I was watching this 20/20 special on Malala Yousafzai. It seems so cheesy to say it's a great story, but it really is. And for the D/HH crowd, it's captioned!
I'm
mentioning this documentary because there's a line in there that
really sums up how I understand feminism, dress, and headcovering
these days. For anyone who did not watch the special (which you
really should, because it's amazing), there's a scene where Diane
Sawyer is interviewing some fundamentalist Muslim women who do not
agree with Malala's viewpoint. One of the women is talking about how
Western women face a lot of pressure and there is so much focus on
what body parts are showing. She says, point blank, “It's tough
being a Western woman.”
I
disagree with the other stuff this woman said. But I am not going to
disagree with that. It's tough being a Western woman. It's tough
enough that I'm no longer trying to shove myself into a mold I don't
fit, this arbitrary standard of what makes an “ideal woman.” I
care about the pointless stuff a lot less now that I cover my head
and more of my body than I used to. (My style of dress has evolved a
bit in the past two years. I'll be writing more about that in
another post.) I dress the way I do because it's FREEING! I'm not
saying we should make laws that require every woman to dress like
this. That wouldn't be freeing. But you have to understand, I feel
freer now than I used to. I used to drive myself crazy worrying
about my hair. It's “double thick”, meaning the strands are
thick and I have a lot of hair. I struggled to get it to do what I
wanted. I wasted so much time worrying about it. I ironed, sprayed,
and gooped it up way more than was good for it. It's so much simpler
to put on a hat or a scarf (or two or three) and leave it at that.
Before
I started covering, people defined me by my appearance. My hair and
my body attracted a lot of attention. It got to the point where I
felt like that's all I was. Wearing a headscarf and covering the
outline of my legs sends the message, “Yes, I have a body,
but it's not all I am." That is not an "un-feminist" message to send.
I'm
not going to insist that every woman cover. But I will say, being a
Western woman got much easier when I did.
