My Body Is My Own Business

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“My Body Is My Own Business” by Naheed Mustafa In this essay, Mustafa explains why she has chosen to wear the hijab. She wrote this essay to express how she feels that the wearing of the hijab brings her equality and freedom, not the oppression and forced silence North Americans think it does. She explains the root cause of why she chose to wear the hijab and the effect she believes she will have when wearing it. I believe Mustafas message is that the women in our society are judged based on how they look and that this will never allow women to gain equality. She says, “Women are taught form early childhood that their worth is proportional to their attractiveness. We feel compelled to pursue abstract notions of beauty, half realizing that such a pursuit is futile.” She also says she had a personal experience with trying to meet these standards. She says meeting these standards are impossible and often humiliating. “I should know, I spent my entire teenage years trying to do it. I was borderline bulimic and spent a lot of money I didn’t have on potions and lotions in hopes of becoming the next Cindy Crawford.” At the age of 21, she chose to wear the hijab which she says gave her freedom. “Wearing the hijab has given me freedom from the constant attention to my physical self. Because my appearance is not subjected to public scrutiny, my beauty, or perhaps lack of it, has been removed from the realm of what can legitimately be discussed.” She feels that a woman can never live up to what the ever-changing definition of beauty is, so when no one can see what she looks like under her clothing, no one will care. “Women are not going to achieve equality with the right to bare their breasts in public, as some people would like to have you believe. That would only make us party to our own objectification. True equality will be had only when women don’t need to display

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