feminism and Multiculturalism

This feature published in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Australian e-journal; OnlineOpinion jumps straight to the point by using two questions to lead the article. “Do multiculturalism and feminism mix? What about feminism and religious freedom?”

Although Abrupt this approach works well in the context of an online publication. As online readers are less likely to have the time and level of concentration as a newspaper reader.

The journalist Leslie Cannold is by-lined in this piece which is essentially opinion based. Leslie lays out a social debate for the reader, inviting them to join with repeated use of rhetorical questions.

“So what should be done when the values we hold about cultural and religious diversity, and our beliefs about equality between the sexes, collide?”

This ‘collision’ or conflict provides the back bone of the article, and around this examples and opinions are brought in. The article is jam-packed with information, which could be expected from an academic writer. There is little descriptive colour to the piece, accept the odd dig at male politicians:

“Certainly it was the first time many Australian feminists heard the fair, fat and 50-ish men who run the nation even mention the word feminism, little less in such impassioned and unequivocal tones.”

This article does, however make use of other sources, mainly academic. Schollars and politicians break up the voice of the author, this gives the article a detached feel. The reader is left wondering what individual women think. This shows the limitations of opinion based features, which in this case despite being well researched lack the insight of a narrative of real life experience.

The closest the feature comes to touching on the real poeple involved in this debate is very brief and cold:

“A story of an Indian student facing a forced marriage that would preclude her graduation from high school. While the 17-year-old admitted that her parents’ decision had “messed up” her dreams and plans, leaving her “tormented”, she bristled at her teacher’s suggestion that she might resist. “In our religion, we have to think of our parents first … I will do it the Muslim way”.

This story is just a minor part of the feature. It was however, the most interesting part. The debate comes to life fleetingly in these lines before returning to the dry opinion of the rest of the article.

This opinion based feature focuses on a fascinating topic but leaves the reader wanting real life experiences to bring it to life. Although this is the nature of opinion pieces and they still provide a good read if only to find out more about the journalist, who in this cased has written many articles about multicultural issues, most notably To Hijab or not to Hijab?