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Woman Chess Player Makes Move for Religious Liberty
The New American
by Steve Bias
2/22/2017
Excerpt:
In 1920, George Truett, pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, preached a message on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to a crowd of about 15,000. It was a message calling for religious liberty.
“It is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices.”
Lest anyone misconstrue his words as a call for mere toleration, Truett added, “Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God.… God wants free worshipers and no other kind.”
Governments, however, have been much more likely to infringe upon that liberty, instead of protecting every person’s religious liberty as is their proper role. In many Muslim countries, women are required by law to don the hijab (headscarves) in public, while in some other places, such as France, the hajib is banned.
One would suspect that Truett, whose descendants own the highly successful Chick-fil-A restaurants, would have disapproved of either position, but would commend the action taken by Nazi (her first name, which means “gentle,” and is pronounced Nah-Zee, not the shortened form of National Socialist, the party of Hitler) Paikidze-Barnes, the reigning U.S. women’s chess champion.
The World Women’s Chess Championship is being held in Tehran, Iran, but Paikidze is not there, because the theocratic Iranian government has made it a requirement that all participants (Muslim or non-Muslim) in the tournament wear the hajib.
She announced her decision in an Instagram post. “Some consider a hijab part of culture. But, I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. That’s why I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression.” She was unsuccessful in getting the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to move the championship out of Iran. However, Iran was the only nation to submit a bid to host the event.
A spokesman for FIDE said that they were not requiring participants to wear a hajib, but they do require players to “respect local traditions, customs, laws and religions at all times and be aware of your actions to ensure that do not offend.” (bold and underline emphasis added.)
Ironically, the game of chess is believed to have originated in the Persian Empire (basically Iran) in the sixth century. The familiar “check,” which announces an attack on the opposing king, is a variation of the Persian word for king — shah. The actual capture of the opposing king is “checkmate,” or shah-mate, which translates roughly as “the king is helpless.”
One would expect that feminists and their allies in the media to be supportive of Paikidze’s courageous stand for women’s rights, if they cannot support the concept of religious liberty, but she has received very little encouragement from either. In fact, Azadeh Moaveni, writing in an op-ed for the the New York Times, was quite critical of her, writing, “This kind of protest — outsiders who think they know best — is exactly the opposite of what most Iranian women want, and is at the heart of what’s worst about policing how Muslim women dress.” (Liberty is not something that should be up to what “most” want, but rather what an individual wants).
How exactly forcing women — especially non-Muslim women such as Paikidze, who are not even Iranians — to wear a headscarf as part of a religious practice they do not believe in, is somehow “policing how Muslim women dress” is not stated. But “policing” in Iran is done by the Iranian government, which actually patrols the streets to ensure that all women wear the hajib
.................................................. ..............
View the complete article, including image, at:
https://www.thenewamerican.com/world...igious-liberty
The New American
by Steve Bias
2/22/2017
Excerpt:
In 1920, George Truett, pastor of Dallas’ First Baptist Church, preached a message on the steps of the U.S. Capitol to a crowd of about 15,000. It was a message calling for religious liberty.
“It is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices.”
Lest anyone misconstrue his words as a call for mere toleration, Truett added, “Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God.… God wants free worshipers and no other kind.”
Governments, however, have been much more likely to infringe upon that liberty, instead of protecting every person’s religious liberty as is their proper role. In many Muslim countries, women are required by law to don the hijab (headscarves) in public, while in some other places, such as France, the hajib is banned.
One would suspect that Truett, whose descendants own the highly successful Chick-fil-A restaurants, would have disapproved of either position, but would commend the action taken by Nazi (her first name, which means “gentle,” and is pronounced Nah-Zee, not the shortened form of National Socialist, the party of Hitler) Paikidze-Barnes, the reigning U.S. women’s chess champion.
The World Women’s Chess Championship is being held in Tehran, Iran, but Paikidze is not there, because the theocratic Iranian government has made it a requirement that all participants (Muslim or non-Muslim) in the tournament wear the hajib.
She announced her decision in an Instagram post. “Some consider a hijab part of culture. But, I know that a lot of Iranian women are bravely protesting this forced law daily and risking a lot by doing so. That’s why I will NOT wear a hijab and support women’s oppression.” She was unsuccessful in getting the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to move the championship out of Iran. However, Iran was the only nation to submit a bid to host the event.
A spokesman for FIDE said that they were not requiring participants to wear a hajib, but they do require players to “respect local traditions, customs, laws and religions at all times and be aware of your actions to ensure that do not offend.” (bold and underline emphasis added.)
Ironically, the game of chess is believed to have originated in the Persian Empire (basically Iran) in the sixth century. The familiar “check,” which announces an attack on the opposing king, is a variation of the Persian word for king — shah. The actual capture of the opposing king is “checkmate,” or shah-mate, which translates roughly as “the king is helpless.”
One would expect that feminists and their allies in the media to be supportive of Paikidze’s courageous stand for women’s rights, if they cannot support the concept of religious liberty, but she has received very little encouragement from either. In fact, Azadeh Moaveni, writing in an op-ed for the the New York Times, was quite critical of her, writing, “This kind of protest — outsiders who think they know best — is exactly the opposite of what most Iranian women want, and is at the heart of what’s worst about policing how Muslim women dress.” (Liberty is not something that should be up to what “most” want, but rather what an individual wants).
How exactly forcing women — especially non-Muslim women such as Paikidze, who are not even Iranians — to wear a headscarf as part of a religious practice they do not believe in, is somehow “policing how Muslim women dress” is not stated. But “policing” in Iran is done by the Iranian government, which actually patrols the streets to ensure that all women wear the hajib
.................................................. ..............
View the complete article, including image, at:
https://www.thenewamerican.com/world...igious-liberty