Some remember NPR as the network that happily hosted (fake) Muslim extremist funders and told them of how horrifying America’s Christian conservatives were. Or the network that fired Juan Williams for confessing on Fox News that people in Muslim dress scared him at the airport.
That Islam-indulging attitude also comes through in their “news” content. On September 15, NPR’s “Goats and Soda” blog carried this attention-grabbing headline: “Covering Up With The Hijab May Aid Women's Body Image.”
The author was NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff, whose "FoodieScience" Twitter bio emphasizes “Masters in winemaking from UCD | PhD in biophysics | Stories about beer, bacteria, brains and dogs”. That doesn’t say “religion scholar,” does it?
The hijab is the veil that covers the head and chest, leaving only the face revealed. (The burqa is the term often used for the veil that shows only the eyes.)
The pull quote came from researcher Viren Swami of the University of Westminster in London: “The take-home message, I think, is maybe that individuals who challenge society's norms of beauty seem to have better body images.” Doucleff reported on Dr. Swami's study, and its pro-Muslim assumptions:
Last year Swami and one of his graduate students wondered if the hijab might have a positive influence on how women view their bodies. "There had been three or four previous studies showing that more modest or conservative clothing is associated with a healthier body image," he says.
So the team surveyed nearly 600 Muslim women in Britain. About 200 said they never used the hijab. The others said they wore it at least sometimes. Swami and his colleagues also asked the women a whole slew of questions to measure how they felt about their bodies.
The difference between the two groups was small. But across all parameters, the women who wore the hijab, at least some of the time, had more positive views of their bodies on average. They had less desire to be thin. They appreciated their bodies more. And they weren't as influenced by media messages about beauty standards.
"The take-home message, I think, is maybe that individuals who challenge society's norms of beauty seem to have better body images," Swami tells NPR. "The hijab allows you to do that in a certain way [in Britain].
Wait for it. After an ellipsis, Swami actually said this: “Feminism does the same thing."
Swami also insisted the hijab could protect women against dangerous pressures to be thin. "The hijab seems to have a buffer on body image," he said. "If somebody is objectifying a woman, the hijab might offer a sort of protection. ... Any clothing like this would help to reduce sexualization of the body."
Then NPR turned to a Muslim scholar for a more complete feeling of propagandizing:
Tabassum Ruby, who studies gender and women's issues at Western Michigan University, says she's not surprised the hijab is linked to a better body image.
"Wearing the hijab eliminates many of the hassles women have to go through — such as dyeing their hair," she says. "For example, you're getting old, and gray hairs, when you wear the hijab, you might not think about dyeing your hair because nobody sees it anyway."
So wearing the hijab can be very liberating for some women, she says. It allows them — and others around them — to focus on their minds, not their bodies.
"There is a stereotype that women who wear the hijab are oppressed," Ruby says, "that we [Muslim women] have no agency or power." (Italics mine.)
But all societies and cultures have their own dress code, she says. They all have a way to construct femininity and masculinity. "Muslim societies aren't exceptional in that respect," she says. "But we don't see them in that way because of the tension between the West and the Middle East."
"We don't question why woman [sic] in the West wear miniskirts and plunging necklines," she says. "So why do we question the hijab?"
Ruby has written an academic paper complaining about the “general intolerance about the hijab in the media" in Canada that leads to discrimination.
The NPR blog post also linked to this gem: “Lady In Black: 'Burka Avenger' Fights For Pakistan's Girls”.
