Today on the Polecat Cast we talk about the news of the week, including hijabs for 5 year-olds in the UK, a grant to “find” fake news, Salon suddenly doesn’t like identity politics, and more! Tune in @6pm Eastern
Show Notes:
Why are Children Wearing Hijabs? Muslim Feminists Want to Know
By Max Derrat
A hijab is an Islamic garment, commonly worn by Muslim women. It is generally understood to be worn by women after they hit puberty, and to discourage sexual advances from other men.
While it may disgust some of us, like myself, that under Islam, women are responsible for the sexual actions of men… but what is more disgusting than that, is the fact that some primary schools in the western world are letting children as young as six wear them!
In the United Kingdom, a survey was carried out by the Sunday Times in order to determine how many primary schools in England include the hijab as part of their uniform policy. After examining 800 primary schools, they found 18 percent of them include the hijab in the uniform policy. For England, which has over 17,000 primary schools nation-wide, the total figure is likely in the thousands.
Now, before you start to despair about the lengths human beings will go to in order to avoid the label of “racist”, let me introduce you to a few awesome women fighting against these policies. A Muslim feminist campaigner named Aisha Ali-Khan, has spoken out about the rising trend of children wearing this garment. While speaking to MailOnline, she said the following: “The hijab should be banned from primary schools but local authorities are afraid of causing offence to the Muslim community and afraid of being branded as racist. How can a four or five year old child make an informed choice? It’s not allowed in Islam so why is it being allowed in schools?”
Another woman, a children’s rights campaigner named Gina Khan added the following: “Schools are allowing it because they are afraid of being called Islamophobic and they have been told that this is a religious garment – but they need to support Muslim girls to have free choices, not to be set apart from other children.”
Other notable Muslim feminists have commented on the issue, including Shaista Gohir of the Muslim Women’s Network. Quote: “We challenge parents who spray tan or give pole dancing classes to seven-year-olds, so we should be challenging Muslim parents who make young children wear the hijab.”
In my opinion, I think it’s wonderful to see women who follow Islam speaking out against this type of sexist subjugation… but the ultimate question is whether or not their efforts are enough?
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4848100/Girls-young-five-allowed-wear-hijabs.html
Building a Better BS Detector
By Mike J.
Penn State professor of technology Dongwon Lee and professor of communications S. Shyam Sundar have received three-hundred thousand dollars from the National Science Foundation to create technology to help computers and smartphones determine what is and isn’t fake news. Lee believes that fake news is nothing new, but the advent of the internet and social media have exacerbated the problem. The two professors believe that through tracking the “characteristic indicators of fake news” they can develop formulas to enable digital devices to recognize and purge stories that contain them.
They say:
1. Human sexuality is an objective biological binary trait: “XY” and “XX” are genetic markers of male and female, respectively – not genetic markers of a disorder.
2. No one is born with a gender. Everyone is born with a biological sex.
3. A person’s belief that he or she is something they are not is, at best, a sign of confused thinking.
4. Puberty is not a disease and puberty-blocking hormones can be dangerous.
5. According to the DSM-V, as many as 98% of gender confused boys and 88% of gender confused girls eventually accept their biological sex after naturally passing through puberty.
6. Pre-pubertal children diagnosed with gender dysphoria may be given puberty blockers as young as eleven, and will require cross-sex hormones in later adolescence to continue impersonating the opposite sex. These children will never be able to conceive any genetically related children even via articifial reproductive technology. In addition, cross-sex hormones (testosterone and estrogen) are associated with dangerous health risks including but not limited to cardiac disease, high blood pressure, blood clots, stroke, diabetes, and cancer.
7. Rates of suicide are nearly twenty times greater among adults who use cross-sex hormones and undergo sex reassignment surgery, even in Sweden which is among the most LGBTQ – affirming countries.
8. Conditioning children into believing a lifetime of chemical and surgical impersonation of the opposite sex is normal and healthful is child abuse.
Source:https://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/gender-ideology-harms-children