Véu=opressão?

“In the common Western imagination, the image of the veiled Muslim woman stands for oppression in the Muslim world. This makes it hard to think about the Muslim world without thinking about women, sets up an “us” and “them” relationship with Muslim women, and ignores the variety of ways of life practiced by women in different parts of the Muslim world. Anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod emphasizes that veiling should not be confused with a lack of agency or even traditionalism. Western feminists who take it upon themselves to speak on behalf of oppressed Muslim women assume that individual desire and social convention are inherently at odds: something not borne out by the experience of Islamic society.“

Este sumário introduz um texto de Lila Abu-Lughod, “The Muslim woman. The power of images and the danger of pity“, publicado na revista Eurozine em 2006. Não acrescentando nada de radicalmente novo ao que temos falado nas aulas, é, no entanto, mais uma contribuição para o tema em debate, muito bem colocado pela autora neste parágrafo inicial:

“What images do we, in the United States or Europe, have of Muslim women, or women from the region known as the Middle East? Our lives are saturated with images, images that are strangely confined to a very limited set of tropes or themes. The oppressed Muslim woman. The veiled Muslim woman. The Muslim woman who does not have the same freedoms we have. The woman ruled by her religion. The woman ruled by her men.“

Cristina