The Daily Free Press quoted Yasmine Dabbous, a member of Sisters United, as saying, “People who don’t understand see the hijab as oppression, but for many Muslim women wearing hijab is a personal choice” (“BU commemorates International Women’s Day with celebration” Feb. 28). But what about the many women in Islamic countries for whom wearing the hijab is not a personal choice? For them, the hijab, which can range from a loose headscarf to the all-concealing cloak worn in Iran, is indeed oppressive. Not a single woman living in Iran or Saudi Arabia has the luxury of a “personal choice” in wearing the veil. It is required by law of all women, Muslim or not, and those who disobey risk being sentenced to lashes.
The Prophet Mohammed told his wives to veil themselves in public so they would not be harassed. How ironic that women are now routinely harassed by government-supported religious zealots in countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia for showing a few strands of hair, or in the case of Saudi Arabia, leaving their faces uncovered.
Justin Lynch CAS ’01
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