Lady Gaga, and is known worldwide, slips on stage wearing an ethereal creation of lace and net, throws back his head and starts singing. The audience is enthralled and think that nobody, not even for one fleeting moment, you must remove the mask usually hides behind.
Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth takes her corgis for a walk. Not a very pleasant day at Balmoral so she wears a warm jacket, tie a scarf firmly in place of decorum. Who the hell is going to object?
Some Christian religious orders of the head veil, not allowing a single strand of hair to show and this is seen as normal.
Arab men, especially those in the Gulf States, proudly wear their distinctive helmets wherever and nobody, as far as I know, encourages legislation to ban them. The same applies to the enveloping parkas Eskimo, American Indian headdresses and masks painted Aboriginal Australia, the latter, when taken together with the countries tribal masks and face painting, probably is the source of rabies face painting that has run out of control in the West in recent years and, when someone's face is actually painted, it is almost impossible to ascertain his identity.
The issue of who can and can not cover their heads or faces in the western public places has just been "done" to death and yet, apart from pure, unadulterated sensationalism, there remain serious angles, so far, have not been adequately covered. (No pun!)
If wearing the burqa is completely banned throughout Europe, for example, how will this affect the extremely small percentage of women who, for reasons of their own or their husbands prefer this way of dressing? Will they leave their homes suddenly find themselves psychologically or physically unable to go about the daily business of a life that used to lead? Do you feel "safe" enough to pick up their children from school as usual? Do you dare to venture into any site that shows a face that was hidden before? Do people pushing for this "liberation" thought of the consequences for those who ultimately affects? How politicians, women's groups and others, react if laws were passed banning them from using something that accept and take for granted as part of ordinary life?
Then there is the issue of face masks commonly used by desert and Bedouin women: the women's movement in the West, when running below the missile, the fingers often point to these nomads, cries denouncing the "torture" such "the poor women are forced to endure in the name of Islam. ladies Wrong! Very bad indeed!
Once I had the pleasure of sitting around a campfire with Bedouin women in the Sultanate of Oman, where we shared tea, dates and gossip for women. The five of them wore masks indigo leather as their "predecessors" had thus already in the back through the sands of time. The masks, with a strong central support through the nose and little eyes through which his black, lined with kohl, dancing eyes, looked incredibly hot and stuffy for me until, that is, I was invited to try a of.
Under the blazing desert sun, a drying process, the sand-laden wind, stirring the leaves of palm trees oasis, I have found the mask has its uses. Uses known and understood for thousands of years and long before the birth of Islam. Desert life is hard at best, the sun and wind more than these and masks, the design of which differs slightly from tribe to tribe and region to region, to protect users face and eyes of the inhospitable climate. The design, developed over thousands of years, is in large part, practices, although some long-term users develop under abrasions.
The mask of the Bedouins has nothing to do with Islamic practices and all to do with survival in extreme conditions. Members of the Western women's movements obviously have no idea of the traditional lifestyle of the Bedouin which leads me to another "overlooked" point.
The often quoted motto: "When in Rome do as the Romans do" is casually applied to Muslim women living in or visiting the Western world. The opposite, of course, also applies.
When female politicians, negotiators, aid workers and so on through the list to the few tourists still brave enough to visit our shores fascinating set foot in 'The Land of the Pure "should not they Don promptly local outfit in deference to local customs? Some do, certainly, but most do not and women politicians do not care to show shamelessly, while bare legs 'decorate' the functions of government and hospitality like but, and vision that the names of the game .... That does not pose a public hue and mourn, nor to cover demand to hide our shame. 'We' are apparently much more tolerant than "they"
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