Hijab
Last weeks heat wave in my home state of Kansas made me thankful for my collection of fine shorts and t-shirts, but women in Iran and other countries under Sharia, or Islamic law, cannot enjoy similarly seasonal clothing. Indeed, the Iranian vice squad has been working overtime recently to crack down on women with the temerity to show their hair, much less walk outside in shorts and a tank top. Luckily for Americans, the first amendment guarantees all persons freedom of and from religion, so my sister can legally complete her morning runs in appropriately athletic attire. Some women in America choose to wear the hijab, or Muslim headscarve, despite summer heat. Their choice is well within their right to free religious exercise, but with women beaten and harassed in Iran and other parts of the world for declining to conform to religiously-mandated fashion advice, the choice to wear a hijab seems to be a religious exercise in bad taste. Given the opportunity to express solidarity with their sisters in Iran and elsewhere or with the regimes denying them their rights, those sporting the hijab choose the later. Wearing the hijab in America is a figurative slap in the face to the women elsewhere who dare to show their hair and who are facing very real slaps (and acid) in the face.
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