A burqa (a veil with eye slits and the full head covering with latticed mask) is part of an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of hiding a female's body when she is out in public. It is worn over the usual daily clothing (often a long dress or a shalwar kameez) and removed when the woman returns to the sanctuary of the household out of the view of men that are not their husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, sons and grandsons.
Let me state right from the get go that the wearing of a burqa has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. There is nothing in the Qur'an that states that a woman should wear a burqa when she is in the presence of men who are not related to them. The origins of the niqab are unclear as it probably dates back to pre-Islam Persia, and adapted mostly by Bedouin. There is however evidence that this type of dress was worn by some Arab and Persian women long before Islam entered the scene.
The wearing of a burqa is strictly based on a custom and nothing else. In my opinion, it is a stupid custom.
Imagine if you will, a man courting a woman and never knowing what she really looks like until after they are married and they are in the privacy of their homes. In Dubai, an ambassador had his marriage annulled when he discovered his bride, who wore a burqa, was cross-eyed and had facial hair.
I can appreciate why such husband would want to keep his wife’s face covered.Forcing the poor woman to wear a burqa was a way in which her family could pawn her off to an unsuspecting suitor so that they wouldn't have to care for her anymore.
Imagine if you will, a woman wearing a black burqa over her clothes in the sun when the temperature is 45 degrees Celsius. Imagine if you will, a woman wearing a burqa requiring work on her teeth.
Many Muslims believe that the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an, and the collected traditions of the life of Muhammed, or hadith, require both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement, called hijab, has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars (ulema) and Muslim communities.
The Qur’an has been translated as stating: And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their headcoverings (khimars) to cover their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their beauty except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk.
Those who follow the teachings of Islam are of the opinion that beauty also includes the face. In one sense, they are right but if Muhammed wanted women to cover their faces, he would have said that. He said that the headcoverings should cover their bosoms. He didn’t say that it should cover their faces. Although cultural and not of Islamic teachings, face covering veils have become linked to Islam and its followers.
Wearing the burqa has been banned in French public schools since 2004, as the result of a law that prohibits students to wear any clearly visible religious symbols. This was followed on 22, June 2009, when the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy said that burqas are "not welcome" in France, commenting that "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity". The French National Assembly appointed 32 lawmakers from right-and left-wing parties to a six-month fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use. On 26, January 2010, the commission reported that access to public services and public transport should be barred to those wearing the burqa.
The Netherlands seek to propose a country-wide ban as well. On 29, April 2010, the lower house of parliament in Belgium passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer in places like parks and in the street. The proposal was passed nem con and now goes to the Senate. The BBC estimates that "Only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million." This just goes to show just how stupid wearing a burqa really is. Even the vast majority of Muslim men and women in Belgium think the wearing of a face-covering burqa is stupid and unnecessary. Tunisia has banned the niqab, as has Turkey in government offices and schools. Saudi Arabia enforces it only in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The province of Quebec in Canada has also banned the wearing of a burqa to any provincial employee or anyone else who is seeking assistance from government services. The majority of Canadians likely endorse Quebec’s decision.
Some will call it racist, unfair and even un-Canadian to ban face coverings for women and feel it should be a matter of individual choice. I suppose there are women who feel that walking nude in our streets is also a matter of individual choice but we have laws that prohibit that kind of conduct.
In my opinion, the new Quebec law is not, racist. Rather, it is an effort to promote or enhance racial and gender equality. So few Muslim women in Quebec wear the niqab or burqa, perhaps only a couple of dozen go along with the custom which clearly makes the new law even more appropriate. It will cause no widespread disarray or discomfort.
The Muslim Canadian Congress wants the niqab and burqa banned for all the right reasons because the wearing of the burqa by women represents symbols of oppression, inequality, subservience, and that it marginalizes women.
Having to do business with someone who refuses to have their face seen, is offensive and demeaning to both parties. Our society is one that prides itself on face-to-face dealings, where both parties can size one another up, establish a rapport.
Newcomers to Canada have to adjust to the culture of their new home and adapt to them. Most immigrants realize this and go out of their way to learn and adjust to our customs. They gravitate to cheering for the local hockey team, bellyaching about high taxes and the weather and becoming Canadians like the rest of us and yes, showing their faces to us when they talk to us.
Haroon Siddiqui, editor emeritus at the Toronto Star, disagrees. He finds it “scarier when majorities in democracies feel threatened by a tiny minority.” It’s neither “scary” nor “threatening” to expect people to adapt to the cultural mores of their new homeland.
The niqab and burqa inhibit adaptation. They are a constant reminder that these sartorial customs (which have nothing to do with religion) distinguish the wearer as one who is regarded as second-class and oppressed whether they realize it or not. It should be noted that the hijab is excluded from the ban. It is the scarf that covers the head but not the face and which, ironically, can emphasize and enhance a woman’s looks.
In Florida, one Sultaana Freeman who was born Sandra Keller and converted to Islam, wanted her driver’s licence photo in a veil, but compromised if a woman took a barefaced photo of her in a closed room. However, what does she do if she is driving a car and a police officer asks her for her driver’s licence? Does she refuse to remove the veil from her face so that the officer can be satisfied that she is the same person as shown on her driver’s licence? I think not if she doesn’t want to be arrested.
In Ontario, residents of that province are given health cards that have their faces on them. You can be sure that their faces are not covered. That goes for their driver’s licences also.
In Europe, several crimes have been committed by men or women using a burqa as a disguise in order to break into buildings. In one incident, a robbery occurred on 6th of May 2010, in Bury, when the robbers entered a jewellery shop. There were five robbers, the first of whom tricked the shopkeeper by wearing the full garment who then let his friends in. In Canada, it is quite legal to wear a ski mask in cold weather but if you wear one when you enter a store, you are going to be in big trouble if the arresting officer finds a knife in your pocket.
Why are these unfortunate women required to wear a burqa? I will tell you. It is because their husbands don’t want anyone to see what their wives look like. They are afraid that some other men may take a liking to them and talk them into leaving their husbands. They would subject these unfortunate women to wearing a burqa all their lives for that reason alone. These men deserve nothing from us but contempt.
UPDATE: October 217 The Canadian province of Quebec plans to put it to a vote to ban niqabs worn by public servants and ordinary citizens to unveil when entering government offices.
Let me state right from the get go that the wearing of a burqa has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. There is nothing in the Qur'an that states that a woman should wear a burqa when she is in the presence of men who are not related to them. The origins of the niqab are unclear as it probably dates back to pre-Islam Persia, and adapted mostly by Bedouin. There is however evidence that this type of dress was worn by some Arab and Persian women long before Islam entered the scene.
The wearing of a burqa is strictly based on a custom and nothing else. In my opinion, it is a stupid custom.
Imagine if you will, a man courting a woman and never knowing what she really looks like until after they are married and they are in the privacy of their homes. In Dubai, an ambassador had his marriage annulled when he discovered his bride, who wore a burqa, was cross-eyed and had facial hair.
I can appreciate why such husband would want to keep his wife’s face covered.Forcing the poor woman to wear a burqa was a way in which her family could pawn her off to an unsuspecting suitor so that they wouldn't have to care for her anymore.
Imagine if you will, a woman wearing a black burqa over her clothes in the sun when the temperature is 45 degrees Celsius. Imagine if you will, a woman wearing a burqa requiring work on her teeth.
Many Muslims believe that the Islamic holy book, the Qur'an, and the collected traditions of the life of Muhammed, or hadith, require both men and women to dress and behave modestly in public. However, this requirement, called hijab, has been interpreted in many different ways by Islamic scholars (ulema) and Muslim communities.
The Qur’an has been translated as stating: And say to the faithful women to lower their gazes, and to guard their private parts, and not to display their beauty except what is apparent of it, and to extend their headcoverings (khimars) to cover their bosoms (jaybs), and not to display their beauty except to their husbands, or their fathers, or their husband's fathers, or their sons, or their husband's sons, or their brothers, or their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their womenfolk.
Those who follow the teachings of Islam are of the opinion that beauty also includes the face. In one sense, they are right but if Muhammed wanted women to cover their faces, he would have said that. He said that the headcoverings should cover their bosoms. He didn’t say that it should cover their faces. Although cultural and not of Islamic teachings, face covering veils have become linked to Islam and its followers.
Wearing the burqa has been banned in French public schools since 2004, as the result of a law that prohibits students to wear any clearly visible religious symbols. This was followed on 22, June 2009, when the president of France, Nicolas Sarkozy said that burqas are "not welcome" in France, commenting that "In our country, we cannot accept that women be prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity". The French National Assembly appointed 32 lawmakers from right-and left-wing parties to a six-month fact-finding mission to look at ways of restricting its use. On 26, January 2010, the commission reported that access to public services and public transport should be barred to those wearing the burqa.
The Netherlands seek to propose a country-wide ban as well. On 29, April 2010, the lower house of parliament in Belgium passed a bill banning any clothing that would obscure the identity of the wearer in places like parks and in the street. The proposal was passed nem con and now goes to the Senate. The BBC estimates that "Only around 30 women wear this kind of veil in Belgium, out of a Muslim population of around half a million." This just goes to show just how stupid wearing a burqa really is. Even the vast majority of Muslim men and women in Belgium think the wearing of a face-covering burqa is stupid and unnecessary. Tunisia has banned the niqab, as has Turkey in government offices and schools. Saudi Arabia enforces it only in the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
The province of Quebec in Canada has also banned the wearing of a burqa to any provincial employee or anyone else who is seeking assistance from government services. The majority of Canadians likely endorse Quebec’s decision.
Some will call it racist, unfair and even un-Canadian to ban face coverings for women and feel it should be a matter of individual choice. I suppose there are women who feel that walking nude in our streets is also a matter of individual choice but we have laws that prohibit that kind of conduct.
In my opinion, the new Quebec law is not, racist. Rather, it is an effort to promote or enhance racial and gender equality. So few Muslim women in Quebec wear the niqab or burqa, perhaps only a couple of dozen go along with the custom which clearly makes the new law even more appropriate. It will cause no widespread disarray or discomfort.
The Muslim Canadian Congress wants the niqab and burqa banned for all the right reasons because the wearing of the burqa by women represents symbols of oppression, inequality, subservience, and that it marginalizes women.
Having to do business with someone who refuses to have their face seen, is offensive and demeaning to both parties. Our society is one that prides itself on face-to-face dealings, where both parties can size one another up, establish a rapport.
Newcomers to Canada have to adjust to the culture of their new home and adapt to them. Most immigrants realize this and go out of their way to learn and adjust to our customs. They gravitate to cheering for the local hockey team, bellyaching about high taxes and the weather and becoming Canadians like the rest of us and yes, showing their faces to us when they talk to us.
Haroon Siddiqui, editor emeritus at the Toronto Star, disagrees. He finds it “scarier when majorities in democracies feel threatened by a tiny minority.” It’s neither “scary” nor “threatening” to expect people to adapt to the cultural mores of their new homeland.
The niqab and burqa inhibit adaptation. They are a constant reminder that these sartorial customs (which have nothing to do with religion) distinguish the wearer as one who is regarded as second-class and oppressed whether they realize it or not. It should be noted that the hijab is excluded from the ban. It is the scarf that covers the head but not the face and which, ironically, can emphasize and enhance a woman’s looks.
In Florida, one Sultaana Freeman who was born Sandra Keller and converted to Islam, wanted her driver’s licence photo in a veil, but compromised if a woman took a barefaced photo of her in a closed room. However, what does she do if she is driving a car and a police officer asks her for her driver’s licence? Does she refuse to remove the veil from her face so that the officer can be satisfied that she is the same person as shown on her driver’s licence? I think not if she doesn’t want to be arrested.
In Ontario, residents of that province are given health cards that have their faces on them. You can be sure that their faces are not covered. That goes for their driver’s licences also.
In Europe, several crimes have been committed by men or women using a burqa as a disguise in order to break into buildings. In one incident, a robbery occurred on 6th of May 2010, in Bury, when the robbers entered a jewellery shop. There were five robbers, the first of whom tricked the shopkeeper by wearing the full garment who then let his friends in. In Canada, it is quite legal to wear a ski mask in cold weather but if you wear one when you enter a store, you are going to be in big trouble if the arresting officer finds a knife in your pocket.
Why are these unfortunate women required to wear a burqa? I will tell you. It is because their husbands don’t want anyone to see what their wives look like. They are afraid that some other men may take a liking to them and talk them into leaving their husbands. They would subject these unfortunate women to wearing a burqa all their lives for that reason alone. These men deserve nothing from us but contempt.
UPDATE: October 217 The Canadian province of Quebec plans to put it to a vote to ban niqabs worn by public servants and ordinary citizens to unveil when entering government offices.
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