Last night I forced myself to look at this image. Over and over again. It was uncomfortable, sickening and terrifying. But as I sat up in bed, in the dark, with Imaan asleep next to me, I forced myself to stare at it.
I had scrolled past the image earlier in the day. I was afraid to read what accomponied the picture. I wanted to be in denial. Wanted to shroud myself in ignorance. Because if you don’t know, you don’t feel.
But this is reality. Reality for Muslim women across the globe. Women who bear the brunt and consequences of war, terrorism, Islamaphobia.
Muslim women who are thought to be so oppressed that they cannot exercise their own freedom of choice. Even if a woman is screaming THIS IS MY CHOICE, the world responds ‘you are so oppressed you think this is what you want…let us liberate you’
Let us liberate you with our guns on a crowded beach. Let us enforce this rule upon you. Make you strip in front of the world. In front of your crying, terrified children. All because you choose to cover up.
We do not understand why you do it, nor do we approve.
So remove your clothing.
Stripped of humanity
Stripped of compassion
Stripped of dignity
Isolated. Degraded. Humiliated.
Bravo France. The very women you want to integrate into your society are the ones you are now criminalising and marginalising.
Bravo. Bravo
by Sabbiyah Pervez
Sabbiyah Pervez, is a journalist and an advocate for social change, you can read more about her work at http://sabbiyah.co.uk and follow her on Twitter @sabbiyahÂ
I look forward to similar posts by those “sickened and terrified” by images of women being caned in public for walking beside a man or committing adultery or having a beer in Malaysia or Indonesia. Who needs to carry a gun when the whole society agrees that masked men should be allowed to beat women in public places?