Those 'Feminists'

Yasmin Alibhai Brown c/o Butterflies again. The link is to the article as it appears at the MPAC forum and as Butterflies point out its not pleasant reading the comments.

Ive put up a post about Straws comments at ATW here and previously mentioned YAB on the veil here. A chance encounter with a woman in need of her help seemed to lead her to favour a ban ( advocated as a 'feminist'). But as she points out in the first paragraph many 'feminists' have not only sidestepped the potential for debate but have totally denounced Straw.

Thats why i dont ever want to be labelled a feminist. Eugh! They sold out ages ago Im afraid.

I now find myself in the unusual position of agreeing with Straw's every word. Feminists have denounced Straw's approach as unacceptably proscriptive, and reactionary Muslims say it is Islamaphobic.

But it is time to speak out against this objectionable garment and face down the obscurantists who endlessly bait and intimidate the state by making demands that violate its fundamental principles. That they have brainwashed young women, born free, to seek self-subjugation breaks my heart.

Britain has been both more relaxed about cultural differences and over-anxious about challenging unacceptable practices. Few Britons have realized that the hijab — now more widespread than ever — is, for Islamicist puritans, the first step on a path leading to the burqa, where even the eyes are gauzed over...I refuse to submit to the hijab or to an opaque, black shroud. On Sept. 10, 2001, I wrote a column in the Independent newspaper condemning the Taliban for using violence to force Afghan women into the burqa. It is happening again. In Iran, educated women who fail some sort of veil test are being imprisoned by their oppressors. Saudi women under their body sheets long to show themselves and share the world equally with men. Exiles who fled such practices to seek refuge in Europe now find the evil is following them...Millions of progressive Muslims want to halt this Islamicist project to take us back to the Dark Ages. Straw is right to start a debate about what we wear.