John Aravosis, of the misnamed AmericaBlog, on the topic of Sarkozy’s statement against the Burqa:
I’m always fascinated by the burqa. From a westerner’s eye, it does seem awfully oppressive – imagine being covered, head to toe, in black in 120 degree heat. Is Sarkozy right, is this a women’s rights issue? Is it about religious freedom? Are we judging other cultures where we have no right?
What part of “If you don’t wear this floor-length sheet you will be beaten to death” does he not get?
I can think of a handful of media wenches I’d like to make wear one, but I cannot think of one reason why any woman would actually want to unless she is under duress or has been brainwashed from childhood to believe that if she doesn’t some magic sky pixie is going to condem her to whatever hell she believes in.
I have wondered before what the reaction would be to me, your average middle aged white guy, going out with The Wife and having her wear one. I wonder if, because I don’t look even slightly “swarthy”, if some uppity broad would come up to me and start flipping me shit for my wife wearing one when she wouldn’t do the same to someone obviously from a nation with an Islamic majority.
While I have not conviced The Wife that this would be a good social experiment, and therefore have not been able to test my theory, I believe that, yes, I would have at elast one person come up and want to tell me what a horrible person I was.
And without it being The Wife’s choice, I would be.
Bought my wife one when I was in Saudi. Of course it was black silk and you could read a newspaper through it-just sayin’, heh.