In a secular European democracy like France where the separation of the state
from the church is total and irreversible, the least sign of people wearing
religion on their sleeves in the form of peculiar clothing (burqas) or symbols
(crosses, swastikas) revives scary memories of religious persecution and
obscurantism at the hands of the Catholic clergy in the middle ages.
Consequently, given the manner the Europeans valiantly fought to do away with
church control and in view of their rational outlook and love of freedom,
it’s not surprising that every form of iconoclasm be it atheism, debunking of
holy scriptures, mocking absurd religious beliefs, the revealing bikini,
sensuous belly dancing, nudist beaches, skinny dipping or the g-string is
welcomed and considered a sign of individual freedom so long as the person
keeps away from criminal offences or acts of treason.
Extremely restrictive clothing like the burqa and its opposite (the skimpy
bikini) are both objectionable modes of female dressing.
While the donning of the burqa, supported by the goading of crude scriptural
dictates and chauvinistic male urging, can be viewed as a case of Muslim women
egoistically flaunting their religious identity and claiming that the head to
toe outfit makes them superior ("holier than thou") or more modest than those
women who dress differently, the bikini is another form of egoism wherein
unselfconscious women slip into it to flaunt their sexuality or to express
their opposition to orthodox notions on the subject of what clothing suits
women.
Modesty has both its inner as well as external aspects and usually one sees
that a woman who's humble, ethical and restrained dressing in a sober manner
which could be a demurely clad saree, a long sleeved salwaar kameez with
dupatta drawn across the chest or a long skirt with loose fitting long sleeved
blouse. All these female attires are modest and elegant and are in no way
oppressive or restrictive like the shuttlecock burqas enforced upon women by
the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan. But, if by modesty we mean head-to-toe
covering then the women is seriously restricted in every way and can in most
ways hardly be expected to make a constructive contribution to the exacting
standards of modern society with her talent or skills which are bound to
atrophy. Such a woman will only be fit for producing children, enduring male
chauvinism and caring for her family within the four walls of her house. But,
modesty, in a comprehensive sense, is more a psycho-emotional factor than
related to a rabid interpretation of it in the gross physical sense. A woman
can be fully draped from head to toe with the face fully concealed except for
the eyes but yet can harbour the most sensual thoughts and may indulge them to
if the situation arises, while another may wear tight jeans or a swim suit but
may be extremely chaste in thoughts, words and deeds.
Interestingly, why did the medieval religious dictators while prescribing
restrictive clothing for females ignore male sartorial styles? If men lustily
size up a woman, it's equally true that women whether from behind the eye-slits
of the burqa or those clad in jeans often ogle men of their choice. So, where
is mental modesty of the women concerned in this case? From this perspective,
one wonders why restrictive clothing with face masks was not recommended for
males as they too are objects of female passions.
Another noteworthy point is that wherever a sizeable number of Muslim women
dress in burqas, an unreasonable clamour is soon made for granting them special
facilities and privileges such as the imperative need to be exclusively
attended upon by female doctors, be represented in court by female lawyers and
the establishment of females-only educational institutions. And what is even
more irrational is their extreme reluctance to reveal their faces even when
being interrogated by security personnel at airports, police stations, railway
terminals or other public places or the their insistence on remaining fully
concealed in a modern office set-up where they may wish to take up a job. These
rigid attitudes makes these females misfits in a well-meaning, progressive
modern context and the only place they can be accommodated with all their
caprices intact is their own houses or a nation ruled by Islamic zealots.
Obviously, a women can't go to office or go about conducting serious business
in a revealing bikini for obvious reasons and similarly a women who's covered
completely cannot command much respect or elicit a meaningful response from
those she's dealing with in a professional relationship and will be unable to
work efficiently in any public setup given the restrictiveness placed upon her
by the outfit.
If we stick to medieval notions of what constitutes effective communication or
work culture in a professional sense, then women will have to be restricted
from venturing outside the home to shop, from attending educational
institutions or from entering the workplaces. Besides, we'll certainly have to
replace efficient modern styles of interaction and work with its emphasis on
globalization, eco-sensitiveness, mixing of the genders in public places,
highly developed interpersonal skills and use of high end technology and
replace all these wonders of modern civilisation with something as barbaric as
the compulsory sacrificing of defenceless animals to appease some blood thirsty
extra-cosmic god, selling dates, goat herding, the daily shutting down of
businesses due to the compulsion of praying 5 or more times a day or riding
atop camels in long winding caravans.
Apart from the vocal support for the burqa among the Muslims, the day won’t
be far off when Muslims on the basis of their fast increasing global population
will soon make demands for introducing ridiculous scriptural beliefs of
creationism centering around the anthropomorphic extra-cosmic god which to them
is absolute truth but which from the point of scientific proof and logic is
utter rubbish !
Best Regards,
Dr A K Isaacs
'Jaisa Desh Vaisa Bhesh' - before immigrate to any non-Islamic country, people
should prepare for such things.. or compromises. Else go back to your own
country..
Bikni's don't lead in to security issues - Burqas can. Look at the video
footage whan Lal Masjid of Pakistan was stormed by Prez. Mussahraf; the
terrorists were tried to leave the mosque my wearing Burqa.
Also, every woman loves to be praised and appreciates admirers of her beauty.
They should be given a chance to swim in the swimming pools in Europe and
America. Swimming in a Burqa ... doesn't it sound odd...?
-Manoj Padhi
I am not a religous Guru, nor do I pretend to have read any religous book. But I
heard French President speaking about Burqas and watched a BBC programme to day
about this.French President may not have read Quaaran himself but his advisors
might have sought advice from the people who know about this and their advice
was that Burqas are not part of the Islam religion. The people taking part in
the
BBC programme of all religions and in particular followers of Islam could not
agree amongst themselves if it is part of the Islam religion. My observation of
over 70 years is that, you could hardly find any Muslim women wearing Burqas in
UK or any other western countries 40 years ago. They have started using Burqas
increasingly for last decade or so. I do not know the reason. But if it is a
part
of religion now. Was is part of the religion before and if so why was Burqas not
used before.
Dr Dhuni Soren
