No, the debate between Naomi Wolf and Phyllis Chesler isn’t dead yet.
Quick link summary for those just jumping in:
On August 31 Phyllis Chesler wrote a piece at Pajamas Media challenging an article Naomi Wolf wrote about veiled Muslim women for the Sydney Morning Herald. Jamie Glazov, FrontPage’s managing editor and a blogger for NewsReal, wrote a post in support of Chesler here. Wolf didn’t care for either Chesler or Glazov’s characterizations of her position. She left a comment demanding that David Horowitz, NewsReal’s Editor-In-Chief, remove Glazov’s blog. She also contacted Chesler. Glazov had an additional rebuttal here, Horowitz weighed in here, Robert Spencer commented here, and the other day Salon sided with Wolf here, prompting further rebuttals from Chesler here, and Glazov here. (And there are two feminists in support of Chesler here.)
Now to this summary one can add two defenses of Wolf and one somewhat neutral observer who takes some shots at both side:
AltMuslim claims that Wolf’s defense of the veil is “rational culture”:
Source: NewsReal BlogQuick link summary for those just jumping in:
On August 31 Phyllis Chesler wrote a piece at Pajamas Media challenging an article Naomi Wolf wrote about veiled Muslim women for the Sydney Morning Herald. Jamie Glazov, FrontPage’s managing editor and a blogger for NewsReal, wrote a post in support of Chesler here. Wolf didn’t care for either Chesler or Glazov’s characterizations of her position. She left a comment demanding that David Horowitz, NewsReal’s Editor-In-Chief, remove Glazov’s blog. She also contacted Chesler. Glazov had an additional rebuttal here, Horowitz weighed in here, Robert Spencer commented here, and the other day Salon sided with Wolf here, prompting further rebuttals from Chesler here, and Glazov here. (And there are two feminists in support of Chesler here.)
Now to this summary one can add two defenses of Wolf and one somewhat neutral observer who takes some shots at both side:
AltMuslim claims that Wolf’s defense of the veil is “rational culture”:
Finally, there is an unusually vociferous face-off over the veil occurring in the blogosphere – but it’s not among Muslims. Celebrated author and activist Naomi Wolf (who we interviewed at the start of the economic crisis) penned an article entitled, “Behind the veil lives a thriving Muslim sexuality” in which she documented her experiences in Morocco, Jordan, and Egypt. She found that in typical Muslim households, “It is not that Islam suppresses sexuality, but that it embodies a strongly developed sense of its appropriate channelling — toward marriage, the bonds that sustain family life, and the attachment that secures a home.” There was “demureness and propriety” outside of the home, “but inside, women were as interested in allure, seduction and pleasure as women anywhere in the world.” When walking through a bazaar with a Pakistani-style shalwar kameez and headscarf (hardly a burqa), she “felt a novel sense of calm and serenity” and even, “in certain ways, free.” That was too much for conservative activist Phyllis Chesler, who is rallying the troops (including David Horowitz and Ann Coulter) to savage Wolf, saying that “most Muslim girls and women are not given a choice” about covering “and those who resist are beaten, threatened with death, arrested, caned or lashed, jailed, or honor murdered by their own families” (though Wolf had said along, “Choice is everything”). Read more ...
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