It isn’t. It’s hyperbole that is entirely a function of visibility. You can see it, ergo it must be the most important thing. Islamic State douchefuckingtasticness notwithstanding, I find the Western fascination with it to be weirdly unhealthy. It’s become symbolic, but in itself whether a woman covers her hair is less of an issue than say, whether she gets to make her own healthcare decisions, or get an education, or a job. With the exception of the Islamic State, Iran, and Saudi Arabia, most countries in the Middle East are much more relaxed on this issue. There’s a nice healthy heaping helping of social pressure in a lot of cases. Still, the way this dynamic is often described in Western media, almost to the exclusion of all other dynamics that affect women, and with a certain shallowness, is oddly unsettling.
Especially because it is so often posed as a dichotomy, or a catastrophic evil. Google “should the hijab be banned” to get an idea of this. I think a lot of Muslim women, regardless of their personal feelings on the subject, are rightly suspicious of people who are more than happy to hop into comment threads and think up excuses for why hijab wearers shouldn’t go to school, for instance. Or for that matter, just plain old kids who aren’t showing enough skin. Suddenly, well-meaning Western “concerns” about the hijab seem a lot less well-meaning.
So zenith of oppression? No. A battlefield? Yes. A battlefield where reactionaries have lost the moral high ground? Absolutely and for a long time now, I just think it hasn’t sunk in yet.
