[lbo-talk] Modernization, Not Westernization

[James Heartfield]

"The correct path would have been to modernize without equating it with 
Westernization," says Yoshie, but I am not sure that the example she gives, 
adoption of the Latin alphabet is necessarily a wrong step. After all 
Hungarian, which is a turkish language survives quite happily with the latin 
alphabet, and arabic script is no less alien to the Turkish language. An 
Ethiopian friend explained to me (can this be right?) that Coptic is written 
right to left, having originally been the other way around, but influenced 
by Arab neighbours it was reversed. There is nothing wrong in changing your 
script if it helps.

As to headscarves I am not sure what it means to dismiss modesty-enforcing 
dress codes as 'western; but not 'modern'. Are we really saying that 
equality between the sexes is a western, not a human value?