The position of women
Reader comment on item: Muslims "Lagging Behind"

Submitted by Legal Eagle (Australia), Dec 27, 2006 at 18:47

An Islamist regime (say the Taliban in Afghanistan) tries to curtail the participation of women in society. Women wearing burqas are essentially "non-people". They cannot do the kind of things normal people do in public (eg, drink a cup of tea). It seems to me that face-to-face contact is an essential part of human interaction and communication, and by making a woman cover her eyes and face, this dehumanises her and severely limits the kind of interactions she can have with others. I have no problems with a hijab (or a nun's wimple, a mantilla, a tichel etc) because you can still see the face of the woman. I have written a detailed post on this issue if anyone is interested.

If you try to limit the contribution that 50% your population can make to society, then you limit the ways in which your society can grow. I think that this might be part of the problem in some countries.

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