Comment & Debate
“Turkey: Headscarf Ban Stifles Academic Freedom”. Human Rights Watch. June 29th, 2005 – “[The Human Rights Watch report] also highlights the efforts of groups working within Turkish society toward a genuinely pluralist approach to ensure that women are able to make their own free choice whether to wear the headscarf.”
“Muslim head scarf no threat to Quebec values, report says”. Montreal Gazzette. May 19, 2008 – “In a footnote, the professors explain some of those different meanings: “Sometimes it signifies submission and oppression, pure and simple, sometimes prudishness, respectability and modesty, and sometimes a way of affirming one’s identity or autonomy or even feminism.”
“But by trying to combat these situations, isn’t there a risk that we’ll harm other citizens who made a perfectly clear choice? How is it possible to disentangle the two? And in the end, what happens to the freedom of each and every one to display her deeply held convictions, as long as they don’t impinge on the rights of others and don’t lead to anybody being put out?””
Amitai Etzioni. “Let Them Wear Scarves”. Huffington Post. April 10, 2008 – “Can you explain to me why thoughtful people, including several renowned public intellectuals, oppose the right of women to choose to wear headscarves — on campuses out of all places? The same people, commentators, editors, and other talking heads who strongly hold that a woman has a right to do with her body whatever she pleases — third trimester abortions, abortions without notifying her husband, piercing everything that sticks out and a lot that does not — but not to cover her hair with a piece of cloth.”