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Assignment #12

Lila Abu-Lughod argues in her article, “Do Muslim Woman Really Need Saving” that people need to stop trying to “save Muslim woman” from their culture, and learn to appreciate their cultural and historical differences. She says that this idea to save others has a tone of dominance and would lead to unnecessary violence. For example, Afghan culture does not necessarily look at the burqa as a symbol of oppression but as a socially acceptable form of attire. Yet, western culture has a strong opinion that such dressing is subservient and in no way liberating. This mindset led Americans to justify bombing and intervening in Afghanistan affairs, because it would “save the woman”. I think the problem Abu-Lughod has with this is that Muslim woman were so important to this “war on terror”, yet were not considered in any other political conflicts. This cultural mode of explanation used them to tell the public why the war was happening, and symbolized the oppression that America was trying to liberate. I think this leads to a lot of today’s problems concerning discrimination in America. People still view Muslim traditional dress as a symbol of oppression and connection to terrorism. What I find really interesting about this all, is how many white American men, shame Muslim woman for dressing too modestly, yet also shame woman for dressing to revealing. Why do men feel the need to control and shame woman based on their dress, and with concern to Lila Abu-Loghod’s argument, why must Americans associate cultural dress with political problems as if they have anything to do with each other. Maybe woman dress in certain ways because they simply want to, without any other motives or symbolic message behind the threads. A lot of violence and death could be avoided if we simply (like Lughod noted) accepted one another’s cultures, and diversity, and didn’t use them to provoke and justify political decisions.