New York Governor Kathy Hochul showed up to a public event this weekend wearing a hijab. Photos from the appearance circulated Saturday, August 30, showing the governor with her hair fully covered in what her office would presumably call a gesture of cultural respect.
The 25th anniversary of September 11th is less than two weeks away.
This is the same Kathy Hochul who has spent her political career positioning herself as a champion of women's empowerment. The same governor who regularly invokes feminist rhetoric about breaking barriers and fighting systems that tell women what to wear, how to behave, and what to cover. She put on a head covering mandated by a religious patriarchy — voluntarily, publicly, and with cameras rolling.
The hijab is not a fashion accessory. In much of the world, it is compulsory. Women in Iran have been beaten, imprisoned, and killed for refusing to wear one. The morality police don't ask politely. Afghan women under Taliban rule don't get to choose. Hochul, standing in one of the freest states in the freest country on earth, chose to perform submission as a photo op.
The timing makes it worse, though the act would be absurd on any calendar date. We are approaching the 25th anniversary of the largest mass murder of Americans on domestic soil, carried out by Islamist terrorists in New York — Hochul's own state. Nearly 3,000 people died. The towers fell in lower Manhattan. First responders are still dying from cancers they contracted in the rubble. And the governor of New York chose this particular window to make a public display of religious deference.
The feminist contradiction is so obvious it barely needs stating, but here we are. "Fight the patriarchy" is the bumper sticker. Unless it's a patriarchy that requires women to cover their hair, in which case it's suddenly "cultural sensitivity." The rules of modern progressive feminism apparently include a carve-out for any tradition that polls well with a donor base.
Critics on social media were blunt. "The life of a Democrat is one giant contradiction," one commenter wrote. Another pointed out the obvious: "Almost the 25th anniversary of the largest mass murder of Americans by Islamists." These aren't fringe takes. They're the first thing any normal person thinks when they see that photo.
Progressive politicians have done this dance before — selectively embracing cultural practices they would condemn in any other context. A conservative Christian church asking women to cover their heads would get a segment on MSNBC about theocratic oppression. Hochul donning a hijab gets a press release about inclusion.
The question isn't whether Hochul has the right to wear whatever she wants. She does. The question is what it signals when a self-described feminist governor voluntarily adopts the visible symbol of a religious dress code that is violently enforced against millions of women worldwide — and does it in the state that lost the most on September 11th, weeks before the anniversary.
Some contradictions answer themselves. This one comes with a photo.
