Laurette and Hardiette

So my line of thinking here was not very political. Some women wear the scarf because they believe that the religion dictates "modesty" to the extreme, and they want to be "good muslims". But there are as many reasons for wearing the scarf as there are women wearing them. I heard from all sides: women who wear the scarf, women who don't but respect other women's choice to do so, women who don't but get hysterical about it, men who approve, disapprove, don't like but respect, don't like and don't respect, etc. For some, the islamic dress is the great equalizer: it reduces apparent differences in beauty and wealth--basically by making all women look ugly, as far as I am concerned. But there are also lots contradictions. For example, women who wear scarves for "modesty" reasons, but then wear heavy, sexy make-up, flashy jewelry, or very sexy footwear (well, as sexy as footwear can get). Also, some women who wear scarves try to dispel the notion that they are no fun, so they tend to be very playful, almost flirtatious. So what is one to think of all of this?

So this was sort of a counter-example to that claim. If a woman has a great body, it will show, regardless of the amount of clothing used to cover it. The way I chose to "name" the different paintings reflects the constitutional debates going on at the time. Whereas the progressives wanted an equal status for men and women, the islamists were arguing that "the women were 'complements' of men". Following the outrage, they said "we meant that they were different, but there is no hierarchy", like the "equal but different" slogans one hears with official attempts to impart political correctness on discrimination.

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