|
|
|
Hijab Fashion Exhibition protest
|
- Elisabeth Mathes, Affiliates Director
Our affiliate, the Zentralrat der Ex-Muslime Deutschland (Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany) are protesting against the exhibition ‘Contemporary Muslim Fashions’ that is planned to take place at the Frankfurt Museum for Applied Arts from April 4th to September 15th, where Islamic veils such as hijab, headscarves, burqas and niqabs will be exhibited and presented to public opinion as fashion trends for Muslim women.
In their protest letter to the organizers of the exhibition, in which they demand the cancellation of the fashion show, the Council of Ex-Muslims of Germany state: “As being the organizers of this ‘fashion show’ it is hard to imagine that you don't know that you've pointed your finger at a big wound in human history and that you're mocking us—millions of women who have become victims of this ‘fashion’. We would therefore like to expressly declare that Islamic veiling is not a normal item of clothing. And we would like to take a closer look at this question for all those who are interested in the truth.’
The Council of Ex-Muslims also complain that this exhibition would foster the myth that women choose to wear these Islamic veils freely and of their own volition, “The veiling is the banner of a misogynistic ideology imposed by prison and torture in Iran, Afghanistan, Sudan and Somalia. Also in Europe or in the Western countries this movement forces the veil on even children with the help of mosques and Islamic organizations, which are often connected with Islamic regimes. The defenders and activists of this movement are present everywhere and talk about the fact that there should be "religious freedom" in Europe. They establish the myth that women and five-year-old children are free to wear the veil.”
The protest letter that also demands an official response from the organizers and continues, “All those who create fashion from the suffering of women and the symbols of their enslavement should be ashamed of it. It is completely unacceptable in the 21st century to defend and embellish a scarf from which blood drips. A cloth that is a symbol of contempt for women. A cloth in whose fabric countless painful stories of the lack of the right to divorce, of honor killings and acid attacks on uncovered women have been woven.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
