Are Lebanese Women the “Freest” In The Arab World?

Alex Shams makes this interesting point in Kabobfest:

Why […] does the myth that Lebanese women are the “freest” in the Middle East persist? From the many conversations I have had on the subject, much of the evidence seems to come from the idea that all Lebanese women walk around wearing short skirts, going to the beach in bikinis, and clubbing until the morning. Within this conception of women’s rights, then, it is the fact that Lebanese women’s bodies are exposed that is the greatest factor for whether they are free or not.

While I agree with Alex’s important general argument (that the perception of freedom in Lebanon is distorted and that Lebanese women in many ways are less free than many of their Arab sisters) I think that the way he formulated his last point could have been better.

Bear with me for a moment because this is going to be a nuanced and nitpicky argument. Imagine if Shams replaced the sentence:

“it is the fact that Lebanese women’s bodies are exposed that is the greatest factor for whether they are free or not”

with the sentence:

“it is the fact that Lebanese women can choose what to wear that is the greatest factor for whether they are free or not”

Although they seem similar, I hope you can tell the difference.

The thing is, the freedom to choose what to wear is an important freedom that Lebanese women with all levels of modesty enjoy and that many of their Arab sisters envy. The simple choice of a short-sleeved shirt instead of a long-sleeved one (or a abaya) in a hot day is a manifestation of that freedom that ladies in Iran and the Gulf would kill for. But that freedom is constantly being mocked and taken to extremes as “the freedom to bare skin (read: be a slut)” by even the most well-meaning of feminists, who in their quest for other freedoms unwittingly undermine the value of what they already have.