Althouse: "People used to feel sorry for us Muslim women and think we must be ashamed of ourselves for covering up..."

August 16, 2014

"People used to feel sorry for us Muslim women and think we must be ashamed of ourselves for covering up..."

"... but now they see all these pictures online of us smiling and looking happy and fashionable and realize it’s not a sign of oppression," says Zulfiye Tufa, 24, who Instagrams a hijab selfie every day.

"Modesty is the opposite of what Instagram is about, so it can certainly be controversial," said Melanie Elturk, 29, founder of a Chicago company that markets head scarves and modest clothing. We're told she "tries to limit the number of selfies she posts to keep her ego in check."

Quoted in "A Makeover for the Hijab, via Instagram/Muslim Women Add Personal Style to a Traditional Garment," where I learned a new word: mipsters (i.e., Muslim hipsters). But somebody tell Urban Dictionary, which seems to think it's either a hipster in the Mission District of San Francisco ("Says things like 'Clean is the new dirty,' with no sense of humor") or a Mainstream Hipster ("They are hipster because it's the mainstream. They listen to primarily chart music, but some of this is a little indie/alternative because it's in the charts (eg Ed Sheeran)"). I wonder if there are multiple -ipster words for all the letters of the alphabet.

42 comments:

Anonymous said...: I wonder if there are multiple -ipster words for all the letters of the alphabet.

You're looking for a tipster then?; 8/16/14, 4:25 PM
Bill, Republic of Texas said...: Its important for modern Muslim women to have nice hajibs. It would be very embarrassing to have a non-fabulous hajib on your body less head.; 8/16/14, 4:29 PM
furious_a said...: Mujahipster; 8/16/14, 4:36 PM
The Drill SGT said...: I'd be happier if any of those women had said, "I think each Muslim woman should make her own choice about whether to cover her hair or not".; 8/16/14, 4:48 PM
Quaestor said...: "... but now they see all these pictures online of us smiling and looking happy and fashionable and realize it’s not a sign of oppression."

Zulfiye Tufa's opinion might be worth a hill of beans if women weren't jailed, beaten or murdered for not dressing modestly.; 8/16/14, 5:03 PM
The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...: I still feel sorry for Muzzy women. There's a discreet shelter for abused women half-way down the hill from my house. It's easy to spot the occupants as they walk up the hill from the Safeway (appropriately enough) at the bottom. Last spring there was a beautiful woman in full Muzzy regalia going up and down the hill with two little girls. I hope they broke free of whatever fundie shitbag was tormenting them.; 8/16/14, 5:10 PM
Anonymous said...: Some time, Rock, when the team is up against it, when things are wrong and the breaks are beating the boys, ask them to go in there with all they've got and win just one for the Gipster.; 8/16/14, 5:12 PM
exhelodrvr1 said...: So if her sister married a Jew, and then converted to Christianity, how would she treat her?; 8/16/14, 5:26 PM
Birkel said...: Turning to page 173 of the Leftist playbook...

Hold on a second...
*sounds of pages turning*

Ah, here it is:

I have no doubt these women believe this about themselves because of the FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS forced upon them by the PATRIARCHY.

You're welcome!; 8/16/14, 5:39 PM
Quaestor said...: I wonder if there are multiple -ipster words for all the letters of the alphabet.

I think we may safely leave out the vowels, or else we must find definitions for neologisms like "eipster." Nothing much comes to mind there. I'm not even sure how to pronounce it, though "oipster" might be an edgy up-to-the-moment Yiddish speaker.

So here goes:

bipster: a tendy ass-wagering type, as in "you bet your sweet bippy."

cipster: alternate form of sipster, a trendy near-teatotaller.

dipster: a trendy dipwad

fibster: a trendy liar (OK, I fudged that one)

gipster: what Reagan really was

hipster: been there, done that

jipster: a trendy confidence artiste

kipster: a narcoleptic hipster

lipster: a very mouthy hipster

mipster: a muslim hipster is good, methinks

nipster: a hipster given to surreptitious drinking

pipster: a hipster who is a real pip

quipster: a hipster raconteur (again, a bit of a fudge)

ripster: a trendy serial killer of prostitutes in East London

sipster: see cipster

tipster: 1) a police informer
2) a hipster who leaves generous gratuities

vipster: a very important hipster

wipster: a trendy sadomasochist, variant of whipster

xipster: a hipster with a fear of strangers

yipster: a trendy rodeo rider

zipster: a hipster who eschews button-front jeans; 8/16/14, 6:07 PM
Biff said...: Sorry, Birkel, I can tell you're still new to the Leftist Playbook. You missed the part on page 1 that says that all rules are trumped by the Leftist Hierarchy of Otherness.

Since the women in question come from a group that seen as "Other" or separate from the West, their voices are, by definition, AUTHENTIC and NOT TO BE CHALLENGED.

Any desire on your part to accuse them of FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS is an example of your own PRIVILEGE leading you to impose WESTERN NORMATIVE CULTURE on other societies. You are guilty of, at a minimum, MICROAGGRESSION, but probably something much worse. To raise the topic without first issuing a TRIGGER WARNING places you in the same class as ABUSERS AND RAPISTS.

You have much to learn, Grasshopper.; 8/16/14, 6:15 PM
Rosalyn C. said...: Most of the discussions I've read by women who wear the hijab or niqab have centered around their desire to "not be seen as a sexual object" by men or their wish to "save themselves for their husbands." The discussions by men are more about not wishing to be distracted from their focus on god realization by the sight of women.
I like the fashionable hijabs but I don't see how they are anything more than a superficial adherence to a practice which has lost its primary function of modesty and humility. Now the hijab is a fashion accessory and/or a statement of Muslim pride.; 8/16/14, 6:24 PM
Lucien said...: I got a hijab in the front seat of my car once. Made me think about becoming a niqab driver.; 8/16/14, 6:51 PM
ALP said...: I have often wondered if there was a practical aspect involved with covering one's hair when living in a hot, dry, probably dusty climate. If water is scarce in such an environment, keeping your hair covered would probably keep it a lot cleaner, and you would not be using as much water to wash your hair.

But I am too lazy to go beyond wondering.; 8/16/14, 7:04 PM
Nora said...: I saw women in the variety of hijabs for the last 35+ years both in Europe, the US and ME. So the choice in the hijab fasion have been there for ages. However, during the same time I also saw the proportion of the black hijabs to increase dramatically.; 8/16/14, 7:12 PM
MikeD said...: Let's just read what the underlying interpretation is:
Well, I was going to copy/paste the whole sad thing, but hoping to get some to click:
http://www.islam-watch.org/MAsghar/Quran-on-Hijab-or-Veil.htm; 8/16/14, 7:24 PM
SteveR said...: Things like hair and faces much less legs (ankles) might tempt the men so must be hidden. Boys without body hair are fair game however.; 8/16/14, 7:46 PM
Be said...: Back in the Francophone backwater where I was living, had a criterion for how to make conversation in lines at Market: if she was all covered up in black, don't bother. If her veil was colorful, or better yet, had bling involved, ask her what would be good for dinner that day. One would not believe the conversations one'd get into.; 8/16/14, 8:04 PM
George M. Spencer said...: The women quoted in the article live where?

Miami, Melbourne, and Chicago.

Oh.

(And, to be fair, Kuwait.); 8/16/14, 8:07 PM
Be said...: Nora: That's a really interesting observation. I've seen the same thing in my limited travels.; 8/16/14, 8:11 PM
Michael K said...: "Things like hair and faces much less legs (ankles) might tempt the men so must be hidden"

In Tehran after the 1979 revolution there were some young girls whose home had a pool. The house was walled from view and they were swimming in western style swim suits. Some young Muslim men got on the roof of a tall building a mile away and, by using a telescope, watched the girls swimming. The girls were then arrested for violating modesty and probably murdered.

From the modesty chroniclers of Islam.; 8/16/14, 8:18 PM
William said...: They say that the women seen in the college yearbooks from middle eastern universities all wore western clothes. I wonder how much of this is modesty and how much is a self conscious repudiation of western values......Biff's analysis is spot on. It was a common criticism to make fun of western missionaries for dressing the Polynesians in Mother Hubbard dresses. Such ridicule will not be extended to the Muslims. When you think about it, the repudiation of western values is itself a western value......Where's the radical Muslim who preaches that he wants to see as many good looking Muslim women as possible and as much of them as possible.; 8/16/14, 8:44 PM
rhhardin said...: Blessed are the beekeepers.; 8/16/14, 8:46 PM
Be said...: Happened upon this review from about the year of my birth from Saudi Aramco.

I wonder how much of the veiling of one's self in the Western countries isn't due to the notion that Dark Women from the colonies aren't viewed in the West as Sexually Available.

http://s1349.photobucket.com/user/bebere99/media/SaudiAramco_zps63adbd6f.jpg.html

(Just a thought. Haven't done any studies or anything on the subject.); 8/16/14, 9:05 PM
MathMom said...: ALP -

Nope. Lived there, did that. Hot and sweaty, yuck.; 8/16/14, 9:08 PM
Unknown said...: How did the hipster burn his tongue?

He drank his coffee before it was cool. BA DUMP BUMP!

Thank you folks. Try the veal and tip your waitress. I'll be here all week!; 8/16/14, 9:33 PM
Christy said...: I've always suspected that if Muslim women were happy, they wouldn't raise boys who grow up to be so full of hate.; 8/16/14, 9:37 PM
CWJ said...: Christy FTW!

For nearly any explanation of Mediterranean men, including the ME east to the Indus, look to the mothers. It is the most pervasive culturally self-perpetuating behaviour I've ever observed.; 8/16/14, 10:19 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @quaestor

LOL

Yours are better than the ones I saw at Urban Dictionary, like

Pipster... Parent hipster
Lipster... Lesbian hipster
Bipster... Black hipster; 8/16/14, 11:06 PM
Anonymous said...: The good old times when feminists, and I might say sensible women, were against the sort of clothing which imprisoned and handicapped them, where are they?

And by the way, the portable prison-cell clothing isn't an option in most of the "muslim" world, and isn't always an option in the rest (ownership of the female matters).; 8/17/14, 2:51 AM
Anonymous said...: "... FALSE CONSCIOUSNESS forced upon them by the PATRIARCHY."

In the case of Hirsi Ali and Brandeis a spokeswoman for Cair was on Megyn Kelly (and got her head handed over to her).
She called herself a "muslim feminist".
I did a little searching and found this. She is Polish and a very recent convert. She had an underused blog and according to that blog she left the Catholic Church because of, get this, the "Patriarchy".
(The university she went to was DePaul in Chicago. She came into contact with islam via the palistine action, or something like that.); 8/17/14, 3:02 AM
Anonymous said...: "Some young Muslim men got on the roof of a tall building a mile away and, by using a telescope, watched the girls swimming"

I read about one of those incidents. A young girl was seen swimming in a pool in her own backyard. A neighboor informed on her and she was condemned to a caning, 20 strokes. She died during the punishment.; 8/17/14, 3:06 AM
Deb said...: I saw many young Arab women in Jerusalem with their heads covered but wearing skin tight jeans. I found that puzzling.; 8/17/14, 6:57 AM
amie lalune said...: Kind of sad. Desperate.

And a bad sign for the future of Muslim women.; 8/17/14, 7:26 AM
tim maguire said...: I wonder if the Saudi woman beaten for having her ankle momentarily exposed by the wind is smiling and fashionable under the blows.; 8/17/14, 8:02 AM
tim maguire said...: Here's a good one for the annals of the self-aware:

Ascia Sarrha, 24, a fashion blogger, says modesty and style can go hand in hand.

Sorry Ascia, but no, they can't.; 8/17/14, 8:11 AM
SomeoneHasToSayIt said...: There is a kind of sick commonality in how Muslims treat the problem of men's sexual desires, and how Progressives treat many problems. We'll use bullying as an example.

In the Muslim case, instead of telling men they must learn self-discipline and govern their baser instincts, they insist the women cover themselves in order to make the problem go away, as if it being out of sight means the issue no longer even exists.

For Progressives and bullying, instead of admitting the reality - that bullying is just something one is going to have to learn to live and deal with in life, and then teaching everyone the necessary skills in bully confrontation, they tell folks those skills should not and will not be necessary. We will pursue the fools errand of imagining we can wipe bullying from the face of the earth.

Ridiculous approaches, in both cases, but springing from a common error that reality can be ignored if we find it unpleasant.; 8/17/14, 8:38 AM
damikesc said...: Its hilarious watching people who would bemoan the misogyny of Christianity prosletyzing for Islam.; 8/17/14, 8:43 AM
Kelly said...: Saw a muslim man berate a woman for letting her head scarf fall off her head. But it's a choice.; 8/17/14, 9:01 AM
Babaluigi said...: A few years ago, our family was at a beach near Tampa. We had picked a spot near the entrance, which was next to a jetty. After a while, a large group of Muslims came, possibly all related, but they were accompanied by an older man who was dressed in robes and was treated quite deferentially.

As we watched from the water, the women came first, all pushing (by themselves with great difficulty) expensive land-yacht strollers through the very soft sand. The girls and young boys were with them. The older man motioned and they positioned themselves around our belongings on the beach. When the men and older boys came, they were placed a short distance down, separate from the females.

Then everyone went into the water. The grown men were wearing the equivalent of board shorts and t-shirts. The women were completely veiled head-to-toe in black, faces covered and even with long black gloves on. I do not know if they wore anything on their feet. The women obviously didn't swim, but a lot a people just stand in the ocean, so there's that.

It was a surreal experience. At least the men were dressed "modestly". Nothing bugs me more than seeing a woman completely veiled or covered on a sweltering day, while her husband is wearing shorts and a t-shirt...and I've seen that often.; 8/17/14, 10:58 AM
Deb said...: Nothing bugs me more than seeing a woman completely veiled or covered on a sweltering day, while her husband is wearing shorts and a t-shirt...
As in Disneyworld, in Orlando, in July? Where we saw a woman covered head to toe, while her husband walked around in short sleeve and shorts?; 8/17/14, 12:49 PM
Babaluigi said...: "Nothing bugs me more than seeing a woman completely veiled or covered on a sweltering day, while her husband is wearing shorts and a t-shirt...
As in Disneyworld, in Orlando, in July? Where we saw a woman covered head to toe, while her husband walked around in short sleeve and shorts?..."

Ha, I should have qualified my "nothing bugs me more..." comment with the addition of "on dry land". I have seen this "gross inequality of clothing options" everywhere I have gone in the past 10 years, and even near my home, where there is a new mosque nearby.

I find myself hoping that I offend those men in my comfortable western clothing. It's my personal little anti-jihad.; 8/17/14, 5:27 PM