Uhhh… So apparently British Muslim women want t…
admin September 26th, 2006
Uhhh…
So apparently British Muslim women want to be taken more seriously. (Hat tip or the hatless feminine equivalent on this one to GayandRight.)
I’m all for taking people seriously. What do they want?
“Muslim women wearing hijab, or headscarves, should be employed in front-line roles in the media…
“More women wearing hijab needed to be seen in the public eye, particularly on television, to encourage more Muslim women to put themselves forward, it said.
“…Ethnic minorities have a lower employment rate than the rest of the population. For Bangladeshi and Pakistani women it is particularly low at only 24 per cent: the average employment rate for women of working age is 70 per cent.”
So in other words, the Brits need veiled Muslim women as news anchors so that other Muslim women realize it’s OK to go out and get a job (or so that the men in their lives realize it’s OK for Muslim women to have jobs).
Now, I’m as in favor as anyone of having some news anchors who don’t look like they’re carved out of cream cheese (whether male or female). In fact, some non-blond, modestly-dressed women in conspicuous roles might be kind of nice. But to overtly promote that as some sort of social-engineering ploy just creeps me out. To me, it screams “VALIDATE ME!” And frankly, I’m not sure it would work.
I accept that not everyone has parents standing over them intoning “You WILL go to college…you WILL go to college…” like my parents did to me. And I think there’s some basis for the idea that people try to emulate people they see in the media. But I don’t see Joe Bangladeshi Muslim seeing a veiled woman reading the news and thinking “Look at that modest Muslim woman. My wife/daughter would really enjoy doing that. I should encourage her to pursue a career in journalism.” And as long as the cultural norms are such that Joe Bangladeshi Muslim determines what his wife and daughters do, I’m not sure that any such endeavor would work. Much as I loved (and love) the movie Bend It Like Beckham, the ending is not especially realistic. (I know – shocking.)
