Is the islamic veil a denial of freedom ?

In France, the debate about islamic veil is one of the favorite topics of our philosophers, politicians and feminists. Of course, it is difficult for the country where the first woman wore jeans to understand why a woman would choose to cover her body and head in order to be discrete. The « white feminism » values refuses to include veil as a freedom of choice. For many feminist, specially Femen, a veiled women is either submissive to her husband who obliged her to wear the veil or submissive to her culture that may see her as a bad women if she doesn’t wear the headscarf also known as hijab. Even though many muslim feminists claim veil as a personal choice, the « occidental feminism » refuses to see the freedom in this act. Of corse, we can’t deny the fact that in many societies such as Saudi Arabia and Iran, veil is obligatory for all women and this kind of obligation is ridiculous, but what about a woman in Europe or elsewhere, who is fully educated and who chooses to wear the headscarf ?

The worst thing about freedom, is that we all have a strict definition of it that takes away the freedom itself from the word. This is also the case of our occidental civilisation which claims its values are universal and valid for all place and times. The idea of «freeing those who can’t free themselves » is an idea we can find in Sartre and de Beauvoir’s writings, it is also a very marxist idea, of the « stupid crowd » to which we should show the right way, to which we should give the idea of freedom and revolution in order for these people to emancipate themselves from their conditions. This idea of setting free the poor Arab/muslim women from their archaic culture and the patriarchal society in which they live. But the curious thing about this kind of idea of freedom, is that it considers the others as not free at all ! It objectifies women from this specific culture and already categorize them as submissive without even asking them wether they felt the same. The debate about veiled women is actually the same debate about prostitution, we ask everyone but never the women who are concerned by the subject. In this, the feminism we know in Europe is acting exactly the same way men acted and considered women in the patriarchal societies : objects without any freedom, without any opinion, children we should decide for. I read lately a very interesting comics written by an Egyptian young women, this comic is entitled Qahera, and the interesting thing about her is that she is a superhero veiled women who fights for her rights in a patriarchal society but also against the occidental feminism that considers her as a poor little baby they should save. I encourage you to read this comic because it explains a lot about the islamic/Arab feminist fighting to exist. 

The Comics : http://qaherathesuperhero.com/index

To be able to choose, is also to be able to do the « bad choice » the incorrect one as some people may see it. Not wearing bras is a freedom, walking around topless is a freedom, but also wearing a veil is a freedom, a long skirt should be considered just as free as a short skirt. If we believe in freedom we believe in it as a global thing, and we can paraphrase Clemenceau who said« La révolution est un bloc », by «  La liberté est un bloc», freedom is a whole, we can’t choose what suits us and reject what we don’t really like. So if we cherish freedom, why should we confiscate others from it? If we think that Freedom is choosing whatever suits us, why would than be good and bad choices and who puts us as a judge of freedom ?

An other point is very interesting concerning veil as a religious « obligation ». We can ask if being submissive to a God may be considered as a freedom? since actually religion is one of the different ways to fight against absurdity. To be a believer and to apply God’s rules to one’s life is the case of millions of people wether they are Jewish, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists… Each religion has its own beliefs and rules, and there is no religion without rites and veil or long skirts are one of this kind of religious choices jewish or muslim women may do because they feel closer to their God, they think about it as an emancipation of people’s gazes and a way to have a discrete look and remain in the idea of « modesty » that came with religion. If this people are feeling free the way they choose to be dressed, why should anyone tell them it’s not freedom since it doesn’t fit our definition of freedom. 

To conclude, I believe our obsession about veil comes from our obsession with the women body in general. Society itself wants the woman’s body to be always ruled by certain conventions. If the woman is too covered than she is not emancipated enough, if she is not « enough » covered that she is worthless and disrespectful toward herself and toward society. Women body should be set free. Judging what is or not conventional is finally dispossessing a woman of her own body and take away from her, her personal will, which is completely anti-feminist and therefore destructive of freedom itself.