I saw this woman, the highest ranking woman pilot in the usa - Lt. Colonel. interviewed on tv. I thought her points were good.
1. She is the highest ranking woman officer pilot - and I do earnestly believe it would be harder for a woman to achieve what she's accomplished by her works.
To don a garb which is viewed as an outward sign of a woman's natural inferiority to a man would be discrimination - she was forced to show that she was in agreement. No way around it, you wear it - you're giving the impression to all - your own countrymen and the native men and women - that you agree with their treatment of women and you.
2. That "shawl" to us is nothing more than a piece of cloth. But it's like the term "The Truth." It's implications are fraught with power.....or lack thereof. I believe a native woman caught without having it on properly can receive physical punishment for her breaking the law. That "shawl" has real power.
3. I was under the impression that all military women, upon leaving base, must wear the abayas - and they're not tradional western shawls. They are total female body cloaking. Quite a difference.
4. The abayas is a piece of clothing which, indeed, is of religious consequence - in some ways similar to a jw's nametag - but having to be worn anytime we're in public. Would any of us wear one willingly - for years, particularily if it covered our whole body - like one of those old placards they used to wear? Advertise. Advertise. Advertise.
Perhaps a better similarity would be the Jewish armband that, by law, had to be worn by every Jew in Germany during WWII. Would a Jewish American soldier wear it to keep PR relations quiet - particularily if they were Jewish - or had Jewish family members who had been killed? It is an outward sign of their perceived inferiority. Now, they may have worn it as a sign of superiority/rebellion when fighting......but that's different than trying to keep peace with the German military.
Outward religious identification. I doubt if there would be many of us who would wear it - and we just might sue if someone made us - just because we were jews. And most particularily if our black/white military people weren't forced to wear the jewish armband.
4. To take away a woman's right to drive - which is a form of freedom in, at least, the western society - and by law insist that she sit in the back seat - is discrimination.
Do that to ALL military personnel - and at least it wouldn't be discrimination.
5. This woman joined the military and proved herself equal - she should be treated as an equal.
waiting
