Hidden away in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, a sect of Hasidic Jews, called Lev Tahor, have resided for years. Women and girls dress in head-to-toe veils, marry young, and are allowed barely any contact outside the community. Two teenage girls, age 13 and 15, were found by authorities on their way to Lev Tahor and ...
Tolerance is a quality a lot of people think they possess. In practice, it’s a little more complicated, especially when we tackle the subject of burqas. A Saudi student, Gawheer Saud Al Thaubity, was left in tears on the side of the road after she tried to board a bus with her son in Auckland, ...
Covering your face in public became illegal in France yesterday, and the police have already found their first target. A woman was stopped in a shopping centre on Monday evening for covering her face with an Islamic veil. She was given a ticket requiring her to make the choice between paying 150 Euros or attending ...
The treatment of women in the Muslim world baffles many people in the West, who wonder: How could a culture which is so advanced in many ways be so backwards concerning women? Amazon.com WidgetsNine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women was an Austalian reporter’s attempts to tackle this political and moral minefield. ...
The French are known for revolution and fashion, so there was no doubt the protest against the burqa ban would be good — but this is a glorious fuck you. The Niqabitches donned a niqab, short shorts and high heels to hit the streets of Paris. As they strolled past government offices, with their naked ...
The French Senate has voted 246 to 1, in favour of a law making wearing a burqa illegal. The ban includes all full face veils such as the burqa (mesh cloth covers the face) and niqab (a small opening is made for the eyes). The hijab (headscarf), and other styles of traditional Muslim dress that ...
Babies need to feed on their mothers’ boobs and this has to be done whether they are out to dinner with friends, sitting in a dark movie theatre, or having tea with the Queen. Yet not every woman is comfortable getting her boobs out in public. And this is true no matter what her opinion ...
You see a naked woman putting on make-up. She slips on some sexy lingerie, slides stockings up her legs and clips them to her garter belt. Heading out the door, she quickly grabs a niqab and puts it on. How is this ad offensive?
Italy is looking into banning burqas and niqabs. This follows France’s obsession with the cloth, and announcement that people wearing it will be banned from all government activities, including transportation. Of course, forcing women to do things against their will is what feminism is all about. I mean, women can’t be trusted to make their ...
A report issued today in France calls for the ban of the full face covering worn by some devout Muslim women, called a niqab. The president is due to sign the proposals today. Last week he called the garment “contrary to our values and to the ideals we have of women’s dignity”.
Dear Madame X, I have just started seeing this girl. She seems great, but she recently told me she...
Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved arrived in my hands via a public library, when I was a broke teenager with...
My attention was drawn this week to an article about the reaction at a Canadian university to proposals to...
Airport security. Bloody nuisance. Also a conspiracy designed to subjugate women. Allow me to elaborate. Despite flying quite a...
The Cannes film festival has kicked off this week with controversy over the lack of films made by women...
Dear Madame X, I seem to be only attracted to men who are macho assholes. I like them at...
When A Clockwork Orange was published in 1962, the term sexualized violence wasn’t in use. The distinction between sexualized...
Skincare. Not so very long ago, a man would have been mocked mercilessly for using just the word, never...
