Dia Chakravarty was raised in conservative Islamic Bangladesh, where segregation of the sexes was a fact of life. Now in the UK, she’s astonished to find the same mentality supported by liberal progressives.
In the Telegraph – The Left is conspiring with extremists in the disappearance of British women:
In the spring of 2014, Sir Philip Davies – the then MP for Shipley – was invited to a discussion being held at a community centre. The meeting had been called in response to a statement he had made in Parliament supporting the right of customs officials to demand the removal of headwear, including the niqab.
While there were two women on the panel, the group of constituents invited to participate in the dialogue seemed to be composed entirely of men, despite the debate being about an item of clothing exclusively worn by women.
But about an hour and a half into the discussion, Sir Philip heard a rustling behind what had seemed like a wall marking the end of the room. It was then that he discovered that it was, in fact, a partition, behind which were rows of women – attending the meeting, but not expected to be seen or even heard.
You might think that such extreme misogyny, brought over from conservative Islamic societies, would be roundly condemned – along the lines of: “that’s not how we do things here”. Not so. The obsessive concern not to be seen as racist or, god forbid, “Islamophobic”, trumps any minor niggles about how Muslim women are treated here.
Why then have liberals in the West made it their life’s mission to not just unquestioningly accept but enthusiastically promote the most conservative practices of other cultures in the name of “progress”? Why are they intent on celebrating the disappearing of women, in the name of “tolerance”?
Earlier this month, a post on X by Stella Creasy – the MP for Walthamstow – caused a social media storm. The avowed feminist posted a video of a religious festival, which she lauded as “deliberately loud and joyful”, in her constituency.
When X users pointed out that there appeared to be no women among those celebrating, the Labour MP rather disdainfully posted another video, this time featuring a handful of women, not all of which were comfortable enough to show their faces.
The festival was religious in nature, but the celebrations which Ms Creasy filmed were taking place on the streets of north-east London, not at a place of worship. And yet, much like Sir Philip’s event in West Yorkshire, the women appeared to be segregated from the loud and joyful male members of their community.
Even some of the few women who allowed Ms Creasy to film them felt the need to cover their faces. This was cheered on by the Left-wing British MP who has campaigned doggedly against male-only clubs and called for a change in legislation for misogyny to be treated as a hate crime.
Much has been written about Lambeth Palace’s spectacularly ill-judged decision to give an award to a controversial Pakistani cleric. But it was the disappearing of the cleric’s wife, facilitated by Lambeth Palace, that I found the most extraordinary.
The Office of the Archbishop of Canterbury became an active participant in erasing the identity of the woman when it referred to her simply as “his wife” in its official communiqué. The contrast was striking: Dame Sarah is the first woman to hold the office of Archbishop of Canterbury, yet the woman beside her was denied even a name in the official account.
It is hard to reconcile the picture of a cheery Archbishop of Canterbury presiding over all this when only last year she had broken down in tears over the “micro-aggressions” women face in the Church of England and, on her confirmation as head of the Anglican Communion, declared that it was “important” for her to speak out on misogyny.
Yet tolerating misogyny, it seems, is a small price to pay to be seen as progressive. The grotesque image of a smiling Archbishop standing next to the nameless, faceless wife of the cleric with a medal around her neck will not be forgotten in a hurry, even if Lambeth Palace eventually removed the photograph.
It is deeply troubling that those who are most vocally committed to fighting misogyny fail to condemn or even challenge it when the perpetrators aren’t white men. To the liberal West, virtue-signalling now takes precedence over speaking out against the disappearing of women, be it under veils, behind heavy curtains or through segregation in public places.
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