CRITICAL THINKING
I
By: Beenish Khurshid , Montreal Canada had a dream recently. I was in a large lecture hall, and the director of
my company was the lecturer. The class was on clothing. The lecturer began by asking the class: what is the purpose of clothing? One person said to look beautiful. Others started mentioning other ideas as the lecturer picked on me (pay attention, I was. Turn your chair, and so on).
explaining how she believes she is more beautiful, prompting for an answer. Some women in the class tried to defend Islam. Finally, frustrated at not having had a voice in the debate, made to feel inadequate by the lecturer, and having a clear argument in my mind, I spoke up. What is the purpose of clothing?
The focus soon shifted to the oppression of the hijab and the oppression
To some, it is to look beautiful. To others, it is to look sexually attractive. To others, it is to show off how ripped
of Muslim religion and cultures in general. I struggled to speak up and the lecturer did not give me a turn. Then the lecturer gave a student a sheet of paper. Role play. She got up,
(muscular) they are. To others, it is to conform to societal norms. To yet others, it is to address natural feelings of shame and not feel ex-
and asked a hijabi woman: are you more beautiful, or am I? And started
posed. (Continued on page 37)
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