It is very complicated. For example, your assumption that the Hijab signifies sexism is contested by every single woman I have known who wears one (which admittedly is a low number and not at all representative of the bigger picture).
That said, there are problems everywhere. We can't solve the problems there, it's not our place to. But we can solve our problems here in the ASF. For example, if a woman is attending an ASF event in a Hijab and we assume she is wearing it because of inequality in her culture then we are not creating a welcoming environment. We are creating barriers between her and us because of assumptions based on what our own culture teaches us. In my (admittedly limited) experience such a woman is likely wearing the Hajib because she chooses to do so and we should respect her right to make that choice. If it's not a choice for her then it's not something that we can directly influence but we can still make her welcome within our community. Ross ________________________________ From: Geertjan Wielenga <geert...@apache.org> Sent: Thursday, May 9, 2019 11:27 AM To: diversity@apache.org Subject: Diversity in a diverse world Hi all, Just a trigger warning here -- I was in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia last week, giving a course in which Apache NetBeans was used. There were 8 people on the course, three of which were women completely covered in black hijabs with only their eyes showing. I do think safe spaces, microaggressions, and trigger warnings are very important -- but in an ecosystem where there are literally women in the back of the classroom with only their eyes showing, it seems complicated to address this diversity topic at all, unless we're not concerned about the diversity issues connected to superiority, colonialism, and ethnocentrism, etc. And... a year ago those three women would not have been in a computer class at all, so the fact that they were even in the room was a sign of massive progress. Just want to raise this because what some might see as diversity could be pretty problematic in a global context -- unless we're comfortable, or at least very prepared, to deal with the fall out. Gj
