Letters, December 6

Cover-ups

Religious sexism: While part of me thinks I should mind my own business, I find I can’t be silent about “No Veiled Threats” [by Jennifer Mathieu, November 15]. Reading about Heidi, an American convert who chooses to veil, stirred such emotions in me. I was brought up in conservative Christianity, and Heidi’s words reminded me so much of hearing Christian women say aloud how they choose to let their husbands make all the decisions, handle all the money and basically treat them like children. It always made my blood boil, and I wanted to stand up and yell, “Haven’t you ever seen The Stepford Wives?”

As a woman, I will never understand the choice to give up bits of one’s freedom or to wear a garment that symbolizes repression. Would an African-American woman choose to wear shackles? Would that be okay? Would no one say, “No, my sister, you are free”?

Denise Harvard
Houston

Motivated Muslim: Any woman, and I repeat, any woman who agrees to an “arranged marriage” is oppressed…duh.

Also, the grand “prophet” married a nine-year-old.

I have problems with this religion, but hey, this is America, so you go, girl.

Susan Craig
Houston

God and garb: I found the stories of these women to be rather revealing. I would never call those women terrorists or oppressed, but I might use the term “confused” to describe them.

I could not help feeling that all of the women actually believed that their very calculated choice to cover in public did somehow make them feel closer to God. Those sisters need to wake up and smell the Turkish coffee.

When you go to your closet and decide to wear your niqab instead of an Astros cap, that is all about you. The god of your choice simply does not enter into that decision. Whether it be a Mormon’s mysterious undergarments, a Rastaman’s nappy dreadlocks or the pope’s big ol’ pointy hat, what intelligent person can deny that it is all pretty superficial stuff?

Are those symbols really any more significant than a businessman’s tie, a Deadhead’s tie-dyed T-shirt or an exotic dancer’s heels? All of these can be described only as a means of human expression. Nothing more, nothing less.

Don Browne
Houston

Showing respect: I just wanted to say that I loved this story, the content and the way it was written. I am a Christian woman and have really been “coming into the faith” in my heart for the last year or so — despite the fact that I was raised Catholic.

Ironically, I could totally relate to the Muslim women in this story and their choice whether to cover. I respect them for their decision either way. And I wish them well in these trying times.

Rebecca Pickett
Houston

Firing Line

Bayou Rifles’ bane: George Flynn’s generally excellent article [“Range Wars,” November 22] did a good job of reporting the facts but failed to provide any good analysis about a subject that most of your readers will not immediately comprehend. That key point leaves Bayou Rifles gun club between a rock and a hard place. To wit: Safety and an open-to-all membership policy are almost mutually exclusive.

Ranges where membership is by referral only are self-regulating as to the number of idiots in their population. No club member wants to look bad by referring for membership just any bozo who asks for it. The most poorly designed, built and equipped private shooting range can be perfectly safe if it is used by only a self-policing group of good people.

On the other hand, all-inclusive (or “public”) ranges need high-quality, expensive design and construction, as well as expensive and well-trained full-time staffs just to compensate for the lower average quality of customer.

I seriously doubt that Bayou Rifles, with its tiny membership, could survive an Army Corps of Engineers-mandated transition to being a public facility. Given their internal squabbles, the lawsuit and the fact that someone, someday, is going to notice that over the years they’ve probably pumped enough lead into their backing berms to qualify as a toxic waste dump, I am afraid this may be the twilight of Bayou Rifles. Even though it’s been over a decade since I was there, I’d be sad to see them go.

Bernard Owens
Spring