For a civilization and value system that places such great emphasis on “freedom”, there are still plenty of ways that dissidents can be targeted in the modern West. Freedom has been described as a “hurray word” — a word “with little substantive meaning… an empty signifier in a hegemonic language game, to which we all have to defer”, in the words of Mark Haugaard, political scientist and editor of the Journal of Power.
In their latest effort to “liberate” Muslim women from the “oppression” of Islam, and to restore their dignity and honour, secular governments have started passing legislation forcing them to remove their clothes.
