Don’t ‘save us’ from hijab or hair

ATHINANGAMSO Esther Nkopo’s “White validation always one more badge away” (The Star, September 1) encapsulates the myth of multiculturalism, not just in South Africa, in France too.

French Muslim women being ordered to change their clothes at the beach, virtually at gunpoint, is not that different from many model C school rules about black hair.

Both originate from the colonial dictate that black and brown women are beautiful only when they aspire to look like white women.

For centuries, black women have been told that their hair, in its natural state, is something that needs to be fixed.

The Afro was seen as “uncivilised”, initially by white slave masters and later, colonisers. It needed to be transformed into straight hair for it to be accepted and considered beautiful. For decades, black and brown women have, literally, been burning the skin off their faces in an effort to look like fair-skinned white women.

Since the late 1950s, French authorities have been obsessed with unveiling Muslim women. “You’re so pretty, you should unveil yourself,” posters told Muslim women in French-colonised Algeria.

Nkopo argues that black women’s bodies will only be accepted if they fit white norms of beauty.

In 2004, the French authorities banned the headscarf in public schools; in 2011, the faceveil was outlawed.

French feminists were silent through the bans, agreeing France’s morality police had the right to dictate how Muslim women should dress.

The same feminists have denounced the morality police of Jeddah and Tehran. It’s only oppression when brown men tell women how to dress; it’s “liberation” when white men in a Western democracy do.

We’re sick of having colonial feminism imposed on us; telling us our hair is not straight enough, our skins not fair enough, our clothing not revealing enough.

We will choose how to wear our hair and whether we want to cover it. Suraya Dadoo

Sick of colonial feminism being imposed on us