Since the Islamic hijab is considered a symbol of patriarchal society in feminist circles, one would expect proud feminists to refuse to wear the headscarf when visiting a Muslim country. But as it turns out, words are one thing, and actions are another. The fact that it is possible to refuse to wear a hijab was shown by the concrete example of the wife of Janez Janša, former Prime Minister with multiple mandates and President of the largest opposition party, the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), on a visit to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“I am proud of my wife, who did not cover her head or cover her face during her official visit to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, when they had much stricter standards than today, ” Janez Janša pointed out on social media, adding that the hosts accepted and respected her decision. According to Janša, this was also because of the good reputation Slovenia had in the world at the time.
Although it is often said that headscarves in Islam are a symbol of religious freedom, they are, in fact, a symbol of oppression. Some Muslims see the hijab (a headscarf that partially covers a woman) and the niqab (a covering that completely covers a woman’s body, except for her eyes) as a kind of alien head covering. The niqab in Wahhabism, a branch of Islam, is a symbol of a woman’s subordination to a man – her symbolic gesture that her body belongs to the man alone and she has no personal free will of her own. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood, who have spread the hijab around the world, also see similar reasons as motivation for women to wear the hijab – a veiled woman is supposed to make men feel less lustful, and her husband feel comfortable that she belongs to him completely, just like personal property.
The President and the Minister did things differently
In the case of Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon and the President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, one would have expected that, because they are considered representatives of the Slovenian feminist association OnaVe – SheKnows, they would have refused to wear the Muslim head covering when they were abroad, but this was not the case. They both wore the hijab. Fajon when she visited Sudan, and the President of the Republic when she visited Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Since both the Minister and the President of the Republic, who is even the founder of a feminist association, have repeatedly stressed the importance of respect for women’s rights, their decision has, predictably, earned them a lot of criticism on social networks along the lines of “Model fighters for women’s rights. A hijab will lead us to victory! #SheKnows #Women’sRights – The feminist politics of Nataša Pirc Musar.”
Ž. N.
