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by sergiotapia·14y ago·view on hn ↗
So? If I were to go to Saudi Arabia and wear jeans and a wife beater I would get looks as well.

You find it strange that people look at you funny when you wear a hijab in a western country?

I have a Muslim cousin and she sometimes wears a hijab to university but stopped because people would stare at her. Obviously! She stuck out like a sore thumb amidst a sea of people with no hijabs. She got tired of people asking her if she had cancer, if she was arab (lol at this one, people automatically think muslim == arab), etc.

4 comments
Who's complaining about funny looks? Funny looks are what you get when you wear and ugly shirt, or fuzzy reindeer antlers on your head around Christmas.

What she's complaining about is aversion, fear, and prejudice. And I don't think the solution to that is "Try harder to look like an attractive, middle-class white person."

> So?

So, its not as obvious to some of the rest of us. I honestly had never thought that wearing a hijab would change 99% of your social interactions with strangers in a negative way.

I probably ignore women in hijabs more often than other women. I'm not going to any more.

Interesting that you think "look at you funny" and "called me a terrorist" are equivalent.
The latter was said by a child, so it's not even worth talking about. The mother acted wrongly, not the child.

But lets twist it, only without the masquerade: Imagine 'Ela' is on holiday in the Near East and wears a tank top. Don't you think that people would 'look funny at her'? She also might get molested for not being dressed properly. Local women even get stoned for that.

> The latter was said by a child, so it's not even worth talking about. The mother acted wrongly, not the child.

Chances are the kid's asking the question because the parent or another adult equates a head scarf with terrorism.

> But lets twist it, only without the masquerade: Imagine 'Ela' is on holiday in the Near East and wears a tank top. Don't you think that people would 'look funny at her'? She also might get molested for not being dressed properly. Local women even get stoned for that.

NONE OF WHICH IS THE LEAST FUCKING BIT OKAY, EITHER!

> Chances are the kid's asking the question because the parent or another adult equates a head scarf with terrorism.

So either the parents or even the kid itself is brainwashed by poorly spinned U.S. TV.

> NONE OF WHICH IS THE LEAST FUCKING BIT OKAY, EITHER!

Ofc, stop screaming, I didn't said it was.

So your baseline for acceptable behaviour is somewhere that women get stoned for wearing a tank top? You don't want to aim just a little higher?
So what? Is being "not as bad as fundamentalist states" enough?
No it is not enough, but it could be worse. And for most regions in the world IT IS worse.

Stop implying such bullshit into others statement. All I said was that in those countries people treat foreigners much worse. I didn't justify or judge either side.

There's always worse. I don't see what the point of bringing that up if not for making the discussed issue seem less bad.
Total false equivalence. We aren't responsible for what happens in other countries. We are responsible for what happens here. And if Ela is on holiday and wearing a tank top, she wouldn't be doing it for religious reasons.
You need to look up "false equivalence".
I wonder what they would do in one of those countries that attacks and kills people at embassies or sends jihadists off to crash planes into buildings. Probably a little worse than look at you funny or call you a name.
I wonder why you choose to compare your country to "one of those countries" when you clearly indicate you think they are not as good as yours?

You are like the coach of a sporting team pointing out all the teams that finished lower than yours on the ladder and saying "We did great compared to them. Good job. Keep it up."

Surely, if you were actually interested in improving your team, you would point out the teams that finished above you on the ladder and say "We can do better. Here's where to improve."

Somewhere along the line, America was so busy congratulating itself that it has forgotten it should be striving to do better.

"One of those" saved time over naming off each country, considering everyone knows which countries I'm referring to. And is my country better? Um... Yeah. By orders of magnitudes it's better.
> And is my country better? Um... Yeah. By orders of magnitudes it's better.

You missed the point. Everyone knows the sports team that constantly finishes in the middle of field is better than those below. OK, we get it.

Why are you so concerned with comparing America to the countries that everyone knows are "lower" than America?

If you actually had any interest in improving, you'd be looking at those countries higher than America, and you'd notice the gap between America and the top of the ladder is growing very, very quickly.

I don't, would you mind naming them?
The difference is that propaganda taught us that the "West" is educated, culturally sensitive and inclusive. The "West" loves to spread high ideals like "Democracy" and "Freedoms". And it seems most have internalized that attitude.

Saudi Arabia makes no claim about being open or tolerant of other religious practices, sexual orientations and so on. So at least they don't pretend, in that respect, they also don't get criticized for hypocrisy, while the "West" does.