I'm gonna need to ask you to uncover that, Ma'am

This article from the LA Times about a woman's eviction from a public pool for wearing a full-body swimsuit as a Muslim woman is interesting because of the quotations used.

French authorities are quoted as saying:

"Islamic bathing suits don't exist in the Koran"
"In our country we cannot accept women prisoners behind a wire fence, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity."
"This is the tip of the fundamentalist iceberg."

While Islamic sources, including the woman who was evicted are quoted:

"When Sarkozy says the burka is a problem for the 'dignity of women,' it means he's already finished his investigation."
Her only battle is "simply to be able to swim with my children in a pool."

What seemed to be missing from both sides was an idea that a woman might actually want to wear such a suit, on her own, without coercion from religious authorities.

Relationship of veiling and harassment explored in Post piece

I found this piece in the Washington Post about veiling and gender-based harassment to be interesting.

Written from Cairo, the article starts with an anonymous e-mail circulating in the country which urges women to veil themselves so as to not be the subject of unwanted male attention. The e-mail compares women to candy - the veiled woman wrapped and ready to eat, the unveiled, unwrapped and covered with flies.

Egytptian women of different ages are interviewed stating that they believe the veiling actually increased harassment. Egyptian men are interviewed as stating that the women bring it on themselves and are flattered by the attention, which studies report happens to 83 percent of Egyptian women and 98 percent of foreign visitors.

There is one brief mention of religion, and I thought it was interesting that the article explored veiling as a cultural issue as well as a religious one.

Interview gives perspective on life of female Muslims in America

NPR's Barbara Bradley Hagerty had a fascinating piece on yesterday interviewing Jerusha Lamptey, wife of the Imam at Dal Ar Noor mosque in Manassas, Virginia.

Lamptey is an American, raised in Connecticut, who converted to Islam after spending time in Ghana studying the religion as a Fulbright Scholar. She is also a doctoral student at Georgetown.

The article goes on to address some of the tensions between culturally conservative and more liberal members of the mosque.

You can read and listen here at NPR's web site.