Hijab

I don't have a problem with the hijab - you can see the woman's face. Bit of a hassle in hot weather I guess, but at least you can make it a fashion sentence.

As to the black tent with mesh for the eyes - words fail me!

...or statement even!.....

The Christian nuns who wear old-fahioned head gear are declaring their religiosity. I presume. I also wonder why they do that, elegran. I suppose it's just a choice; it's just that I'm coming from a place (an internal place) where such declarations seem a bit weird.

Is thinking something weird the same as minding?

No.

Where can I see a picture of the winning cake (and others)?

I've tried googling...

This is Nadiya's Showstopper. Can't find the others yet...

theconversation.com/how-the-great-british-bake-off-became-the-great-british-identity-battle-48851

Another excellent article about the bakeoff.
Nadiya winning has definitely made some people wonder about Britishness, which is a good thing.

whenIwasyourage
wigs for Orthodox Jews. I've never heard of this.

Sorry, miss quoted but I'm still in the dark

Married Orthodox Jewish women are theoretically supposed to cover their hair to hide it from men other than their husbands. It is the same principle as the hijab, not surprisingly as the roots of Islam and Judaism are in the same part of the middle East. It is now only ultra-orthodox Jews who observe this.

www.buzzfeed.com/jewinthecity/13-annoying-things-most-people-assume-about-orthod-9kbu

Except that it's not a religious requirement, we keep being told, but a cultural one, and not even a requirement at that unless one has "over protective" male relatives.

Iam64 - sorry for late reply. I don't object to headscarf wearing in principle as I think we should all be entitled to wear exactly what we like. However, it makes me uncomfortable as I suspect many of the wearers are being forced into it by their male relatives.

I would doubt that Nadiya was being forced by either her father or husband judging by the delighted looks they had on their faces when she won.

There's being forced - by male and female relatives, and then there's the subtle indoctrination that begins from an early age so that women readily adopt what is a symbol of oppression. Then there are those girls who seem to have adopted the hijab either as a statement or as a fashion item (and they can look very attractive indeed). It is a bit of a minefield really, but I must admit I do feel uneasy about it while there are women in other parts of the world who truly have no choice about whether to wear it or indeed about anything at all.

nightowl - hear, hear!

Hear, hear, nightowl. I've been thinking the same thing but you've put it into clear words.

When I took my granddaughter, then aged 3, to see a performance of the Gruffalo at a local theatre, a party of young Muslim school girls filed in, I'd say they weren't any older than 5 this was a show aimed at the very young. They were all wearing hijabs. It posed the question to me, why a child of that age should be expected to cover their heads with such a lot of material. Is the inference that there is something immodest about hair, in that these children would be deemed "temptresses" if their hair was visible.

I never really understood the whole female expected to cover their head thing. I was raised a Catholic and when I was very young, I remember girls and women were expected to wear something on their heads, but as time went by this custom got kicked into the long grass. The last time I was in church, I didn't see any females with covered heads.

My own thoughts are, if you do believe in a God or omnipresent creator, call him or her what you will, he/she would be okay with uncovered hair, after all he/she created hair, but maybe men should be the ones to cover their heads, their hair being more likely to fall out and therefore more liable to get a sun burnt head What God gavith, he can also take away, men's hair that is! Clearly God's will, Inshallah!

One just has to look at female subjugation is Saudi Arabia. And at what the Swedish Foreign Minister said recently.

Girls in school with hair covered usually look very neat - and are unlikely to get the unwanted little visitors many children occasionally bring home from school!! Just a thought!

Another passing thought - why do many brides wear veils?

I had a massive row with my dad once when I refused to wear a hat in church. I went, hatless, separately from him and never heard another word about it. After that, the minister's daughters abandoned hats as did the local landowner's daughter. I had a wedding veil but said it was ridiculous to put it over my face as I had nothing to be modest about! For goodness' sake, I was 29. Had no argument from dad on that occasion. The one who got a sunburnt head at my open-aid reception was my baldng dad!

I refused a wedding veil, had long hair and put lots of embroidered daises all over it.
I don't think that any Muslim head coverings are religious, but cultural.
Clearly a case of 'no vanity' for nuns though, with no hair showing.

They could just shave their heads, if that's the reason...?

Buddhist nuns do shave their heads. So do Buddhist monks. I believe some orders of Christian nuns used to do the same but they wore a veil as well. Some orthodox Jewish married women wear wigs in public because they don't go about with uncovered heads. Some wear scarves. Until the 19th century, most Western women covered their heads. Isn't there something a bit weird about all this emphasis on women's hair?