Wearing the hijab: 'It's a choice'

[Scootaloo]

10. But that's what those laws do. They criminalize the woman.

not only is she the criminal, but the laws criminalizing her assume that she has no control over her self-expression, and is the victim of coercion. So right out the bat, the laws exist to criminalize those they claims are the victims! What's more, it's a suite of laws that control how Muslim women dress, under the assumption that it's wrong to control how they dress.

But of course, the "coercion" aspect of these laws is simply a fig-leaf, a self-justifying selling point for a generally open-minded public. The real reason for the laws, is to drive expressions of Islamic faith underground, to erase it from the public eye, to forbid it from sight. To accomplish this is plays off latent and bigoted assumptions about Muslims laced throughout western culture. Namely that Muslims hate women and Muslim women are all victims of oppression.