Persecutor or Rescuer?

When the white knight knows so little about his damsel in distress, how does he expect to rescue her? When she turns around and tells him to call her "Ms." and to stop telling her what to do, will he be outraged at her ingratitude? When she says she's quite happy wearing a traditional outfit, thank you, but could she please get maternity leave, will he snort in disgust at his charge? When she wraps her head in a veil and stands up for her Islamic prayer, will he throw up his hands at her inability to throw off Islamic slavery? When she says why thank you for your help, but I need my husband out of Guantanamo and my son out of your Musharraf's jail, and then I'd like to open a Qur'an school for girls -- what will he say then? When she says she's got her own ways of effecting the revolution, and it doesn't involve selling out brown men to America, will he decide against trying to rescue her after all?

Muslim women are done being rescued. Muslim women are done being defined. Muslim women are done being told what they need. Muslim women could use help, doing what they think they should do.

[via Religion Dispatches]