Althouse: As long as women are required to wear headscarves...

July 6, 2010

As long as women are required to wear headscarves...

... isn't it best to restrict men's haircuts too?

This question is designed to test the importance of the principle of equality.

18 comments:

traditionalguy said...: The Blogger is puting up comments and then taking them down ten minutes later!; 7/6/10, 10:11 AM
DADvocate said...: No. Men should be required to always wear socks in public. Wait!! No shorts. Always long pants.; 7/6/10, 10:15 AM
DADvocate said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/6/10, 10:24 AM
Synova said...: Pretty clearly in Iran it's been more about trendy and modern than strictly about headscarves. And sure, that would certainly apply to men, too.

I'd heard that rhinoplasty was huge over there for both men and women. Everyone wants to be pretty for other people.; 7/6/10, 10:57 AM
GMay said...: Isn't there a post below this one where the NYT was repeating some talking point about the "tradition of tolerance" in Islam?; 7/6/10, 11:14 AM
Scott M said...: Equal treatment like this is not a problem...just as long as 50% of the time from here on out, hypothetical questions asking "if your whole family were about to die and saving everyone meant one parent would die" is answered by the mother sacrificing her life. Also, 50% of any hypothetical that includes "women and children first" has to hypothetically end with 50% of the dads making it into the lifeboats.

Hypothetically, though, this excludes any hypothetical single-parent households.; 7/6/10, 11:55 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: Myabe they should just make everyone shave their heads and eyebrows off.; 7/6/10, 11:58 AM
Dust Bunny Queen said...: LOL I meant hair on their heads.

Shaving OFF their heads is what they do for adulterous women.; 7/6/10, 11:59 AM
Scott M said...: Shaving OFF their heads is what they do for adulterous women.

Do they really shave off the heads of adulterous women? Or do they just pound them into bloody pulps of Sharia justice with righteous small, round stones?; 7/6/10, 12:06 PM
Big Mike said...: Banning mullets?!? Maybe there's something to this Islam thingy after all!

Meanwhile I just wish I had enough hair left on top of my head to be able to wear any of the haircuts depicted in the article.; 7/6/10, 12:16 PM
Unknown said...: Never let a good crisis go to waste, and, if you haven't got one, invent it.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Myabe they should just make everyone shave their heads and eyebrows off.

Men have two heads and shaving both could end the human race.; 7/6/10, 1:02 PM
lemondog said...: The psychology of thug politicians to impose their own prejudices and 'enlightenment' upon its citizens seems not significantly different from that in the US.; 7/6/10, 1:31 PM
Tibore said...: From the linked article:
"Iranian officials have published a guide to "appropriate" men's hairstyles."

Western men published a guide in response on how to react to the Iranian Officials' guide. It was a one page flyer depicting a single finger raised in "salute".; 7/6/10, 2:37 PM
Tibore said...: And to address the professor's question:

"As long as women are required to wear headscarves...

... isn't it best to restrict men's haircuts too?

This question is designed to test the importance of the principle of equality."

The question of the importance of the principle of equality is a red herring here. "As long as blacks are property..." "As long as women can be kept out of the workforce...". The simple fact is that the central premise - requiring women to cover their heads - is a denial of the individual citizen's liberty. That renders any issue of equality irrelevant. Liberty is being denied, period; no validity is gained by pointing out a smiliar denial imposed on the other gender. A liberty denied to one group does not suddenly gain legitimacy when it is spread around to others. Ergo, restricting women by mandating headscarves does not legitimize restricting men by dictating hairstyles. Both are wrong, regardless of any "equality" of imposition upon the citizen.

The principle of equality is indeed important in the existence and application of rights, but it is very badly misplaced in the denial of freedoms. It would be as fallacious as arguing "As long as the Jewish were being detained in concentration camps, it is best to detain the Gypsies too".; 7/6/10, 3:01 PM
Anonymous said...: I like the Eddie Munster 'do of the guy in the center. Profile view kinda kills the charm, though.; 7/6/10, 6:23 PM
Tibore said...: On further reflection: Where's Elvis when you need him? Could you imagine The King telling the mullahs "I'll give you my pompadour when you take it from my cold, dead hands"??; 7/6/10, 6:42 PM
jr565 said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 7/6/10, 8:36 PM
jr565 said...: Uniformity is rarely a good thing, and Iran should take note of Iraq and China. In Iraq most of the men, until recently had the same hair cuts and beards as Sadaam Hussein, and in China most of the men have the same hair cut as Moe from the three stooges. Sadaam and Moe may have been able to carry the look, but that doesn't mean whole countries should follow suit.

Then again, if Iran made everyone get a Moe haircut too, I might be in favor of it even if it made the country more uniform, because you can never have enough Moe haircuts, and at least there would be an interesting discussion to be had as to why Iran, like China, chose the Moe as the official haircut (as opposed to say the Sadaam Hussein or OBL look).

It wouldn't make up for the terrorism support or the stoning of women or the pursuit of nukes or the death to america and Israel sloganeering, but I think it would humanize Iran to some degree.They all look like Moe, how bad could they really be?; 7/6/10, 8:40 PM