Week 6 - The Subject of Freedom from the Politics of Piety

            In Saba Mahmood’s The Subject of Freedoom from the Politics of Pietry, She talks about the differences between Islam women and Western women in the context of what freedom is for them. After 9/11, Western media viewed women who wear hijabs or burkas as being oppressed by men. Western media portrayed Islam to be a violent and oppressive religion without actually knowing the religion of Islam.  A lot of western women felt the need to save Islam women from being “oppressed”, however these women had no real knowledge of Islam, this was a form of colonialism. What western women fail to understand is wearing a hijab or burka is also an expression of freedom.

            Mahmood states that, “the veil makes it easy for women to avoid sexual harassment on public transportation, lowers the cost of attire for worling women, and so on” (Mahmood, p.16). In western culture we tend to think that Islamic women are oppressed, but what we fail to realize in comparison we are oppressed. How many times do we see stories of college girls being sexually harassed or assaulted on campus? If wearing a burka meant that you are liberated from these things then that means Islam have more freedom than an American girl on campus. Instead of viewing burkas and hijabs as an “oppressive” thing for women, we should view them as clothing that allows women to be free.