Sara Yasin is a Palestinian-American blogger and writer.

The Ukranian feminist group Femen’s battle cry of “Muslim women, let’s get naked!” quickly provoked a counterprotest among Muslim women who defend the hijab, or veil, as an empowering symbol. Inevitably in this debate, we were left with both groups vying to answer the same question: Is the hijab oppressive or liberating? But it’s the wrong one to be asking.

Wearing a hijab isn’t inherently liberating – but neither is baring one’s breasts. What is liberating is being able to choose either of these things. It’s pretty ludicrous to think that oppression is somehow proportional to how covered or uncovered someone’s body is. Both sides of this argument present a shallow understanding of women’s empowerment, which only drowns out the substantive challenges facing all women – issues that cannot be encapsulated in a debate about a piece of fabric.

A ban on niqabs in France or miniskirts in Uganda, or warped legislation on reproductive rights in the U.S. -- all these efforts tell women that our bodies are not our own.

The distracting clash over hijab is frustrating, but I suspect that Femen and its Muslim feminist critics are troubled by some of the same bigger issues that worry me. The inspiration for Femen’s protest, a follower named Amina Tyler who is under fire in Tunisia, posed topless last month with the words “my body is my own” scrawled across her naked torso. Perhaps I wouldn’t have chosen her form of protest, but her words resonated with me.

Whether it’s a ban on niqabs in France or miniskirts in Uganda, or warped legislation on reproductive rights in the United States, these efforts send a consistent signal: that our bodies are not our own. Secular or religious, liberal or conservative – the factions aren’t on the same side, but they’re all eager to declare war on women’s bodies.

That’s what we’ll overlook if we argue about the hijab. There are women who face inequality in the name of long-held religious or cultural beliefs, but Femen’s one-size-fits-all feminism won’t fix that. What these women need is education, political rights and spaces for dissent. They need to be empowered to shake up institutions. But in focusing on what someone is wearing, we ignore the issues we can’t necessarily see. That’s a pretty sad version of feminism.