Summary: Saideh Jamshidi, founder of Goltune gave a speech in Madison, WI, at Ignite Madison on Goltune and its mission.
When Yves Saint Laurent co-founder Pierre Bergé recently advised fellow designers to have nothing to do with Muslim fashion, he sounded less like a renowned global fashion designer and more like the Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose speeches I used to listen to during the beginning of the Iran revolution in 1979.
Bergé argued that designers’ main responsibility is to make women beautiful, not to “collaborate with this dictatorship which imposes this abominable thing by which we hide women and make them live a hidden life.”
Maybe Bergé was referring to the long-standing belief that Muslim women are oppressed and are victims because they do not fight for themselves and because their government makes them second-class citizens. I wonder if Berge ever watched news reports, or read stories of brave Iranian women who have been fighting to bring about democracy and independence during 1979 revolution. Has he ever watched news about Egyptian, Iraqi, Libyan, or Bahraini women who fought for their countries’ independence during the Arab Spring?
Saideh Jamshid talked about the controversy over hijab fashion both in Muslim and non-Muslim countries at Ignite Madison. She was among other 9 speakers talking “what they do” to change the world to a better planet.