Burqas and banning....

As someone who grew up in a Muslim country, I'm disturbed by this talk of banning burqas. Because a burqa is not a clear-cut case of 'slavery', as so many people want to label it.
As in this article:




Its just not that simple, for Heavens sake! While growing up in Kuwait and Egypt, there were various levels of dress. There were women who went around with nicely coiffed hair, some makeup... there were women who wore a headscarf... and yes, there were a few women who did wear burqas. But it was as much a matter of choice then as anything. It was equivalent to wearing a coat, to a certain extent. You would look really glamorous at home, but you would put your headscarf on to go out. In some ways, it was like carrying Mace here, in the States.

Yes, there are places where it is used as a prison, of reducing a woman to an object, but sometimes it is just a cigar, to mix my metaphors. Burqas, chadors... you know, its not always a symbol of oppression.

I just always hate talk of banning, as well. Banning isn't going to change minds, change societies, change comfort levels. Banning, particularly in the Middle East, has led to the opposite effect. And if we are a free society, why are we banning this? Its a fine line. We don't ban the Orthodox Jewish men from dressing as their religion dictates. We don't ban the Hare krishnas from wearing their yellow robes in the airports. Why are we banning this? Just because it makes us uncomfortable? Why not talk about it instead?

I always found a mystery about a woman in a full veil...Or when you can see their eyes... you can still tell if someone has kind eyes.

And sometimes they find it freeing to wear those. And sometimes it can be a woman's own expression of religious devotion to want to wear a veil. Who are we, in the Western world, to decide if someone is being oppressed? Change has to happen from within. Not imposed from without.