The burqa has sporadically been in the news lately, raising questions of choice and freedom amongst women. Husbands and religious authorities are telling women to dress one way, and women are choosing to dress differently, risking ostracization in their society. I wonder at what point the religious right in this country will get involved to demand that these women be liberated.
Apparently, Jewish women in Israel have opted to don the burqa, believing it to be a mandate of stricture to dress modestly. One woman even says:
“At first, I just wore a wig… Now when I see a woman with a wig, I pray to God to forgive her for wearing that thing on her head.”
Religious authorities are divided on this issue, with some seeing it as a positive development, and others seeing it as a sign of “sexual deviancy” and commanding religious divorces for women wearing burqas. Husbands are apparently unsupportive, dictating that their wives should dress as men see fit.
When I first ran across this story in the summer, via Talk Islam, I said:
Jewish women want to wear the burqa for modesty and the religious authorities say to be modest is a sign of sexual deviancy. I am so confused on so many levels with this story.
Six months after the fact, that’s still my story, and I’m sticking to it.
