← Previous Post: | Next Post:

 

Political Correctness as the Defense of Enslavement

From an interview with Brishkay Ahmed, who made the documentary film Story of Burqa: Case of a Confused Afghan.

“The older people my father’s age or the experts I interviewed, oh my God, they’re dying to get rid of this cloth. Over and over they make that statement.”

Ahmed supports women’s choice to dress modestly and wear the hijab to cover their hair, but she believes the burqa should be banned everywhere.

“I have never met a woman in Afghanistan who has said she has worn the burqa because she likes it – never,” Ahmed said. “The fear associated with it is why it’s still hanging in the closet because [women] have been killed for not wearing it… The entire world needs to ban the burqa and I’m not scared about saying this and there is one reason: I’m a filmmaker and I’m not supposed to be politically correct. It’s not my job,” Ahmed said.

The moving memorial ceremony for Christopher Hitchens reminds me to link to his defense of burqa bans.

Margaret Soltan, April 25, 2012 1:37PM
Posted in: democracy

Trackback URL for this post:
https://www.margaretsoltan.com/wp-trackback.php?p=35649

One Response to “Political Correctness as the Defense of Enslavement”

  1. Mike S. Says:

    yeah but Hitchens flatly says that walking into a bank with one’s face covered ought to automatically trigger presumption of guilt…

    let me restate for emphasis:
    Hitchens lauds presumption of guilt.

    never mind that walking in face covered is not itself a crime, causing one to wonder “guilty of what?”

    “my right to see your face”
    where is that found in the law?
    other than at trial (confronting one’s accuser), I’m not aware that this is codified in law, and Hitchens isn’t referring to trial, he’s referring to everyday interaction.

    Woe be unto those who would walk past Hitchen’s house on a frigid day wearing a balaclava.
    What would Hitchens do if he were in Zimmerman’s shoes, accosting Trayvon Martin and demanding Mr. Martin put down the hood of his sweatshirt?

    I’m not in any way in favor of the burqa, but here Hitchens’ column is equal parts reasonable argument and irrational arrogant bullying.

Comment on this Entry

UD REVIEWED

Dr. Bernard Carroll, known as the "conscience of psychiatry," contributed to various blogs, including Margaret Soltan's University Diaries, for which he sometimes wrote limericks under the name Adam.
New York Times

George Washington University English professor Margaret Soltan writes a blog called University Diaries, in which she decries the Twilight Zone-ish state our holy land’s institutes of higher ed find themselves in these days.
The Electron Pencil

It’s [UD's] intellectual honesty that makes her blog required reading.
Professor Mondo

There's always something delightful and thought intriguing to be found at Margaret Soltan's no-holds-barred, firebrand tinged blog about university life.
AcademicPub

You can get your RDA of academic liars, cheats, and greedy frauds at University Diaries. All disciplines, plus athletics.
truffula, commenting at Historiann

Margaret Soltan at University Diaries blogs superbly and tirelessly about [university sports] corruption.
Dagblog

University Diaries. Hosted by Margaret Soltan, professor of English at George Washington University. Boy is she pissed — mostly about athletics and funding, the usual scandals — but also about distance learning and diploma mills. She likes poems too. And she sings.
Dissent: The Blog

[UD belittles] Mrs. Palin's degree in communications from the University of Idaho...
The Wall Street Journal

Professor Margaret Soltan, blogging at University Diaries... provide[s] an important voice that challenges the status quo.
Lee Skallerup Bessette, Inside Higher Education

[University Diaries offers] the kind of attention to detail in the use of language that makes reading worthwhile.
Sean Dorrance Kelly, Harvard University

Margaret Soltan's ire is a national treasure.
Roland Greene, Stanford University

The irrepressibly to-the-point Margaret Soltan...
Carlat Psychiatry Blog

Margaret Soltan, whose blog lords it over the rest of ours like a benevolent tyrant...
Perplexed with Narrow Passages

Margaret Soltan is no fan of college sports and her diatribes on the subject can be condescending and annoying. But she makes a good point here...
Outside the Beltway

From Margaret Soltan's excellent coverage of the Bernard Madoff scandal comes this tip...
Money Law

University Diaries offers a long-running, focused, and extremely effective critique of the university as we know it.
Anthony Grafton, American Historical Association

The inimitable Margaret Soltan is, as usual, worth reading. ...
Medical Humanities Blog

I awake this morning to find that the excellent Margaret Soltan has linked here and thereby singlehandedly given [this blog] its heaviest traffic...
Ducks and Drakes

As Margaret Soltan, one of the best academic bloggers, points out, pressure is mounting ...
The Bitch Girls

Many of us bloggers worry that we don’t post enough to keep people’s interest: Margaret Soltan posts every day, and I more or less thought she was the gold standard.
Tenured Radical

University Diaries by Margaret Soltan is one of the best windows onto US university life that I know.
Mary Beard, A Don's Life

[University Diaries offers] a broad sense of what's going on in education today, framed by a passionate and knowledgeable reporter.
More magazine, Canada

If deity were an elected office, I would quit my job to get her on the ballot.
Notes of a Neophyte

Archives

Categories