re: "Hijab not oppressive" (BP, PostBag, December 27, 2021)
Dear editor,
Kuldeep Nagi, there is a very simple test of whether some piece of head wear is oppressive or not. Is its use required and subject to forced shows of respect? Women wearing expensive haute couture hats or comfy caps from a local street stall can ditch them if they wish in the manner of their choosing.
Can women wearing it who tire of the hijab toss it onto a convenient bonfire if they so wish and suffer no unpleasant consequences, legal or social, as a result? Can Muslim women in, for example, France, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, decide that they don't want to wear a hijab today and go shopping without it? If and only if the answers are all "Yes" is the hijab not oppressive. Otherwise, it is one more bit of faith-based oppression that morally decent people will throw onto a convenient bonfire of superstitions past their use by date.
Felix Qui
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The above letter to the editor is the text as submitted by Felix Qui to the Bangkok Post.
The text as edited was published in PostBag on December 31, 2021, under the title "Head in the clouds" at https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/postbag/2240171/dreaming-of-2022
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