I know I said I was gone for the weekend (and I am, but I need to get this out of my chest or else…).
Someone on Twitter posted a link to these so called “burka cartoons”. I set to find who exactly is behind them and all I could find about the author, someone who goes by the name of Man-D is what she says of herself in her Twitter account: Female Cartoonist, Atheist, Comedy Writer, Feminist, Brunette, Bit Cross. I even went a couple of months back in her Twitter stream to see if she spoke about any personal info that would help identify what kind of feminist she is. By the looks of it, she is a White one based in London, UK.
And that’s exactly why context matters and who produces a cartoon is crucial information in a case like this. If it was indeed produced by a feminist artist with an Islamic background (an atheist who was raised by a Muslim family, for instance), then yes, these cartoons would be legitimate critique of her personal experience. But from the information I have at hand right now, this looks like a case of more racist drivel, a supposedly “comic” attempt to fuel the pervasive Islamophobia we already have everywhere in Europe. You know, more of the same… only this time, under the pretense of “feminism”.
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