A debate is erupting around Islamic face coverings in Finland’s educational institutions.
Archived version: https://archive.is/20250813123725/https://yle.fi/a/74-20177195
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I’ll quote my other comment:
I’m not saying that literally nobody wears burka or niqab willingly but I think we have enough examples of it being forced upon them that it doesn’t seem like a huge stretch for me to generalize that it’s the rule rather than exception.
That is extremely fallacious logic. First, only one of these is about niqab, the rest are hijab which is outside the scope of this conversation. Second, it’s easy to have enough examples of it being forced when your example is the country on earth where it’s imposed by law. Your average woman most likely isn’t wearing a burka willingly in Afghanistan, but what evidence do you have that this holds in other societies where niqab is much, much rarer? The condition that makes the assumption hold in Afghanistan is clearly lacking in other societies.
I don’t think it’s outside the scope of this conversation, since these are examples of dress codes forced upon women under Islam. The Quran and hadiths, while not always explicit, make multiple references to how women should dress. Different countries and religious sects interpret these rules differently, but it all boils down to the same thing: in these cultures, there are consequences for women who don’t follow the tradition.
It’s outside the scope of the conversation because while you have more examples of legally-enforced hijab, you also have orders of magnitude more women wearing them in societies without such compulsion, so you’re still not providing any evidence to back up your point, which so far boils down to “this isn’t common in my society so it’s bad”.
No, it’s universally bad - not just in my society.
I think we both agree that telling women what to wear is wrong. The rest of the disagreement seems to boil down to how much each of us thinks they truly have the freedom to choose. I doubt you’ll change my mind on that, and it seems I won’t change yours either - but that’s okay, because I think we’re still on the same page when it comes to the core belief in bodily autonomy.