I've never seen a bee keeper/welder with full face cover out on my high street, I won't say never cos who knows some dickhead avant garde fashion designer might put them out on the catwalk anytime soon and as a consequence they could become de rigueur
In stitches here TerriBull
Yes, wouldn't be surprised to see a cat-walk model wearing a bee-keepers outfit come London Fashion Week!
The Burka, a well worn subject, but one I guess we will return to frequently. Whilst we debate about the appropriateness of such a garment it seems that our European counterparts are in increasing numbers banning the burka altogether. What does that say about them then? I've always thought France in particular has taken rather a sledgehammer approach to the matter. I've quite a few cousins in that country, and I remember a couple of years ago, there was a debacle about a Muslim lady on a beach being confronted by some jobsworth or other because she was wearing shock horror, a kafan, leggings and headscarf. What the hell was wrong with that!" better than being confronted by a wrinkly old arse less than pert derriere" said I to a cousin in an email, but he was the whole "when in France" attitude, which I simply don't agree with.
Nevertheless, they are a barrier and one can never be sure if it's "I'm wearing it because I want to or because I'm forced to" There are a whole raft of Muslim women such as Yasmin Alibhai Brown who hate them, possibly because they are aware more than we are of the subliminal message they put out there. Lets not forget that the Afghan type, one poster referred to affords the wearer no peripheral vision, so they really need a physical guide, thus rendering them fully dependent. So those who criticise western women for their disapproval of the garment, what would you say to Muslim women who see them as some sort of shackle. A shackle any of us would have placed on us if we chose to be an expatriate in say Saudi. I believe the abaya is still mandatory there if a western woman wants to leave the compound where they live.
My neighbour is Persian and from time to time returns to Iran and is forced to wear the headscarf, hates it, but knows full well it's just something that has to done, Iran is full of young women who wear that scarf as far down the back of the head as possible and I doubt whether they would fully understand the choice some women make here to wear a burka of their own volition, but I guess it's human nature to want what is forbidden and that works both ways sometimes.
There's part of me that sympathises with the patriarchy that exists in pretty much all religions. We were a catholic family and when I was growing up females had to cover their heads in church, I never really grasped why, my mother, as indeed her contemporaries, wore these mantilla lace things in church, I guess it could have been called "forced cover up lite". It never extended to out of doors though and it's all gone out the window now anyway.
I also remember being at my convent school when one of the girls who hailed from southern Italy had a member of her extended family die and she was expected to wear black for possibly 12 months. The nuns were seething, presented with such a cultural dilemma that they really couldn't do anything about. Their palpable anger came to the fore almost weekly when they asked said pupil when she was going to get back into full school uniform, naice boater, white gloves and all, and out of the black. "Not yet" came the reply, it was indeed amusing to watch it play out but it did illustrate to me how subscribers to the same faith could nevertheless have cultural differences and some of those differences deep rooted and pertaining to another country. They, the nuns, did point out to her "this is not how we do things here" well you could get away with that then, but happily water on a duck's back, she continued happily in her black dress, sadly not the actual "little black dress" that we all love, and we continued to be entertained by their ongoing exasperation.
It does occur to me that we must be well down the road to "la la land" when such an inane justifications for facial coverings well beekeepers and welders wear them too! In the words of John McEnroe "you cannot be serious" I've never seen a bee keeper/welder with full face cover out on my high street, I won't say never cos who knows some dickhead avant garde fashion designer might put them out on the catwalk anytime soon and as a consequence they could become de rigueur . Anyway will know if VB is photographed tripping along in one, with her eyes glued to ground but looking a treat in her beekeeper's hat on can't wait!
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