among them that do so, then I will defend their right to practice that religion.
2. It’s a big leap to assume that this woman was not willingly wearing that outfit. The first assumption should be that since this is a free country, that she is willingly wearing that costume, since if she doesn’t wish to do so, she need merely stop. And call the cops if anyone hassles her. There’s all kind of weirdos out there, and some are women that like to wear burqas.
But I certainly agree with your sentiment.
Burqa… never. Never ever.
While there are women who “want” to wear them. Most of them grew up in the religion and are so uncomfortable being uncovered, they don’t know what to do. Rather like someone who has been in jail for so long, they’d rather be there than on the outside because the real world scares them.
Of course I will never be wearing a sack – so I suppose I’ll be one of the first against the wall.
The sight of them starts such an incoherent rage simmering that my eyes blur.
They are an affront to everything that human dignity has ever stood for.
Skyler, it’s against the law to willingly sell one’s self into slavery, so while I understand your point in this instance it doesn’t fly.
How has anyone been sold?
If a woman freely chooses to wear a burqa, that’s fine with me.
But I truly don’t believe that any of them actually chooses it “freely”, and without coercion (very likely physical).
Until recently, I worked with a Muslim gal. Lovely, bright gal. And obviously not in one of the more fundy sects. She wore a headscarf all the time, but also form-fitting (not revealing) clothes, and chatted with the guys and all.
Oh yeah, and she had a college education (advanced degree, I think) and a job. And nothing covering up her face (and a very pretty face it is, if an old geezer may be permitted to say so).
Skyler, I’ll walk through the steps for the benefit of those in our audience playing along at home: I equate wearing a burqa with slavery. You say schmaybe she “chose” to wear it. I say you can’t “choose” to sell yourself into slavery. You say “how has anyone been sold?” I think you’re being a tad too fastidious in your literal interpretation of the word “sell:” there need not be a monetary transaction. You may not be forced into or choose “voluntarily” slavery; the 13th Amendment doesn’t care how you try to get to that state, as it states that that condition shall not exist within the United States.
Hey, she might have been a real uggo. If I were an uggo, a burqa would be the perfect composite garb to cover it. Also, it might have been Bin Laden under there, dearest uncle. You should have tackled him/her/it/they(might be midgets stacked on one another) for the safety of the populace. Burqas are dangerous cause they hide….everything….except for the squinty eyes of evil. ::cackle::
Got to go with Skyler on this one Bing. Whether it’s because of family tradition or her being one of these nut jobs (college educated) who convert or whatever it’s not slavery.
I gotta split the difference here. IF freely chosen, it’s okay. But I don’t believe very many, if any, were allowed to choose freely.
I’m with both Ken and Bingley here. If someone genuinely freely chose to wear the burqa, I wouldn’t have a problem with that, but I honestly don’t believe there’s even 1% of women in them who aren’t coerced or brainwashed. And also, there need not be a transaction to prove slavery: if you are effectively someone’s chattel property, that’s slavery regardless of how you got that way, and slavery is not merely a legal state unrecognized by US law, but a federal crime that should be vigorously and mercilessly prosecuted.
should be vigorously and mercilessly prosecuted
I’m down with that.