Thus, for any woman or girl who is being pressured to cover her face, for whatever reason, at least one man or boy will be feeling the sting of what she is being asked to do. He may begin to perceive that it is an unreasonable request for him or other males in her life to make of her. He may bring his moral suasion into the picture against the other men in her life.

For any woman or girl who is eager to cover her face of her own free will, she may begin to question her judgment when she has difficulty finding any man who places enough value on her doing it to be willing to endure it himself.

Of course, there will have to be a way for faces to be seen at banks. Perhaps facial recognition systems can help with that. One cannot be allowed to drive without good peripheral vision. I’m sure there are plenty of other times when the face covering will have to be either disallowed or allowed to be foregone.

Under this plan, every man who has no tiny tattoo on his nose will be announcing to the world that he has no wife, or sister, or daughter, or mother, or friend for whom he was willing to serve in this role. Men with no tattoo will find it difficult to press anyone, relative or stranger, to cover their face.

so is it asking too much of those who want to wear a burqa to forgo this “privilege” to show solidarity with those who are forced to wear one? appearantly it is. so that’s why we need a ban.

simply because a woman in a burqa is an abused woman, deprived of the right to communicate with the outside world.

A pity, really……..

Ultimately, though, I think it should be a woman’s choice to wear it or not. Education should be used to show these women that wearing the niqab is superfluous and unnecessary.

And Sabir gave absolutely no proof to give weight to the claim that ‘Claiming that the niqab has absolutely no basis in Islam is an argument you cannot win.’ His whole argument is, ‘You are wrong, because I say so!!!’

“Yasmin, I think Prostitution is a bad example, because it isn’t difficult at all to show how Prostitution harms many people, not just the people engaging in the practice.”

I believe that the possible harm inflicted by prostitution is comparable to that inflicted by divorce. Also, prostitution need not inflict any harm at all, if practiced conscientiously. No, laws against it seem to stem from majoritarian moral outcry, which should have no place in government.

“But, I believe identity-less women are harmful to all women.”

The burka hardly erases an identity. Even if it does cover the face, an identity is comprised of more than facial expressions, or even a voice. If the lack of an identity can be construed to inflict harm, I must say this “harm” seems somewhat abstract at best. Indeed, following the same logic, I could say that overweight people are harmful to all people. Perhaps they are in some abstract sense, but that doesn’t mean we outlaw obesity.

“How healthy is it for young boys to be around nude adult women? … I bet we could find a lot of psychologists who think that’s a really bad idea.”

I’m not so sure if that’s true. National Geographic cites the opinion that nudity and nude beaches work as equalizers, and can boost the self-esteem of those who frequent the areas. In a culture that equates nudity with sex and views sex in the worst of lights, it is easy to assume that science is the basis of our bias. I doubt that any study has been done on the effects of nudity on the minds of young men. If you find such a study, I’d like to read it.
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/07/0721_040721_tvnude_2.html

I’m agnostic, not religious, and part of my choice to not align myself with a religion is for silly rules like this which seem to serve to enhance the male role in society at the expense of the female.

Bottom line, if Allah doesn’t want one of His followers to expose a kneecap or ankle or nose or what have you, I think it is not unreasonable for Him to come down from on high and make clear His reasoning.

To move forward in life embracing and promoting such a philosophy without question seems at best naive, at worst, arrogant, particularly since its implementation necessitates an uneven balance of power in favor of whomever isn’t required to wear the burqa.