If you read my posts...

Submitted by Meghan (United States), Mar 7, 2008 at 01:38

...you would see that I agreed with basically everything you said. The purpose of my post title was to point out that banning Islam makes about as much sense as banning any other religion - that is, no sense at all. As you mentioned, pure secularism and pure theocracy tend to create very similar problems.

Actually, I love the hijab because I can walk outside and have people treat me as a human being versus a sex object, a college co-ed, etc. It also changes, for me, how I see myself and my body, given that I've been indoctrinated into the body image ideology that my culture tends to dictate and it's a constant stream of messages. As Marya Hornbacher so eloquently puts it in her book Wasted - when you step back from the table, it's a very lonely moment, because women use food and weight as a means of connection.

I'm not saying that hijab is THE answer to the appropriation of women's bodies, but it is AN answer for me at this point in my life.

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