Don’t tell Muslim women what to wear

I read an article, “Don’t tell Muslim women what to wear” on CNN website. The article is about Amira Osman, a 35 years old Sudanes engineer woman, was arrested in Sudan last August and charged with “Indecent dress” A police officer demanded that she cover her hair, but she refused and said that “I am Muslim, and I’m not going to cover my head.” The author Frida Chitis claims that, the right to decide what one wears is a basic freedom even though the matter of whether or not to cover one’s hair may seem like a trivial issue. It obviously seems value claim. She says that, the strict rules by the government or religious authorities dictating women’s attire are almost always the tip of the iceberg. Through this statement, she emphasizes that coercion to cover hair cannot be ignored as trivial issue. This coercion takes away women’s right to make other important choices about their own lives. Frida uses emotional reasons by providing some Muslim women’s cases who charged by the Islamic rules. She points out that, the Islamic rules are strict but conveniently vague. Frida also acknowledges that enforcement to wear a headscarf can be a good way to keep the product of deeply traditional societies. However, she refutes that the societies are changing, and women are part of those societies. Many accept the restrictions, but not everyone is happy with the status quo. She provides evidence from the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Report, not all Muslim countries impose terrible restrictions on women, but the worst countries in which to be a woman are almost all Muslim-majority states in Africa, the Gulf, and South Asia. The author made value claim, and support her claim by providing evidence from reliable source.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/11/04/opinion/ghitis-muslim-women-rebels/index.html?hpt=hp_t4