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Comment by neo2006 | Hacker News Reader

neo2006

Beating, raping and abusing is opression hijab is not. I come from a Muslim country that acquired it freedom lately (Tunisia) and was oppressed the other way (wearing hijab was getting women to jail ...) guess what after we acquired our freedom the number of women wearing hijab multiplied , not because someone want them to wear it but because they want it. A lot of Muslim women living in france for example decide to wear hijab but each day a new law stop them from doing it in the name of women freedom, it's opression!!

In my family my mother in law is wearing hijab and if I really need to point out an oppressed in my family I would say it's my father in law ;-)

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Iran is different. People trying to justify them with anecdotes like yours miss the point. What Iran is doing is ridiculous: there are minorities in Iran who are not Muslim, who've lived there for millennia even before Islam was a thing, who are now forced to wear a Hijab every day. How is that in any way justifiable is beyond me...

Edit: I can't respond to the post below, for whatever reason. Minorities in question would be Assyrians and Armenians, for example, who are Christians and who absolutely have to cover their heads everywhere they go: http://forum.hyeclub.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=2144

Could you link to story about this?

I don't doubt there is widespread oppression in Iran, but there are so many ugly rumors that go around that I want to make sure I know what I'm talking about.

Also, the hajib symbolizes all of Islam to many Western people, so I try to be careful about conflating one government's brutality with prejudice against a world-wide religion.

Maybe you could RTFA? It's all about non-Muslim women who will be forced to used the hijab if they want to attend this championship.

Hang on, you're getting a bit mixed up here.

We all agree that forcing by law women to wear a hijab is wrong. That's currently happening in Iran, and it's easy to find many stories from reputable sources to say this is happening.

We can disagree about how to fight that. This chess champion thinks boycotting the championship if she's forced to wear a hijab is one way. Other human rights campaigners say that a boycott is wrong.

But other people have made a further claim. They've said that women in Iran are raped, beaten, or murdered for not wearing the hijab. It's those claims that you want a source for.

I agree with your priorites. And I'm don't know it's false (or true); I'm just trying to learn some real, specific knowledge and not just a bunch more rumor.

> They've said that women in Iran are raped, beaten, or murdered for not wearing the hijab. It's those claims that you want a source for.

That wasn't the GGP's claim. Again, just trying to get some specific, real knowledge into the discussion (and for my own benefit).

EDIT: But I agree the GGP's claim isn't the main issue, and this discussion is becoming convoluted.

Who in this thread is talking about being murdered for not wearing the hijab? And the original comments were not about Iran specifically, neither hackuser's nor Nursie's.

You're creating a strawman, and then demanding sources for it.

Thanks for participating, it's great to hear from someone who actually has experience with these things. The rest of us don't really know what we're talking about.

Not that you represent everyone in Tunisia or every Muslim in the world, but do you feel there's social pressure to wear one? Would they be looked down upon or criticized for not wearing one?

I have the freedom to wear a NASA spacesuit or a bearskin tomorrow, but the social repercussions are a big deterrent.

Not really in some social circles you will have pressure wearing hijab and others pressure not wearing it , like every place in the world. I mean if you come from religious family in US you will have the same pressure wearing a short skirt. But nothing outrageous. The issue I'm having with that kind of discussion is that instead of pointing out an opression problem somewhere in the world it stigmatize an entire community. Not all women that choose to wear hijab are oppressed (most are not) west need to understand it and stop that hijab war

Thanks for your input. It should be voted to the top of the thread, because as I said, very few others here actually know what they are talking about.

> The issue I'm having with that kind of discussion is that instead of pointing out an opression problem somewhere in the world it stigmatize an entire community

For what it's worth from one person on the Internet, I agree completely. It's one of my biggest worries. It's going to cause more oppression and is entirely unnecessary.

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