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National Headscarf Day
A National Day of Solidarity with Muslim Women and a Protest Against Racially Motivated Attacks on Muslim Women in Australian Cities.
On Friday 29 November all Australian women everywhere were invited to wear a headscarf in public for the day.
Headscarf Day is in solidarity with our Muslim sisters who have been the target of racially motivated attacks in Sydney recently. Traditional Muslim women are an easy target because their traditional dress makes them visible. We wanted to make them feel that they belong, and that they are protected, by helping them blend in. To send a message to the racist thugs who attack them that their behaviour is unacceptable. Men were also invited to join us by wearing some form of traditional Muslim head dress.
"I am a Jewish woman, a former Israeli and an Australian citizen. I have decided to organise Headscarf Day because with my background I simply cannot sit by and watch while Muslim people and women in particular are becoming the target of racism."
"ASIO's raids on Muslim homes are giving legitimacy to racist attacks on Muslims in our streets, and helping to create a culture of `us and them' in Australia. We must make it clear both to street thugs and our government that the Australian people are united in our rejection of racism, and that we will not allow the population of our country to be polarised. Surely there are appropriate ways to deal with security concerns without resorting to bullying and intimidation."
First They Came for the Jews
by Pastor Niemoller
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no-one left to speak out
for me.
Headscarf Day has now been endorsed by Senator Kerry Nettle from the Australian Greens and by the Muslim Womens National Network of Australia.
Copyright © 2002 Avigail Abarbanel
Feminism and anti-Muslim views
There is a tendency in some feminists to confuse approval with respect for differently held certain religions and cultures, thereby allowing themselves to be being seduced into complicity with anti-Muslim prejudices. As someone who acknowledges serious doubts about the practices of many religious institutions, I want to explore the difference between holding this viewpoint and displaying prejudice against the people who choose to follow certain religious practices.
The Muslim community is currently being marked as an out-group. The sins of a few are being imposed on all and distorted into inaccurate representations... We are seeing fear mixed with a framework of law and order being used to unify the majority against a demonised group. One of the markers of out-groups is the way in which the sins of a few are vested on many. When I hear some feminists making general derogatory comments about Muslim men or women, I am shocked. I can see echoes of the twists in consciousness that were used by anti-Semites to justify programs against Jews. Yes, there are differences between dinner conversations official policies, but there are connections.
Please don't shrug this off as 'political correctness' or a romanticisation of Muslim religious views. I have no time for institutionalised beliefs that encourage extreme forms of discipline and punishment, and, like many, find some of the cultural and legal practices in some countries abhorrent. However, any attempt to change these practices does not justify a generalisation about Muslims. Muslims, like feminists, are not a homogenous group. There are multiple forms and practices, including many that are little different to some forms of Christianity and Judaism.
By making comments about Muslims in general and assumptions about the position of women, we reduce all Muslims to Other-strangers who are not like us. When comments are made that assume women who wear headscarves in Australia are not in control of their own decisions, these women are denigrated. They are denied their own agency-ironically something that many feminists have fought long and hard to provide women. There are many tough and articulate feminist women who wear headscarves. This is not a contradiction. The contradiction is perhaps between the feminist mantra of choice and an inability to respect the choices being made.
For example, ultra orthodox Jewish women are expected to shave their heads and wear a wig. Like those who wear crucifixes or other signals of spiritual belief, when Muslim women choose to cover their heads, they are expressing their faith in public. If we disagree with their beliefs, we can argue this civilly, recognizing that we also hold beliefs others may question. This is different to assuming they are somehow less than us and do not deserve our respect.
Problems occur if there is no choice and people are compelled to wear certain clothes. In a democratic country, the question is not what we believe in, but whether we do it without compulsion. There is also the right to engage in debate and express our views, but democratic freedoms come with responsibilities to recognise the effects of our expression of views on others....
The process for creating the Other (who is not like us) was also visible at the beginning of the war against the Taliban. Protests about the situation of women in Afghanistan were ignored for years until George Bush wanted to make war on the Taliban. Laura Bush and others set the scene by invoking the problems of women as a reason for bombing the then rulers out of office. Women are no longer on that political agenda nor will rape as violence against women be followed up locally.
The use of race based hate as a means of creating patriotism and forms of national unity has a long tradition, we need to be wary of its current guise. The increasingly evident connection between scapegoating out groups and calls for law and order are also fairly toxic. As feminists, let's take particular care to not become complicit in fear mongering and racism. We know what it feels like to be Other!
Eva Cox
23/09/2002