All religion is a system of real control based on fantasy.

Whenever I see a woman in a hijab, niqab, burqa, etc. my heart goes out to the woman so covered because those are garments of oppression. When their situation is exacerbated by non-Muslims discriminating against them, calling names or what have you, that is adding insult to injury.

People should be able to voluntarily dress any way they choose. I know that many Muslim women love their religion and love the garments, but I wonder how many of them would opt to wear them had they not been indoctrinated in that faith from an early age.

The oppression of Western religions are often less visible but no less sad. Religion is a prison. That so many people voluntarily opt in is puzzling.

Good Morning Katie,
Thanks for the synopsis of the book. I think I'll check it out. I recommend "My Son the Fanatic" by Hanif Kureshi. It's both a short story and feature film. They came out in the 90s(?). It's an excellent account of a Pakistani-Muslim man who came of age in the 60s in London and his son.

Yes, it's similar to Mohammed's tale.

"She argues that by ignoring, or excusing, what is happening in Muslim societies over fears of appearing “Islamophobic,” liberals in the West are contributing to the oppression of women all over the planet."

No one is ignoring or excusing misogynistic behavior.
No one is ignoring or excusing homophobia.
No one is ignoring or excusing any of the atrocities committed in the name of any religion.

Combating islamophobia is not about protecting Islam, it's about protecting individual Muslims from persecution.

It is possible to hold two ideas in your head at the same time.

"Listen girl, I know you suffered horribly at the hands of these people and this ideology, but as a white American male, let me tell you about how you are wrong about Islam and the West's reaction to it."

6: They're never gonna get this. The idea you can even have a decent community of Muslims or a mosque is an alien concept to them because they're xenophobes. Why individualize Muslims when you can issue blanket condemnations? And under the guise of helping women too. Bonus!

And the reality is there's a lot of money to be made in the West blaming liberalism for extremism among Muslim populations.

I have no doubts about this woman's story, but it got published for a reason.

@7

She didn't suffer at the hands of an ideology, she suffered at the hands of her family.

Should we ban all religions because some religious people use their religion to justify the horrific things they do?

Just to be clear, being a victim of domestic violence doesn't make someone an expert on religion or religious liberty.

"Shut up and let me mansplain this woman's life, her feelings on her life, and what it all means. I am the expert here."

Name me one "liberal" who is "celebrating" Islam.

The standard liberal position on Islam is that it should be tolerated just like any other kink.

11: Your whole line of rhetorical argument here would be better supported if anyone actually believed you gave a fuck about women or human rights.

13: Bingo!

Its absurd that the sole example given is a spread in Teen Vogue - as if the fashion industry is some kind of ideological project rather than the purest sort of capitalism.

Teddy's troll game ain't what it used to be.

@17
Liberals can barely effect change here in the "west", how exactly are western liberals supposed to effect change in the middle east?

If she's an atheist now, why is her surname still Mohammed?

JFC Katie.This story is about a woman being horribly abused by her family using religion as the mechanism and that is deeply fucked up. The same story could be told by women who have escaped the Quiverfull movement, or the Fundamentalist Mormon towns of Arizona, or Hasidic communities of NYC. All Abrahamic religions have an ongoing problem with using the Book to oppress and disenfranchise women.
All of them.
But sure! Go ahead and pretend that it's only Islam.
It was only last fucking week that women in Northern Ireland stopped facing life in prison for having an abortion. A nice, White, western country. Where is the book full of hand wringing about western liberals not castigating Nuns over the habit for fear of being called anti-Christian? Where were the op eds decrying the barbarism of the Irish? Where was YOUR 700 word post on how celebrating St. Patrick's Day gives tacit approval to the magdalene laundries?

The whole "OOOOooOOO Liberals will give homophobia/misogyny/whateverthefuck a pass when Muslims do it" is a bullshit canard and YOU are not helping matters by feeding the douchebags on Slog shit that supports them in their delusion.

@20
What you've witnessed is the fear of cancel culture and the PC police.
The thing is, the kids on woke Twitter have no idea what the fuck they are talking about.

Yasmine Mohammed is just profiting off the fear of woke Twitter.
I know it sounds stupid, but it has worked before.
Just think Jordan Peterson.

@22
+1

Passionate partisan denials-cum-recriminations aside, I do see dissonance in how the American far left accommodates / contextualizes / equivocates / counterattacks in response to Unveiled, compared to the same people's reaction to Tara Westover's roughly equivalent Educated. In that case there seems to be no bar against savaging fundamentalist Mormonism (and rightly so imo).

Too much is made of this inconsistency. The wagging fingers on the right unfairly essentialize it to reject entire ideologies. But it's there. As with all such wrinkles in the fabric of ideology, the strongest evidence of its existence might be the instant high level of outrage that it's been pointed out:

"What? Of course I didn't fuck your brother!" Didn't fuck their boyfriend's brother.

But "WHAT!!!!! OF COURSE I DIDN'T!!!!! FUCK!!!! YOUR!!!! BROTHER!!!! YOU FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!!!!" did some brother fuckin'.

@22: It's not so much "Liberals will give homophobia/misogyny/whateverthefuck a pass when Muslims do it".

It's much closer to "Homophobia/misogyny/whateverthefuck, when committed by Islam, doesn't mobilize western feminists like it does when Christians do it.

When Islam is a theocracy and, therefore, the ACTUAL LAW of the land, the law that still uses stoning women to death for adultery and uses hitting women as punishment, then it is not a "family abuse problem". It is an Islam problem.

And anyone who defends that is a masogynist piece of shit, like all the woke lefties.

@28
Just because the assholery in my own backyard has a higher priority then the assholery in foreign lands does not mean that I don't care about said assholery in foreign lands.

Priorities.

@29
Yasmine Mohammed is from Canada you fucking moron.

@28: Bull. Shit.
@29: Again, where was your outrage at Ireland when women were thrown into the laundries FOR LIFE for "loose morals"? Or Spain! Where it's not rape if you're beaten unconscious first. These are Catholic countries so I'm assuming you're just as upset about the "Catholic problem"
And oh it is to LAUGH to see you, of all people, accuse ANYBODY else of being "a masogynist (sic) piece of shit"

33: Yup, you are 100 percent correct. Simply having Catholic beliefs or attending mass doesn't cause rape.

Did the church totally, monstrously mishandle the molestation issue? Oh yeah. Does the fact that a lot of my relatives are Catholic mean they, or their local churches, support sexual violence against children? No.

34: No, it's saying liberals have a blind spot that allows Islamic extremism to flourish when there's no evidence for that.

@13 Bullshit!

@33
Nice false equivalency.

She wasn't abused by imams at the mosque, she was abused by her family in her home.

@36

"There's no evidence for that."
--Guy who hasn't read the entire book about that

So, when's the next Slut Walk in Cairo, Islamabad, Tehran, Damascus, Constantinople, Kuala Lumpur, etc etc?

@32. Oh look who is piping up. The hypocritical "feminist" twat troll who defends ACTUAL partiarchy that harms women and makes it permissable by law.

P.s. you also don't know what the difference between a religion and a theocracy is. Idiot.

@42: Wait where?!
Oh! That's right, you're just writing about that little Straw Feminist that lives in your head again. Can I ask, did you cannibalize a broom to make her or did you scavenge some grass clippings from the neighbors?

This is unfortunately another piece in the downward spiraling turd that is Herzog's decline into conservative trolldom (see also ¨Latinx¨ and parroting Frank Bruni). This time there's not much of an excuse -- it has been pointed out to her that essentialilzing Islam doesn't advance her argument. This is a story about a shitty family and marrying an asshole, not Islam as a whole. The book's author probably knows this as well, but targetting Islam as the enemy is so hot right now, and hot sells. Both her and Herzog are lazy here, and the thinking parrots conservative black-and-white thinking that leaves no room for nuance or, for that matter, deeper understanding. Most unfortunate, although who actually thinks Herzog knows anything about Islam? I'm not sure about the author's credentials either. Her bios say she is a "university educator" but she doesn't seem to have an appointment but rather travels around lecturing at colleges.

@44 brain fart, meant Ross Douthat.

Islam is right about waHmen

"What about Christians! What about Catholics! What about this other bad thing! How come you didn't care about THAT!!!"

It's very, very strange to see all the good Seattle Wokesters freak out about a woman sharing her direct, lived experience with Islamic fundamentalists. All the shrieking, all the finger pointing--"Don't look over there! Look over here!"--all of your hysteria can not diminish the power of Yasmine's story, and it can not hide your hypocrisy, which stands revealed for all to see. I suspect that's why you are all so desperate to shout her down in the first place, along with any other uppity women, like Katie Herzog, who help her share her story.

Keep fighting the good fight, Katie. Don't let these bastards get you down.

Thank you for covering this necessary book. It’s essential that we untangle oppressive religious dogma and traditions from the notion of tolerance. Liberals can, at the same time, value cultural differences and beliefs while raising legitimate grievance with oppressive and damaging social and religious customs, such as female genital mutilation, forced marriage, honor killing, etc.

The idea that liberals must embrace universal tolerance is a dangerous and degrading idea for those who wish to see progress.

@47 & 48: LOL You keep clutching that little straw liberal to your heaving bosoms kids.

"LOL You keep clutching that little straw liberal to your heaving bosoms kids."

Lissa, you know the funniest thing about your counter arguments?

The funniest thing about them is: You don't have any.