What are the different types of burka?

Answer 1

A burqa (Arabic pronunciation: [ˈbʊrqa]; also transliterated burkha, burka or burqua from Arabic: برقع‎ burqu' ) is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic traditions for the purpose of hiding a female's body when out in public. It is worn over the usual daily clothing (often a long dress or a shalwar kameez) and removed when the woman returns to the sanctuary of the household (see purdah), out of the view of men that are not their husbands, fathers, brothers, uncles, sons and grandsons.

The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering (Arabic: jilbāb), plus the head-covering (Arabic: ḥijāb, taking the most usual meaning), plus the face-veil (Arabic: niqāb). The word comes from the Arabic root /r/+/q/+/ʕ/ which means "to patch up" or "to sew up".[1] The face-veil portion is usually a rectangular piece of semi-transparent cloth whose top side is sewn to corresponding portion of the head-scarf, so that the veil hangs down loose from the scarf, and it can be turned up if the woman wishes to reveal her face (otherwise the whole face would be covered). In other cases, the niqāb part can be a side-attached cloth which covers the face below the eyes' region.

The face-veil portion is also called purdah ([pərd̪aː]), a Persian word meaning "curtain".