News & Comment
Japan Faces Campaign from Women to End Forced High-Heels in the Work Place

News

On the 3rd of June 2019 the BBC reported on the campaign of Yumi Ishikawa who was made to wear uncomfortable high heeled shoes while working in a Funeral Parlor in Japan.
“Her tweets on the issue went viral with more than 30,000 shares.”

The campaign is referred to in Japan as #KuToo and references the #MeToo movement, according to Kyodo News. Campaigners say that wearing high heels is seen as obligatory when applying for jobs. This is similar to another story in 2015 where a London receptionist was sent home from work without pay after she refused to wear high heels.

Comment

There is a very misleading political advertising campaign that is globally dominant and that is the idea that women in the West are inevitably happier and have zero restriction on what to wear, how to behave and what to look like. These examples above prove the exact opposite; capitalist principles will always put money before morals and women are viewed as just another material object that can make companies more money. Society is programmed to use women’s bodies to sell goods and the hyper-focus on a women body parts to attract attention is part of how good marketing works. High heels feed the image of women as desirable objects, thus making the companies more “desirable”. This sick and twisted logic is why women globally suffer from low self-esteem, eating disorders and high rates of depression.

The Dove Global Beauty and Confidence Report 2016 found that 4 out of 5 women have low self-esteem and poor body confidence. Depression and eating disorders are rising at an alarming rate in the Western nations, with these dangerous trends are becoming more common in the Muslim nations as Western culture and social media take over young minds. Unfortunately suicide and self-harm are also major issues in young girls under the age of maturity; they are in a deep state of crisis when they are only just starting their innocent lives! If these trends are to be reversed, women must reclaim their dignity and respect as afforded to them by their Creator Allah (swt) who made women a partner with men to be looked after and treated with respect as the dignified citizens, mothers, daughters and wives of our Islamic nation. The Khalifah in the Islamic State will enforce the Islamic dress code in public which does not sexualize the women or use her as a sales tool, rather it allows the protection of the Social System laws so women can be truly liberated from fashion labels and body image trends.

(قُلْ لِلْمُؤْمِنِيْنَ يَغُضُّوْا مِنْ أَبْصَارِهِمْ وَيَحْفَظُوْا فُرُوْجَهُمْ ذَلِكَ أَزْكَى لَهُمْ)

“Say to the believing men that: they should cast down their glances and guard their private parts (by being chaste). This is better for them.” [Surah an-Noor: 30]

(يَا أَيُّهَا النَّبِيُّ, قُلْ لأَزْوَاجِكَ وَبَنَاتِكَ وَنِسآءِ الْمُؤْمِنِيْنَ: يُدْنِيْنَ عَلَيْهِنَّ مِنْ جَلاَبِيْبِهِنَّ)

“O Prophet! Say to your wives, your daughters, and the women of the believers that: they should let down upon themselves their jalabib.” [Surah Ahzaab .59]

Allah (swt) is the Most Generous and Merciful to His believers when He gave clear guidelines of dress to women so that they could not be victims to the plots of plans of humans wanting to use and abuse them.

Written for the Central Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir by
Imrana Mohammad