An interesting slant on the wearing of a burqa.

I used to work in an FE college where they ran a special course to teach English as a Foreign language to Bengali women immigrants. The college provided a female driver to bring them to the college as they could not travel alone, and all female teaching staff.
Apparently their husbands learnt English at school as children or at work, and their children learnt English at school, but there was no way that they could learn themselves and could not understand their families when they spoke English amongst themselves.

Quite M0nica - there are issues affecting millions of people in our country and any issue/ANY issue at all that affects such a small number of people has to take its place in the queue as we deal with issues that affects lots of us and have nothing whatsoever to do with any personal choice or whatever else.

The NHS? Our public transport? Our freedom of speech (emphasise that one very hard - because so many people are trying to shut us up and take away our right to freedom of speech off us).

I can spot an attack on our right to freedom of speech when I see it - I do know how to recognise it and I do know what our rights are (which may or may not match whether anyone has put pressure on our laws about it).

cc

I used to work in an FE college where they ran a special course to teach English as a Foreign language to Bengali women immigrants. The college provided a female driver to bring them to the college as they could not travel alone, and all female teaching staff.
Apparently their husbands learnt English at school as children or at work, and their children learnt English at school, but there was no way that they could learn themselves and could not understand their families when they spoke English amongst themselves.

There you go ! They are all the same apparently.

Oh hang on...maybe not.

dazzlingdawn.com/2025/08/17/a-silent-revolution-the-rise-of-british-bangladeshi-women-in-the-uk

Crossstitchfan

Am I missing something? Has ‘Muslim’ now changed to ‘Moslem’? If so, why?

It has been noted 🤷‍♀️

Yes Monica 'public nuisance'. Are you now saying that the wearing of burqas is a 'public nuisance'?

'Moslem' is now considered to be an outdated form of the term 'Muslim'.
I have to confess that I too, often interchange these spellings.

I'd just had a quick check myself re "which word now" on that topic and got a variety of responses - that boiled down to "Yep....it's still used...but the more common variant now is Muslim". Errrr....can't see that it matters either way.......

I've got a good friend that might well describe herself as a "Bible believer".....well I know what she'd mean and would just mentally translate it into "Christian then....".

Was wondering why we are actually discussing this topic at all. Cue for a check as to why that might be - and apparently there is now an "Islamophobia awareness month" and that month has been decreed to be November.

The first time that happened was only 2012. That would explain why I'd never heard of it.

Not sure that it does Cariad. Would respect an answer from a relevant person, and try to remember which they prefer.

Slightly off topic, but when I was in Uni, a friend started wearing skirts (miniskirts in those days) all the time. This was a time when most of us were wearing jeans. She said it was because her boyfriend wanted her to wear skirts! How many women, even from Western cultures, wear clothes to please their men?

Farmor15

Slightly off topic, but when I was in Uni, a friend started wearing skirts (miniskirts in those days) all the time. This was a time when most of us were wearing jeans. She said it was because her boyfriend wanted her to wear skirts! How many women, even from Western cultures, wear clothes to please their men?

Quite! Not one specific boyfriend - though the main one would have liked me to be in Laura Ashley type clothes (slightly old-fashioned/very feminine) and I do remember two other boyfriends "having opinions" about my clothes.

Basically, I had a good figure and I knew it (had to compensate for the face not being so great....). So it was tight jeans, lowish v necklines. Not "tart" clothes - but certainly ones where my figure was pretty visible. I guess the only time I'd go back into clothes like that now - at my age - would be if someone else tried to tell me what clothes I couldnt wear. In which case - you better believe I will be back out there in tight jeans, high hemlines, v neck and bit clingy tops deliberately to make my point "My body /my choice/the norm - shut up".

Farmor - just clicked - you are Danish going by your name. Did you know that's Danish for "grandmother" (on the mans side I believe).

starnded

cc

I used to work in an FE college where they ran a special course to teach English as a Foreign language to Bengali women immigrants. The college provided a female driver to bring them to the college as they could not travel alone, and all female teaching staff.
Apparently their husbands learnt English at school as children or at work, and their children learnt English at school, but there was no way that they could learn themselves and could not understand their families when they spoke English amongst themselves.

There you go ! They are all the same apparently.

Oh hang on...maybe not.

dazzlingdawn.com/2025/08/17/a-silent-revolution-the-rise-of-british-bangladeshi-women-in-the-uk

I am going to argue with you again starnded I did not read cc's post as applying to every Bengali women, just those she worked with.

Presumably if some of the population of Bengali women in this country (or elsewhere) were born again feminists burning their bras while walking over men in their DMs, they would not need or want to attend the classes that cc ran. She speaks of the group she knows and does not extend her comments beyond that group.

I think that Daphne Manners in Jewel In The Crown described Muslims as Moslems .
It's now considered an archaic spelling and also offensive , bacuse it's similar to an Arabic word meaning oppressor.

Farmor15

Slightly off topic, but when I was in Uni, a friend started wearing skirts (miniskirts in those days) all the time. This was a time when most of us were wearing jeans. She said it was because her boyfriend wanted her to wear skirts! How many women, even from Western cultures, wear clothes to please their men?

An awful lot, actually, an awful lot. and always had and have.

CariadAgain I'm not Danish but I am a Farmor - father's mother. Son and family in Sweden. I like the way some of their words are quite literal. I'm also a Mormor - mother's mother. Children usually also have a Farfar and a Morfar!

Thank you Esmay, for your clarification of the use of the spelling. Will try to remember to use the more acceptable version 'Muslim'.

That's new knowledge for the week for most of us probably then - that there's two spellings on the one hand and one of them is considered offensive and why it is.

The burqa, a garment that hides the entire face, should be be banned while the person is working at any job that interfaces with the public.

Caleo

The burqa, a garment that hides the entire face, should be be banned while the person is working at any job that interfaces with the public.

That too - as well as the circumstances in which we need/are used to being able to see peoples faces. It is often useful for even "people in the street" just going about our business to be able to see what people are thinking/feeling.

Just at an everyday level and sometimes one makes the odd mistake of not taking a very good look at someone's face and then realising you should have (eg that would have told me a recent health professional - ie podiatrist) was "Little Mrs Determined - to have her way and blow the patient". I learnt my lesson there that I should have looked at her photo more closely before mis-choosing her. The next one though (an acupuncturist this time) had me looking VERY closely at her face on her website and thinking "I'm not making that mistake again - of not taking a VERY good look at her face in advance", "Yep she looks pleasant/a nice person" and I was right..she is. How do you tell that if you can't see their face in the first place? Someone could be deliberately hiding their face - so you can't "read" them...

She suggests the wearing of the burqa encourages Muslim men to assume that women from other cultures are sexually available.

Not sure about this.

In the conservative Asian countries including the non-Muslim ones, there is a perception that western men and women are easy and sexually permissive
So, an Afghan man may be acting on this prejudice rather than the wearing of the burqa.

As far as I know, the religion encourages both Muslim men and women to dress modestly and pursue knowledge.
So, if the Taliban in Afghanistan forces the Afghan women to wear burqa, which is an extreme form of modest clothing, and stop girls and young women from attending schools and universities, they are going against the core belief of the religion.

As for the religion oppressing the Muslim women, in my country of origin, a Muslim woman can go to the Syariah court and files for divorce if her husband beats her up, destroys her property or caused her mental cruelty.

If he left her for 3 months in a row without any financial support, that is a legitimate reason for her to start legal divorce proceedings under Syariah law.

Over there, Syariah marriages are recognised as legal marriages for the Muslims. Syariah law only applies to family matters – marriage, divorce and inheritance. Punishment for crimes comes under civil law.

Any update on the link between FGM and wearing a loose outer garment please?

A loose outer garment sounds nice….a burqa isn’t nice!

On the one hand 'covering' allows free rein to the erotic imagination (there being no reality to set you straight). And the prevailing notion that non wearers are morally trashy, encourages some men in unwanted behaviour. All round a very bad deal for females. (And great for the lads!)

No, I don't fancy wearing a burka either. But, unless there are practical and or legal reasons, I would not support the banning of such garments for women who chose to wear them.
Or support the forced wearing of them.