About the burqa.
Find a Conversation
About the burqa.
| Tue, 06-12-2007 - 9:41am |
I’m a 35 years old woman from Bahrain and i want, through my personal experience, to talk about an issue of some years ago, when the world was worried about Afghan women confined inside their homes without the possibility to study and work and forced by Talibans to wear the burqa, the shroud that cover them entirely but considered a mere Taliban invention and bound to disappear after their fall. But things aren’t so simple because many women keep to wear the burqa even now with a liberal government and something of similar is in use also in my region, and i’m one of these “poor†women that see the world through a veil that blinds and distort most of it. My clothes consist in a long black tunic with a mesh in front my face, and i started to wear it when i was 18, not for my government but because it’s a tradition of my family from many generations. I don’t say to wear it with pleasure but in any case i want to keep my pledge, even if in the hottest days i feel faint for the lack of air and in general it’s a deeply isolating experience. A dear friend could pass on the street and not know me. Catching a glimpse of my reflection in a storefront window or a car windshield inevitably produced a shock of non-recognition. A breezy day - when the mesh, however carefully clasped from within, might blow open - bring the risk of a poor figure. When i’m outside with my children ( they are three, two males and a female) i fear they could lose themselves without the possibility to find me again because i’m unrecognizable. Once, i thought to see a childhood friend coming out of a relative's house a short distance away. But i did not greet my friend, wearing a niqab, whom i recognized only by her movements. I was afraid to call out - women better not to raise their voices. I felt very sad, that we were there in the street together, and I could not even ask her how she had been, I felt that we had all become very lonely, so locked inside ourselves. Shopping trips become time-consuming because i could only carry a small parcel or two at a time. If i carried more i’m afraid of not being able to hold my veil closed.
The worst day was when i stepped into the path of an oncoming car, my peripheral vision obscured by the close-knit mesh covering my face. I never even saw the car until it was almost on top of me, only hearing the cries of passers-by and the shriek of brakes, sickeningly close. I thought, 'What a stupid reason that would have been to die.'
The first day i’ve worn it i cried with sorrow because i felt humiliated, i was dizzy from not being able to see well, i got a terrible headache, i would trip all the time, and nearly fall, but with time i got used to it and now i don’t conceive even to show my face in public, it’s a sort of brainwash that led me to consider it a duty toward my family, even if now in my country some women wear a simple scarf or chador.
I have other formal rules to respect in public, like not to laugh aloud, but it’s only a matter of education, to be a faceless black shape is enough. Maybe when i get older i can consider the possibility to wear only a scarf but i must wait to be at least in my late 60’s and in any case if my family agree, otherwise i will be shrouded until my death.
But i don’t want to let think that my life is only a seclusion, i have received a regular education and i work as a teacher in a nursery-school.
I have spoken at lenght about this subject but i hope to help to let know something about a kind of life so different from western standards, that you can consider strict or medieval for other people, like Afghans, it’s natural.
Greetings
Aisha
The worst day was when i stepped into the path of an oncoming car, my peripheral vision obscured by the close-knit mesh covering my face. I never even saw the car until it was almost on top of me, only hearing the cries of passers-by and the shriek of brakes, sickeningly close. I thought, 'What a stupid reason that would have been to die.'
The first day i’ve worn it i cried with sorrow because i felt humiliated, i was dizzy from not being able to see well, i got a terrible headache, i would trip all the time, and nearly fall, but with time i got used to it and now i don’t conceive even to show my face in public, it’s a sort of brainwash that led me to consider it a duty toward my family, even if now in my country some women wear a simple scarf or chador.
I have other formal rules to respect in public, like not to laugh aloud, but it’s only a matter of education, to be a faceless black shape is enough. Maybe when i get older i can consider the possibility to wear only a scarf but i must wait to be at least in my late 60’s and in any case if my family agree, otherwise i will be shrouded until my death.
But i don’t want to let think that my life is only a seclusion, i have received a regular education and i work as a teacher in a nursery-school.
I have spoken at lenght about this subject but i hope to help to let know something about a kind of life so different from western standards, that you can consider strict or medieval for other people, like Afghans, it’s natural.
Greetings
Aisha

Welcome aisha, to our little community.