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Published: April 19th 2013
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April is a season for trekking in Nepal, with wonderful weather, magnificent mountains clearly seen in crystal air, and rhododendrons flowering.
A couple of days ago, on our way from Lukla to Namche, we were stopped by a European woman sitting on a rock at the side of the trek. She had some strange expression on her face - I thought, maybe she needed help. But what she needed was way different. She told the leader of our group that we must dress more appropriately – which means long trousers instead of shorts (it was quite hot, we were walking fast - so of course all members of our group were wearing shorts). She asserted that we were insulting local people by wearing shorts and were showing disrespect to Nepali culture.
Such things do happen sometimes, when a tourist – usually some middle-aged lady - stops us and starts to lecture on how to dress in Nepal.
This makes me wonder – why do they defend the Nepalese traditions with such aplomb, without even asking Nepali people if they really feel insulted by someone wearing shorts in a trek? By the expression of contempt and repulsion on the face of that woman I could say for certain – she did feel insulted. But I’ve never seen any emotions close to that on the face of the Nepalese. And neither did my friends who have travelled and lived in Nepal for more than 15 years.
If I do something offensive - why do they smile so sincerely? Why do they talk with me friendly? A few Nepali women even told me themselves they liked my shorts! Were they professional actresses to hide their disgust so perfectly?
These fighters for morality are just SO convinced that open legs must be offensive that they don’t bother asking local people for their opinion, and moreover, they ignore what they see.
So here we come to the point: what makes people defend imaginary rules? What makes them want to apply clothing restrictions even in sport activities like mountain trekking?
Psychologists have long discovered that when a person lives with someone with opposing beliefs and doesn’t state his disagreement aloud, he gradually adopts them. This often happens in families, where, for example, a husband is a staunch republican and a wife is a democrat. First the wife disagrees but doesn’t say anything against her husband, then she begins to doubt and soon finds herself voting for the Republican party. The funny thing is that if you ask her, why she changed her opinion, she would say that it has always been right, of course the republicans are better, and won’t even remember why she actually started to think like that.
This wouldn’t happen in the family where the wife feels more independent in discussing political views, where she is not restrained by the notion that politics is men’s prerogative or that the husband knows better.
This is an innocuous example, but what happens when Muslims living in Europe shout about protection of their rights and their culture, about the right of wearing abaya and hijab at schools and universities and so on, and the Europeans are trying to be tolerant and make concessions?
The belief that covering all body and face is ok for women slowly crawls into their minds. Seeing a woman completely covered with black in the street of London no longer shocks. Combined with Christian superstitions it results in strong conviction that it’s absolutely normal to consider human body a sin. Finally you can no longer look at girls wearing short skirts with approval. The atmosphere of fanatic tolerance to Muslim cultural invasion makes sanctimony prosper and open-minded people feel uneasy.
Such ridiculous acts like protecting people of a far away country from imaginary offences demonstrates how deeply the Muslim morality has already penetrated in our minds.
Here I want to make a remark. I’m not calling for religious hatred. Like every civilized person, I want people of all nations and all religions to live in peace. But I also want human rights to be respected unconditionally, and freedom of speech not to be restricted by fear that someone may get offended if I call a spade a spade.
I want things to be called by their right names. If I see a woman wearing abaya, I call it oppression of women, not just a cultural feature. Because if I don’t, if I try to be tolerant – this means I accept it and gradually start thinking the same way.
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