Abu-Lughod
In her essay “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” Abu-Lughod uses various past and present examples of colonialism to explain how there’s an “Western obsession” with Muslim women. Laura Bush’s address to the public following the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 prompted Abu-Lughod to pose the question: why was there a consistent resort to knowing the cultural meaning, specifically the women and Islam, or knowing the meaning a religious ritual in order to understand the attacks on the World Trade Center? In her essay she uses an example from the French colonization of Algeria where there was a demonstration gathering held where the French women would ceremoniously unveil the women of Algeria in front of a crowd. The was done to show that Algeria was in agreement with the French. Abu-Lughod’s point is, why is the unveiling of Muslim women an hot topic for the West? The Taliban does force women to wear the burqa in Afghanistan but the issues for women in that region are deeper than the veil. She emphasizes that the Taliban did not invent the burqa and it is not a symbol for women’s oppression. I like that Abu-Lughod explained the veil by calling it a “mobile home” (2002:785). The veil symbolizes the separations of men’s and women’s spheres and associated women with family and home, not where strangers lie. Each form of veiling symbolizes participating in a different community and moral life in which family and home is held to the highest standard.
Abu-Lughod tells us to forego all “veils and vocations of saving others” (2002:789) and urges us to have a more productive approach to humanitarian efforts. Instead of focusing on the minuscule details of the lives of Muslim women, specifically the forced wearing of the burqa, to focus on the bigger picture at hand: creating a more just place for the entire world. Muslim women suffer from malnutrition, poverty and lack of opportunity to gain an education, but this is not solely a “third world” problem. These sorts of oppressive conditions can be found in most areas of he world. We should focus more on our input to the conditions of the world and our attitudes towards them. Abu-Lughod stresses that when you claim you are saving someone you are implying that you are saving them from something while simultaneously saving them to something, so we should respect each others differences when including oneself in humanitarian efforts.
