The other day I was reading a text for class titled “Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving?” But I read the title a little too quickly and thought it said “Do Muslim Women Really Need Shaving?” My initial response was that Muslim women may not necessarily need shaving because they mostly wear burkas and adhere to a conservative dress code. Now talk about ignorance! In this instance, I assumed what some Muslim women might want based on what little knowledge I had of their culture. Because I thought it was not my job to interfere with the practices of women in Muslim countries, nor do I need to educate myself on what a Muslim woman really needs to feel liberated, right?

How are we to deal with cultural differences without cultural relativism – an excuse to say it’s their culture, and it’s not my business. As a Western feminist, I do not under any circumstances have the right to decide what qualifies as “liberation” for women around the world. Being feminist does not mean being Western. There is hard work involved in recognizing and respecting the differences between the various ways in which women find ways to be liberated and resist the power structures that control them.

Let’s take on the Western obsession with the burqa or hijab for example. Anthropologist Lila Abu-Lughod suggests that, “We must take care not to reduce the diverse situations and attitudes of millions of Muslim women to a single item of clothing.” The burqa is described as “portable seclusion,” many women see it as a liberating invention because it has enabled women to move out of segregated living spaces while still observing the basic moral requirement of separating and protecting women from unrelated men. The burqas in a sense protect women from the sexualized femininity associated with today’s consumerism.

February 1 has been commemorated as World Hijab Day since 2013, as an initiative to “Foster religious tolerance and understanding by inviting women to experience the hijab for one day.” In theory, this seems like a flawless way to end discrimination and Islamophobia, but instead of understanding the cultural customs and history of head coverings it promotes only to fix a mere symptom instead of correcting the cause. This limits the faith and lived experiences of a Muslim women to what she wears on her head

The problem here may be oversimplification; it seems a hard concept to grasp that a woman can both support and resist the power system in which she is living. While being in support of sexual segregation, women can protect their separate sphere where the defiance takes place. In male-defined spheres, Muslim women are often expected to be subordinate and submissive. It must be made clear that by wearing a burka, women are not subject to masculinist systems and can maintain integrity over their bodies and sexuality.

It can be argued that the veil in fact gives Muslim women free choice and shows evidence of their liberation. Many people within Muslim countries are looking to find modes to fight present injustice, that are not by any means similar to those of feminists in the West. While my view of “liberation” may include being able to strut around a grocery store in my bikini without getting cat-called, this is not that of a Muslim female my age, nor would this be her solution to liberation. Other desires are more meaningful to different groups of people. It is important to respect and be aware of the many different paths to social change that the global feminist can take on her own way to liberation.

Speak out against the violent actions that Muslim societies face at the hands of Western governments, or the ways in which conversations around Muslim women should not remain centered around their headscarves only. Advance the struggle, instead of being complicit in oppression.