Hijab - my weakness

When I read titles like A letter to Islam: we are women, not things: iLIVE Fills me not with trepidation but as a muslim woman, my back is automatically up. I can't take away the experience this woman has had at the hands of the men in her life, but I fail to see how her generalisations make me want to empathise with her. In one swift article she has insulted me, my intelligence and disrespected my choice- yes my choice to remain muslim. My friend Saaleha said it perfectly. "it's tiresome we shouldn't have to apologise all the time" I am by no standards a feminist, islamist and detest the term moderate muslim. Yes South African Muslims are possibly the only nation of muslims that are allowed to practice freely, regardless of the sect they belong to. But I refuse to have to explain that EVERYTIME. She disrespects me by saying: No self-respecting woman can be Muslim. I can't fight for every muslim in the rest of the world, I can only change perceptions when I encounter them. I respect her right to state her opinion, much the same as I have the right to negate her statements. I will accept that people like her are scarred by their experiences but she doesn't speak for me. I am more woman today because I am muslim. It gave me rights, taught me bounderies and allowed me to find alternate means to express myself,to be educated, to be free. My Islam taught it to me. My Father lived it and the every other man I have met and or encountered respected it.