“I doubt more than 1 in 100 Muslim women wear hijab here. It’s probably close to the opposite in their home countries…
So if it is really all about choice, why do the same women make different choices, depending on where they live?
-A frequent KABOBfest message board commentator commenting on a conversation sparked by I post I wrote concerning the Bahraini 200 meter olympic competitor (Ruqaya Al-Ghasara), who was fully covered from head to toe for her races.
I bring up this comment to illustrate the still too commonly-held belief that a majority of Arab Muslim women are “forced” either legally or as a result of social pressures and norms to veil. Now, let’s apply this “99 in 100 Muslim women wear the hijab in their home country” formula to a relatable situation.
Of the three Bahraini female athletes competing in the olympics:
Two Bahraini athletes have elected not to wear the veil! Gasp-do you mean that countries and people are more complicated than what we see on the small and silver screens-AND that there is actually a diverse display of modesty and way of dressing??? Of course this is an exceptionally small sample size, but at the very least it should speak to the complexity of veiling, and how inaccurate these perceptions of the Arab and Muslim world are when they box a people in a society’s behavior into one category.
