It's a small piece of cloth that has become a political symbol.
As a loud and controversial debate continues over wearing the Muslim face veil in Europe, Syria quietly imposed curbs Sunday on the niqab, the veil that exposes only the eyes.
The secular-minded Syrian government has rejected extreme religious dress in the classroom, the first Arab government to weigh in so heavily on the face veil.
While many Syrian Muslim women wear a head scarf, the Syrian government sees the face veil as a growing sign of radical Islam. The latest crackdown is in the education system. However, over the past year dozens of Islamic institutes have also been shuttered.
Most Syrians welcomed the government’s decree and those who didn’t kept quiet about it
Don’t forget to to click the “Listen to the Story” link on top, this is my favourite part:
A few tables away, 20-year-old Rolan Alakel, sat bareheaded and checking her Facebook account while smoking sheesha, a traditional water pipe. She says she hadn't heard about the government ban.
“Here? They did? Seriously?” she says, her face brightening. “Yeah. I’m with them. I don’t like it.”
It is interesting that the use of the Bhurka, veil etc was not origianlly part of the Arab tradition…After Mohammad’s wife died he went through a second-life and created an enormous haarem…to keep the leering male eyes off his women (some very young) he stipulated that they should keep themselves covered. This then was translated into a ‘vision’ from Al’lah and became a religious tradition.
Yes, it is. Consummation at nine after being wedded at six or seven? It won’t in the least faze the True Believer. Muhammad’s paedophilia will no doubt be defended on the grounds that he was a man of his age and culture, which, if you think about it for just a second, is a very, very incongruous thing indeed to befall an eternal, all-knowing and all-powerful deity’s chosen prophet and communicator of his law.