Claims have been made in this thread about what a person (in, I stress, a western democracy) can and can't do whilst wearing a Burqa, and I'd like to look at the factual basis of such claims.
Psyke wrote the following:
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Originally Posted by Psyke Phaeton  I walked into a Subway once and the two ladies working there had on full burquas. I was taken aback, it was alien to me. But I ignored the surprise and made my order (in a somewhat surreal state) but everything proceeded as normal. The conversations were normal and natural. It was only my reactions that were a problem, there seemed to be no objective problem. |
Forgive me for being pedantic Psyke, but accuracy is important here, so let me double-check. Am I to understand that by "full burqa" above you meant clothing that included face-covering, in the form of a semi-transparent veil that covered the entire face, or an opaque veil that left only the eyes showing?
A different case:
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But Nada Ibrahim, a Griffith University PhD student, says the veil is an integral part of her identity. ....
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"For example, it would be unfair and unjust to say that a Muslim woman like myself, living in Australia, is living with the cultural values of Saudi Arabia or Afghanistan," she said.
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http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2...23/2606236.htm)
Now, I want to be very upfront about this - Ms Ibrahim's picture on the site does *not* show her wearing any sort of face-covering. But its possible that was an editorial decision. I say this because she said:
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... She says she chooses to wear the veil ....
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"More than anything, for a lot of people who resist the veil, what they are resisting is that confrontation of identity of a Muslim woman," she said.
"I'm a Muslim woman, I am prepared to wear this and I don't fall into whatever fashion dictates, because at the end of the day I'm not a slave of that - I'm saying no to that.
"And I'm saying no to a huge cosmetic industry; to a huge fashion industry."
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Nada says there have been some occasions, since living in Australia, where she has felt discriminated against for choosing to wear a veil.
She says it is a matter of respect.
"Yes, you get a lot of comments about the scarf, but at the end of the day how you carry yourself is what matters," she said.
"But if I'm carrying myself and I'm proud of carrying this veil because it is something of my identity as a person, then people respect you for that."
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