Muslim women are born with a defective design.
Why, we are remarkably similar to other human beings in our anatomy and workings! We even have our sense organs on our heads. Now that would usually be fine for animals and other persons on planet Earth, but since we keep being told that the face is awra (a private part!), I wonder whether a trunk and snout might have been a more functional design choice for us. At least we could breathe, eat and talk in peace. The blasphemous British have said it for centuries that the eyes are windows to one’s soul, and some clerics have finally caught on to it by asking that one or both eyes be covered, lest your soul escaped through the open window. If you’re wondering what took them so long, it turns out that the brain may have been equally unnecessary to both sexes. Now hold your sniggers, because I don’t think Darwin got it right, either. If all that evolution clap-trap worked as he claimed, we would be faceless, sense-less, brainless amoebas, by now. So there, you heretic!
Take a moment to ponder on the grand scheme, our religious patriarchs have prepared for the weaker sex. Even sunshine is a test for the pious. Never mind the fact that many of us live bang in the middle of the Earth, the rightly guided ones have either acquired Vitamin-D deficiency rickets by now, or are on course to giving it to their nursing babies. Even our immigrant sisters are teaching the West some humility. Those creeps were claiming that they had eradicated rickets during the Victorian era. Well, not any more.
Reader, if you do wear a niqab, you probably already favour a black one because of its heat-absorptive properties. In our climate, it may after all enable you to attain the perfect temperature for a tenderly sautéed brain masala, without the use of natural gas or cooking oil.
Wait. I have more to say about the face, or rather, it is the science book written by infidels that says that facial recognition is the principal way through which social primates have, for several hundred thousand years, identified family from non-family and friends from foes. They even say that the face expresses subtle or obvious emotional cues that are universal to humans and critical to communications. If you’re a Muslim woman, that information or any benefits purported to accrue from owing a face, are entirely superfluous to you, as the Muslim men may not think your identity or your emotions are worthy of attention, in the first place. Whether you’re happy, worried, angry, grieving, or plain excited, just shut the hell up visually and verbally, and go back to the kitchen. And for your own safety, don’t bother stepping out, because in a phenomenon that is present in uniquely eccentric proportions in Muslim societies, you are indeed quite likely to be jeered at, leered at, groped, molested, assaulted, or otherwise harassed by other men, veils notwithstanding.
If you’re wondering what the point of this mumbo-jumbo is, let me be more direct:
How can God in all his wisdom create humans in the best of designs and then limit half of them from using their endowments? How do women in other societies carry on with their lives without living in constant terror of harassment or a crippling fear of judgment based on looks?
If you are already forming a rebuttal in your head, AND if you are a man who has never worn a veil to work, let me tell you that you will never understand the limitations that it imposes on women when they’re interacting with the environment or other people. And please, stop chasing away common sense with the ‘religious obligation’ baton.
In case you haven’t guessed and cursed me for it already, I am phobic to the full-face veil, and I’m not even French. It’s a hard-wired human response to mistrust what isn’t apparent. If you’re in for a social experiment, try approaching an infant, wearing a mask, even a black one, for greater drama. This baby will be not only refuse to be held, but will be visibly distressed by your presence. Lacking may he or she be in language skills, but the baby definitely understands trust and security, warmth and goodwill. Unfortunately, a niqab is the exact opposite of trust, security, warmth and goodwill. While some may consider it to be their right to wear the niqab, let it be known that it encroaches upon my right to feel safe in their presence. For all I know, they may be shop-lifters, stalkers, or men wearing suicide jackets.
I admit I can neither undo centuries of brain washing by our patriarchs through a post, or address the social factors and prejudices that are leading to marginalization of Muslims in many parts of the world. But maybe you will agree with some bite-size logic: that the Muslims of today are increasingly adopting symbols of misogynist dessert cultures, in the name of Islam, to express their defiance, and to set themselves apart, in a world where cultures are blending together like ice-cubes in water.
If you are a Niqabi reader, donning this out of ‘choice’, for the sake of reason, or even God, please drop it – really!
Someone's Gotta Say It! 
You write quite well, Naveen. And you are firmly in NFP’s camp it seems 🙂
PS: You forgot to mention that burqa-clad women ought to put reflectors on their burqas while crossing Sh Faisal at night, to avoid being a driving hazard.
Haha. I must amend the post to add the reflector burqa bit. And thanks for visiting the blog.
Great post and your writing is fantastically witty. But where are these societies where women do not live in “constant terror of harassment or a crippling fear of judgment based on looks?” I really want to see them.
Even the new Dove Beauty ads, supposed to be so woman-friendly, remind us at the end that, after all, it IS all about beauty. That’s not my point of view, but that is what I’m seeing . . . .
Thanks for the appreciation. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. As you’ve rightly pointed out, there are no perfect societies, but based on my experience, some cultures and some legal systems are more respectful towards women than others. The reason that I specifically bring up Muslim societies in my post is because respecting the other person is not just a matter of civility but also a religious obligation. Yet, it is paradoxical that throughout the Muslim world, laws against harassment are either non-existent or twisted to cause further injustice to the victim while the aggressor is rarely ever taken to task. Since there’s no fear of consequences, the abuses continue unchecked. As for your second observation, we have only ourselves to blame for our pathetic sense of self-worth 🙂 Men too come in all shapes, colours and sizes but they mostly measure their self-worth through their achievements and possessions – not their reflections in the mirror.
Oh yes, I’m aware that the legal systems are awful for women in some countries and I certainly can’t complain about Canada that way. I guess laws based on a particular interpretation of any religion tend to be the ones that are most unfair to women. Do you think the time is coming where these things will finally change in Muslim countries? I sure hope so because it is awful to know what some women have to go through.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head by saying that laws based on religion are more likely to be discriminatory. Laws should be secular, based on principles of justice and must not favour one gender over the other. Your question as to whether and when things will change depends, in my view, on a long process that requires differently raised men than we have today. The first stage is to expose women to education and cross-cultural interactions so they realize which attitudes and behaviours are normal and which others are considered an infringement of rights. In the second stage, they’ll want to change the status quo by making demands and more importantly raising a generation of sons that will be more sensible about women’s issues. I wrote some more about it here: http://wp.me/p35cKl-3D
amazing article and very nicely written… since when did u become a blogger? u have many talents Naveen