assignment 12

In the reading, “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others” written by Lila Abu-Lughod, she argues the views of other American journalist and former first lady, Laura Bush. To be completely honest, I found this reading to be super hypocritical of Lila Abu-Lughod. She argues why they would ask her to be interviewed after the September 11th terror attack in New York City, and why they would ask about religion and culture versus looking at the history of the Taliban. I think that after the attack everyone wanted to understand why the terrorist Taliban group would attack Americans, and in order to understand you would need to look at their culture and religion which is incorporated into their history. And I mean why not interview a well educated women who is Muslim and an Anthropologist, whose interest is in within the history, religion, and culture of Muslim women. Lila goes on to say that even after the Taliban eased the rule of women wearing veils, they continued to wear them and critizied former first lady for saying that the Muslim women needed saving. The Muslim women wear the veil because of oppression and continued to wear them because of oppression, and it would be silly to think that the lift from wearing the veil was actually real, but then ask why anthropologist and journalist would question the purpose of the veil. She even quotes one of her favorite books, was about Christian missionaries helping Muslim women by telling their story, and also goes to a reception with a photography exhibit of Muslim women in burkas in which she writes,”Please join us in helping to lift the veil”, but then questions the purpose of lifting the veil. Maybe I read it incorrectly but for me she was completely facetious in tone and hypocritical with the point she was trying to argue.

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