I wish everyone understood that not every Muslim woman who wears the burqa wants to debate or justify her choice. It is exactly that: an individual choice. We live in a society that allows for autonomy. So, when the words “forced to wear” appear in relation to the burqa or hijab, and are contrasted with “burqa ban”, I find myself wondering how the people suggesting this aren’t able to understand their own hypocrisy.

A ban means the restriction of freedom – exactly what these people are rallying against. The “burqa ban” is perceived and suggested by many over and over as some sort of liberating solution for Muslim women. But no white man or woman is ever going to want my liberation as a Muslim woman more than I do. They can’t give me liberation because I must take that for myself. I must be the owner of what frees me and not the product of somebody else’s conditioned liberation for me.

I’ve often thought about what a productive conversation about the burqa would look like, and it doesn’t include banning anything. It includes educating women in communities that they have a choice. That the burqa is allowed but they should only wear it if they want to. That the burqa isn’t Islamically mandated clothing.

However, nobody is looking to progress or have a constructive conversation because… well, because all of this uproar is not about the burqa. Every time a Muslim woman and her body are discussed, we are used to political point score, improve white men’s bids for leadership or appeal to the far right. All of these conversations are hollow. They lack sincerity, lack real want for any sort of progress or well-being of those being discussed.

And, most of the time, they lack the voice of actual Muslim women.

As a Muslim woman, this is what I want you to know about the burqa debate