What I learned from the gendered experiences of both Indigenous and Muslim women is that the Quebec government has an ‘us versus them’ mentality towards non-caucasians, especially women.
In the talk about Indigenous women, the speakers Lucy and Jen connected the issues of climate change, pipelines and violence against women, and the issue became simple: the government does not actually care about the Indigenous community. The plans on the pipelines and oil sands did not have the consent of the Indigenous community, on which they would be invading their territory (their reserves) for the dirty process of oil extraction, which damages their way of life as well as their territory. In addition, the ‘man camps’ are often places of sexual assault of Indigenous women, who are statistically raped and murdered many times more frequently than women of other ethnicities. Through all this, it is clear that the message sent is that the opinion of Indigenous People’s does not matter to the government, nor does their health or safety.
Secondly, Nadia Naqvi explains how law 21 has affected her life and career. Since the government has itself passed a law based on the erasing of cultural and religious symbols, the (ignorant and unfortunately misinformed) citizens of Quebec will follow suite the ideologies portrayed through this racist law. The law prevents people who wear any religious symbols as a religious requirement working in the public sector. Under this law, Nadia cannot get promoted while her Caucasian colleagues can, solely because of the garment she wears on her head, the hijab. This is a discrimination enforced by the government, and she has faced other racist comments throughout her entire life as well.
These examples of oppression can connect to our course because we know that the systems put into place are gendered institutions. These institutions are not made for women to thrive or have their voice be heard. The Quebec government is acting exactly how the institutions do: oppressing women, not letting their voice be heard, and disregarding concern of their health, safety and livelihood.
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Lovers and Fighters | Section 22 