Assignment 10
In Lila Abu-Lughod’s essay, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and It’s Others” she gives some insight as to how and why Americans came to relate the burqa, amongst other forms of covering, with the Taliban and other forms of terrorist groups. In addition, she argues whether or not Muslim women really need saving from where they are, or if they chose the life they have and are living out. She starts off by writing that we should consider the meaning if the burqa and other forms of covering , as well as veiling. While reading I have come to learn that women who cover themselves do so in order to show their social and economic standing. Although also for religious reasons, Muslim women have become accustomed to covering themselves because that is the society and community in which they live in.
These women say that only “good women” can wear burqa’s or veils. As a woman who makes a living as a street vendor had said, “If I did [wear the burqa] the refugees would tease me because the burqa is for ‘good women’ who stay inside the home (Fremson 2001:14)” (Abu-Lughod 2002: 786). Here we see that it is actually considered as sort of honor to be able to wear such coverings. However, after the Americans freed people from Taliban control, they assumed the women would no longer cover themselves with scarfs or veils, but were mistaken in thinking that they were being forced to cover themselves. They were not and as Abu-Lughod points out, it is rather that Westerners would have Muslim women adopt Western attire instead of maintaining the attire that they have been used to their whole lives.
Abu-Lughod gave an example of a time when French colonialism existed in Algeria and wished to enlist women’s help in order to move forward with their cause. That cause being that they wished to “… transform Arab women and girls” (Abu-Lughod 2002: 785). The French wanted the Arab women and girls to like the French, Christian women, much like when the British ruled Egypt. This is meant to show that whenever another country went into a Muslim country to “liberate” or “free” them, it doesn’t always bode well for the people who are supposedly meant to be “liberated”. Abu-Lughod implores us to look at the bigger picture, the fact that there are much larger problems to be worried about an need to be dealt with. Rather than wanting these modest Muslim woman to be someone they are not, they need to be left alone so that they may live their lives freely, since that was the initial intention.
