Madam, - The eloquent personal testimony by UCD graduate Anissa Majeed (Weekend Review, June 14th) was an interesting contribution to the depate in your pages on wearing the hijab in school.
However, I wish however to comment on a couple of points that she makes. Ms Majeed writes that after she donned the hijab, "with one glance, the male population knew exactly where the boundaries lay. . .[I am] an educated free woman completely in control of her body and actions".
But I contend that a woman has an inalienable right to set her own boundaries and control her own body regardless of her preferred style of dress. It doesn't take a hijab to say "no" to anything, just an awareness of one's right as a woman.
Furthermore, the "male population" shouldn't be encouraged to make a distinction between women whose heads are covered and those whose heads are not. It is not healthy that men should be "cautious and humbled", as she puts it, (as Ms Majeed puts it) before one set of women, yet perhaps consider the other set as fair game. It is the old angel/whore dichotomy all over again.
It is also worth pointing out that the objectification of the female body is not a phenomenon of modern society by any means. The difference is that instead of wealthy men having paintings of voluptuous nudes to contemplate privately, the objectification is now widely available to Joe Public. This is not necessarily any better, but at least is less hypocritical. And just because this attitude is out there does not mean that one has to be "defined" by it. Self definition comes from within ourselves, not from what we as women choose to wear. - Yours, etc,
CD MILLS, Lower Churchtown Road, Dublin 14.
Madam, - The kernel of the issue is surely: are those wearing the hijab free to choose whether they do or don't? - Yours, etc,
JOSEPH BYRNE, Willow Park, Ennis, Co Clare.