I know this is a very controversial question, please feel free to voice your opinions but do so while staying respectful and following the forum rules.
This discussion is kinda based on this image:
I find it hard to actually voice an opinion on it myself, cause personally I don’t think it’s either one of the options but somewhere in the middle, I’m not sure if it’s leaning towards any side so maybe a good discussion will help me on that.
Personally, I think it’s all about choice. There’s nothing inherently feminist about how a woman dresses, in my opinion. It’s just when people tell a woman how she should dress that it becomes sexist
What a woman or girl wants to wear is her own business, not anyone else’s. And women’s clothing is never to blame for assault. Ever. 
Yeah, I guess I agree with you on that! Like I know a lot of woman dress modest because they actually fully want to do so themselves and there is no force or anything like that behind it, then I don’t think it’s sexist at all, I’m not sure if I personally would consider that feminist tho 
But we shouldn’t ignore the fact there are also woman who get told to dress modest and don’t (feel like they) have another choice, which I guess makes it sexist but idk, maybe even sexist is a too big word for it in some way.
Yeah when it comes to modesty and “immodesty”, I personally think evert person should think long and hard about the reasons why they’re deciding to dress the way they are and whether or not those reasons are sexist. Like, I went through different phases of showing more and less skin, and both were for sexist reasons. If men’s gaze factors into your dress choices in any way, I think that’s an issue.
However, at the same time, I think that people underestimate the role that sexist religious conventions play in their dress choices.
Take the Catholic mantilla (head scarf) as an example. A lot of women wear it as a symbol of a woman’s meekness. I used to buy into that. When I realised it was kinda sexist, it only briefly made me stop wearing the mantilla to Church. Then I came up with my own reasons: to honour Mary as the mother or Jesus. It’s all about intentions and reasons, imo.
Yeah, I totally agree with you on this!
Yeah, that’s too true, unfortunately, there are a lot of woman and girls who feel like they have to dress a certain way, and I’m not only talking about modest clothing in this case but more in general that in multiple social environments women get really told what to wear, but taking it back on the subject of modest clothing, take very Christian groups where women have to wear skirts of a certain length and aren’t free to make their own choice, I think that’s at least bad, and maybe even sexist especially if it’s enforced by the man.
Yeah, I 100% agree with this!
I think it is good that you came up with your own reasons to wear it and not because just because you felt like you had to, but that you actually made it a special symbol for yourself if that makes sense! I agree with you on the part of the intentions, if a woman just does it for the man I would call it sexist I guess, if she has her own intentions and reasons behind it why she wants to do it it is not an issue.
I don’t believe modest clothing is sexist, as long as whoever’s wearing it feels comfortable doing so. Really, it’s up to choice, and women can decide what they want to wear. 
Well said, haha, I agree 100%
Yeah, this is so annoying. There are so many cases where a girl feels the need to cover up to avoid drawing attention to her body. Women have been objectified so long that some people genuinely believe that female bodies are inherently “distracting” and it’s so gross. Especially in schools where the female dress code is so strict.
This is why I’m a bit iffy when it comes to religion. I mentioned this on another thread a while ago but I went to an all girl Catholic school and it was so common to shame girls for their skirt length. They were always told that if they rolled up their skirts they were doing it for male attention instead of a basic “roll it down because dress code”. We also couldn’t wear trousers.
I also hated the superiority complex that the girls who had their skirts long cared about their education and the girls with short skirts and makeup didn’t. Since when does a piece of fabric determine your grades?
To be honest, I’m not really sure if I’m a big fan of the implications of the word “modest” tbh. It just seems weird to me to place so much virtue on a piece of cloth
I won’t state my opinion on this.
But just wanted to point out how “gender roles” etc are a societal pressure, but burkas are a choice. Give me a break.
Burkas are a choice in America and most of Europe, if we’re talking legally, but in many middle eastern countries women are forced to wear them. And either way, they do stem from sexism of men using the Qua’ran to force women to cover up so they don’t have ‘lustful thoughts’, which also gave them an excuse for rape/assualt.
Even in the western world, in very traditional muslim families and communities girls can be punished and even threatened to be kicked out of the house (which happened to a friend of mine) for not wearing a hijab/burka. If it’s the womans choice to wear it, awesome, but I’m willing to say a good amount of the time it’s not.
The thing is, I know a lot of women who wear the hijab or the burkha for pretty cool reasons. I mean, sure a lot of reasons stem from sexism, but one of the reasons is so that the people around them focus on what they’re saying rather than what they look like, which is pretty cool to me
You misspelled “in a very ignorant family”. The Quran literally says that it’s a choice, some Sahaba’s wives didn’t even have a hijab. I come from a traditional muslim family, my mom has a degree in the 10 ways of reading the Quran, I’m atheist and she doesn’t care.
As the learning of the Prophets say “teach them until 11, then it’s their choice to follow their path”. I’m not middle eastern but my parents come from North Africa (which is an arabized country). Women are allowed to wear whatever but even men have their traditional clothings that people seem to not recognize (long skirts, covered heads just like women).
I’m not saying that extremist places don’t exist (example KSA) but this is NOT being traditional and not following the religion teachings, it’s using something and twisting words to get what you want
I think everyone has the right to do whatever they want, and dress however they like. If they like the way they dress and don’t feel pressured to do so, then it’s fine, in my opinion. c:
Preach it! 
The fact that this needs to be up for discussion just shows the hatred and ignorance for our Muslim/Islamic people. Extremism is in a lot of religions but somehow we’re most picked on for it.
Currently, yes. Historically, no. Don’t get historical tunnel vision and compete with this kind of thing. Belief systems are all corruptable. Religious or no
The image is complete nonsense. If you’re looking at other people’s clothing choices and making snap judgments about their personality or upbringing you’re just being shallow. Real human beings aren’t cartoon character designs. They’re not specially designed for you to be able to tell as much about them from their looks as possible.
People just dress a certain way, their reasons don’t matter. If there’s sexism ingrained into their decisionmaking, you won’t be able to convince them of that. Trust them to figure out for themselves, don’t be so damn judgmental
When the teacher gives you d-merit thingy because you having your shoulders on show is ‘distracting’.
