Posted by: A Nonny Mouse
on Jul 5, 2010
The French have struck a blow for women’s rights in the Muslim world, by banning the burqa and niqab in France. That’s what they say anyway. My question is, how can you say you’re encouraging women’s right by telling them what they can and can’t wear?
The burqa, according to wisegeek.com is: is a piece of clothing that covers a woman from 
head to foot. There is an opening for the eyes, but the rest of the body, except the hands, are covered. The burqa is usually made of light clothing, and is essentially outerwear for some Muslim women in some regions. It is worn when women leave their homes, over their indoor clothes. It's not worn indoors in the presence of family. The niqab on the other hand: is a combination of head covering and scarf, or a one piece scarf that covers everything but the eyes. It usually flows down to midback to cover a woman’s hair, and may flow down to midchest in the front. The niqab can be worn with the burqa, or with other clothing as part of modest dress for Muslim women. I’ve seen women wearing burqas and niqabs. They are hard to miss even in a predominantly Arab Muslim country. While burqas are an easy target for the French, I call bullshit on their reasoning for banning the burqa.
Yes, the burqa is a symbol of women’s oppression in Afghanistan. It is also becoming a symbol for Muslim women against what they’re seeing as the West’s attack on Islam. They’re choosing to wear the niqab or the burqa not because of a, perhaps extreme, interpretation of the Qur’an, but instead because they’re being told what they can and can’t wear. How is that any different than those supposedly abusive husbands?
Posted by: A Nonny Mouse
on Oct 14, 2009
Remember The Invisible Boy from the movie Mystery Men? You know, the kid that was only invisible when no one was looking at him? Yeah, that's not so much a new and exciting superpower, women who love sci-fi have long known that power and we keep trying to get rid of it!
On the off chance you missed a certain article that has been making the rounds of the blogosphere, women are destroying science fiction. Women and our girl cooties are forcing the manly men who love science fiction to think about their feeeeeeeelings. And relaaationships and oh my god the fact manly men doing manly things doesn't always help. Oh noes! I mean my god, man the fact that boys might actually like other boys is preposterous and obviously the work of those evil manipulative women that are banging on the door of our guys only club! The horror! The madness! It's the death of science fiction as we know it!! Pretty soon they'll be doing things like calling it SyFy!
