How "The Veil" is Viewed

     After reading this article, I was able to enhance my limited perspective on veiling. I always saw it as a part of religion  and culture, but never thought much about the concept. Veiling by many has been seen as a form of oppression and domestic violence. Eastern veiling, Western freedom? talked about Westerners focusing on veiling as a form of assault from men to women when one of the first people to use veiling as a symbol were Egyptian university women. The meaning of veiling seems to have shifted over the years. I found interesting that the article states that European women are "more" virtuous because of their freedom, but they're also indecent because of it. It gives the example that men don't want to feel threaten by women and so deny them freedom to anything including education. I don't particularly agree with either of these statements because European women can have freedom and not be virtuous at all by not acting upon that freedom they hold. The fairness with the second statement is self explanatory. Women shouldn't be denied freedom simply because men feel threatened by it. A statement that was new to me was that which was on page 476. I've never heard of using the seclusion from the veil as a way to "avoid" men's attention as well as avoid unwanted attention of other women seen by them. It's an interesting perspective from women using this to their convenience. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article. It gave great insight on opposite views on veiling from a Western and Eastern view in topics relating to freedom, feminism, politics, power, religion, culture, oppression, and convenience.