No, I'm not talking about Rosie O'Donnell's kimono. I'm talking about that curious Middle-Eastern garment known as the burka. Marnia Lazreg, an Algerian-born professor of sociology at the City University of New York, says this has nothing to do with piety, and everything to do with "political ideology and male power". Robert Fulford discusses Professor Lazreg's book on the subject - Questioning the Veil: Open Letters to Muslim Women - in the National Post.
I suppose a rough Western equivalent would be the chastity belt (which a quick Google search reveals to be of interest only to a small group of people who are given to, er, rather outré fantasies).
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Here in Denmark there's a heated debate these days about banning the burka. The proposal came from a "renegade" Muslim MP for the Conservative Party on the grounds that a burka is not only a symbol of repression of women, but also a rejection of democracy and Western values in general.
ReplyDeleteThere won't be a band, but at least the cat is out of the bag.
It may not happen tomorrow, but just the fact that the idea of burqa = oppression floating around the world today is enough to ensure that women in the 22nd century won't be wearing them (and maybe even the latter half of the 21st).
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