HW 32: Veils, Hijabs, Rabtas, Abayas.. Same thing right? WRONG!!

Wednesday, October 01. 2003
Riverbend gives her opinion on what Dr. Stanley Kurtz has to say about the reasoning behind women wearing veils. Riverbend uses sarcasm to express her disagreement with Dr. Kurtz, who states that it “took hundreds of years of wearing the veil for religious reasons and relegated it all to the oppression of females by their male cousins” (Riverbend 92). Riverbend sarcastically replies to his statement with “wow-human nature is that simple” (Riverbend 92). Riverbend then points out many examples as to why Dr. Kurtz is so off in his statement that Iraqi women wear veils due to their cousin’s superiority. Firstly, Riverbend explains that Dr. Kurtz used the term “veil” as if it only pertained to Iraq. This clearly made Riverbend upset, because she gives a lengthy explanation the in fact, very few women in Iraq wore veils, and if and when they did it had nothing to do with their male cousins making them do so. She then explains that the term “veil” can have a different definition in a different country, and that Dr. Kurtz should have used the term “hijab” which means headscarf. Riverbend explains that, “Muslim females do not wear a hijab or veil because their male cousins make them wear it. They wear it for religious reasons” Riverbend 93. She explains that these women wear it as a symbol of their belief, a conviction, something that is pure etiquette out of their religion. She explains that if these women are persecuted for wearing it, Christian women should be persecuted for wearing a cross, and Jew’s wearing a yarmulke. I learned a lot from this post by Riverbend because even I didn’t know all the different definitions of head pieces, who wore them, and why.