Cartoon

Post date: Sep 29, 2016 4:2:34 PM

This cartoon perfectly depicts what Lila Abu-Lughod addresses in her article “Do Muslim Women really Need saving? Anthropological Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others.” Westerners tend to take on the opinion held by the woman in the bikini because they don’t understand why someone would willingly wear a niqab. Abu-Lughod states how it’s a common misunderstanding that “the ultimate sign of oppression of Afghan women under the Taliban-and-the-terrorists is that they were forced to wear the burqa” despite the Taliban not inventing the burqa. She discusses the hypocrisy of westerners who wish to free and liberate women from their oppression by focusing so much on their dress and not things more relevant like their education. The comic portrays how easy it is for us to look down upon the orient for being different from us rather than seeing our own flaws and our own oppression.