e for Westerners to pass judgement on a custom they no nothing of. Not many know the Qur’an intimately, and therefore cannot say what the Islamic faith does or does not say about the position of women in a Muslim society. It is easy to be a bleeding heart without having all the facts, more difficult when one does have all the facts. It is very true that many women in 6Afghanistan did not choose their lifestyle, although they did choose their religion.The Western world is very caught up in the plight of women in Afghanistan, and their subjugation; so much so that many don’t stop to think about their own subjugation. We think it is terrible that a woman should be stuffed into a sheet so that she wont be looked at in lust, that she should have the right to choose, and well this is true, or society is at the other extreme. Ms. Mustafa chooses to wear her hijab so people will know her as a person. In 1997, the Ontario government passed a bill saying women had the right to be topless in public, and women all over the province rejoiced. Ms. Mustafa attacked the issue saying “Women are not going to achieve equality with the right to bare their breasts in public, as some people would like to have you believe. That would only make us party to our own objectification” (481). It is very true. In our society “women are taught from early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness” (Mustafa 480). It is true. The very magazine that featured the article on women in Afghanistan was absolutely full of advertisements showing voluptuous, tall, sleek women, an ideal few can hope to achieve. Even the articles enslave, articles on how to better do one’s make up, to hook that man and many along the same lines. Woman are conditioned from a very young age to feel bad about the way they look so they will buy that miracle product that will instantly make them taller, thinner, and make their...
