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Excerpt from a CNT view on the Islamic headscarf by Mustafa (CNT RP): "The Islamic headscarf is a symbol of sexist discrimination, and of so-called "identity marking". Trying to oppose women's rights and the free exercise of religious rights for minorities is the latest fad. As Libertarian Communists, we defend the rights of individuals against the dead-weight of their particular family background. All monotheistic religions despise women and believe that they are a source of temptation for men. This implies that sexual desire is a masculine prerogative and that this desire being wrong, the object of this desire must be repressed. Hence, women are born guilty and must therefore hide their hair in order to be ""modest and well-behaved". Islamic law therefore imposes a form of Apartheid : women must be hidden from view and are expected to stay within the confines of their home. If they leave the sanctuary of their home, they must wear a headscarf. Women are considered inferior to men, and this state of inequality implies that they can only be objects of desire and not desiring subjects. Men are never required to be veiled in Islamic societies, because they are intrinsically superior to women and refuse to be objects of desire, preferring the more comfortable position of subjects. This is the way in which religion exerts a powerful social control over individual minds. Some misguided people might think that being opposed to the Islamic headscarf is a form of racism. This is nonsense. To be racist means to discriminate against someone on the basis not of what he/she does but on the basis of what he/she is supposed to be. Religion is a free choice - although of course in reality innocent children are forced into their parents particular creed. It is as absurd to claim that all people from a Muslim background are Muslims as to claim that all Westerners are Christians. The truth is, those who hesitate to condemn the Islamic headscarf out of fear of appearing Racist, are actually behaving in a Racist manner. Those people believe implicitly that all women from a Muslim background are automatically Muslims. They implicitly believe that a person is to be defined according to his/her ethnic and religious background. This then leads those people to tolerate for Muslim women what is intolerable for Western Women, thus strengthening the idea that freedom and equality are merely "Western" concepts and not universal values. This is truly racism of the worst kind, that defines grandiose universal human rights for Western women but carefully refrains from extending such rights to Muslim women." ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
