Love love love.
11. To affirm your loyalty to an alien religion rather than to Britain/Ireland.
12. To rejoice in British/Irish liberties.
Very perceptive! You should have been a journo.
I don't think- or write- fast enough...alas.
I used to work for a couple that had lived in Saudi -- "the Magic Kingdom" -- for many years. Politically, both were very progressive, yet their views on life under sharia law, at least in the kingdom itself, were always surprising. They did not see the systemitized oppression that we in the West are told to see.
Interesting.
We are fed so much propaganda....
Nice list - only I'm a bit unsure about No.3. I'm all in favour of anyone who wants to being able to wear a burkha, as you know, but I don't see that a garment predicated on the assumption that men can't be expected to exercise a modicum of self-control exactly honours them (though it clearly pisses some of them off).
You honour them by respecting their weakness
AND/OR
You honour male authority by submitting to your husband (or your imam's) wishes.
As personal as the person.
Exactly. People wear the burkha for all sorts of different reasons. I'm sure my list isn't exhaustive.
How do you get dry afterwards?
Something similar to (12) happened to the dancer Isadora Duncan. Her scarf got caught in the wheel of her boyfriend's bugatti.
11. Because you choose to.
Yes, as simple as that.
And a democracy should honour that choice.
You forgot #11:
So you can pull an automatic rifle out from under it and shoot a policeman.
Which happened here in Philly. The guy then disburqa'd himself in the getaway car but they still caught him. And he wasn't even a Muslim.
It's a brilliant disguise. Journalists have been known to use it- the BBC's John Simpson for instance.
Burqa or Niquab? Hijab or Chador?
Lots of people get those mixed up. The Burqa is the full over-the-head body cloak worn in Afghanistan with the screen for the face. The niquab is the face-covering veil that only leaves the eye(s) exposed.
The hijab is the headscarf, and the chador is the robe-like overcoat with long sleeves.
(Sorry. I want people to get these things straight. It's one of my picky-nits.)
And here's the order of dress, from most to least restrictive or disguising:
Burqa
Hijab + Niqab + Chador
Hijab + Chador
Hijab
I like this.
Recently I was thinking about American outrage over the Burkha while looking at dress codes for my son's school. Although I think the Burkha is excessively restrictive and, as a claustrophobe, I'd rather slit my wrists than wear one, I also think we fail to see that we also have legal requirements about what you have to cover up here. I can't walk out in public naked, or bare chested. I will get arrested. Why? Why is it okay to say I'm not allowed to expose my breasts, but it's horrifying to say that a women can't expose her hair? Qualitatively what is the difference?
I do recognize the element of sexism in Sharia law, and I certainly think it's taken way to extremes, but still, we DO have notions about what is "inappropriate" to wear, and we are more restrictive of women than men in that as well.
That's a good point.
It's always women's clothing that we get into such a tizzy about. It's always women's self-presentation we want to control- in one way or another.
The female body is a battleground.
I feel sorry for their children who miss out on their mother's facial expression.
I also feel sorry for other children who see them in the street for the first time.
Pretty scary,I think
I don't think they wear these things at home -- so the children won't miss their mother's expressions. It's just when they go out and might drive men mad with their lascivious charms that they have to blacken their teeth and wear shrouds (metaphorically speaking). | 
