More On Modest Dress

My friend writes back with more thoughts on burqas:

It is possible, I suppose, that women in the more extreme Islamic countries wear the burqa out of choice, but I doubt it. I recall hearing of an incident in Afghanistan shortly after the Taliban was forced out of Kabul. Women, in particular, were greatly relieved to be free of the rules that kept them in slavery. One remarked that "now we no longer have to wear the burqa" at which point her husband said sternly that she must continue to wear it. She bowed her head and said nothing more.

Free choice is the crux of the issue. There may be a few women who see the full body burqa as comfortable and proper attire that reflects their religious values. I recall a woman who I would occasionally--a Huntington's victim I suspect--who would walk down the street in extreme summer heat wearing a heavy winter coat. She was controlled by her disease. The women in fundamentalist Islamic countries are, I think, similarly controlled by the disease of fundamentalist religious control. Maybe it is a reflection of beliefs that have been fed to them from an early age but I suspect it is more likely the control of violent and domineering husbands and fathers.

In many situations people doing unreasonable things will insist they do so by their own volition. Women in polygamist cults come to mind. But once they are removed from that situation where they are no longer under the physical and emotional control of their abusers they often see things differently.

The wearing of a simple head scarf is hardly any different than a Christian woman wearing a cross pendant. It is a simple statement of values. But a burqa is another matter. It seems to me to be more akin to the now-discontinued Chinese practice of foot binding--a macabre and cruel form of emotionally unstable men using their culturally-derived power to control women.

In countries such as Afghanistan the solution, in my opinion, is to get girls--and boys--into school at an early age. Teach them to read, teach them to think without fear. And then see how many of those educated, thinking women will want to wear a burqa. Get rid of the religious fanaticism and then perhaps the men will see that they do not need to keep women in their culture in slavery.