Dress Quotes
This was another historical reality that shocked traditionalists. There was nothing in the Koran or Islamic scripture requiring women to wear veils and burkas. Many Muslims and non-Muslims, to this day, do not realize that.
This statement is referring to the custom of women covering their eyes whenever a man who they did not know passed them. Turks did not ever use Burkas the way some other Muslim countries do, but they wore headscarves and covered their eyes when a strange man appeared. This was a shocking statement in a sexist Islamic culture. Although the process of modernization and reform in Turkey was relatively bloodless, Ataturk was prepared to and did use force to defend it. This and many others made the role of women not only uniquely equal in the Islamic world, but women were suddenly elevated to the level of most Western nations and in voting rights were ahead of most. He used his own family to set an example. See {584503}.
He moved to the U. S. after these events.
In 1925 his administration had passed a law banning the wearing of the traditional Muslim hat.
This statement is believed by many people who would blame the female victim of rape for the way she dressed. Rape is a heinous felony, and it is never excused by the way the victim dresses. Few who hold this view publicly will state it, but this public statement triggered a set of demonstrations throughout Canada which spread to the United States and Europe. See {623723}.
At the time she made this statement, she was the French Minister of Families, Infants and Women;s Rights. France was in the midst of a political and legal argument over the right of communities to ban women at the beaches to wear burkina’s. These were garments that covered the woman’s body completely that some French Muslim leaders claimed was the only mortal way a Muslim woman could go to a beach. Secularists divided into two groups. Those who argued that the right of dress or undress for a French woman was inviolable by the state. The otters groups argued that the burkini was clear method of control of women by men which is so contrary to French rights and mores, that the community should be allowed to be practiced. The Minister was with the latter group.
It is the quotee’s thesis that these leaders and many others adopted deliberate affectation to their dress for the dual political purpose of easy public recognition and fitting an image of individuality but short of deviance.
The First Lady was very practical. Although she was a strong advocate of women working in all areas of the labor force, she also realized that there were very few women who had done so before and thus there were few role models for them. So women did not generally know how to dress to keep themselves safe. And if she thought any information was needed, she used her daily syndicated column in many of America’s newspapers to convey that information.
Alex Rose was the leader of the Hatters’ Union. At the time most women and men wore hats out of doors and many women wore hats indoors as well.
At the time, headwear identified the wearer’s caste and class. Fezes, Turbans, etc. were eliminated in favor of hats. This was Ataurk’s solution to two problems: He wanted to have Turkey modernize and develop along the lines of Western democracy and the traditional Islamic headgear being replaced by Western hats were daily symbols of the national modernization. The second advantage was that Turks could no longer identify caste and class by the traditional headgear and the society became much more egalitarian which it has been ever since.
In a country like Saudi Arabia, such a statement would be very radical. However, before the Arab Spring in Tunisia, that country was much more modern than most Arab nations and headscarfs were not required nor was there much social pressure for them except in the rural areas. So this was a status quo statement opposing the Islamic Parties which advocated mandatory traditional dress for women.
