Why do Middle Eastern women wear the burqa?

Answer 1

Middle Easterners do not wear Burqas

Most Middle Eastern women do not wear the burqa, which primarily exists in Central Asia. There are a wide variety of Islamic female clothes, which are outlined below. Arab women predominantly wear the Hijaab, but a large minority wear a hijaab-niqab combination, an abaya, or an abaya-niqab combination, especially in more conservative areas.

Religious Reasons for wearing the Cover-ups

Female Head-Covering in general is a show of modesty. Europe also had a wide use of bonnets for the exact same function as a modern Hijaab in the Islamic World. The loss of the bonnet in Europe was directly correlated to the increase in Women's Rights and therefore there is a tendency in the west to see the Hijab as a symbol of female repression in the Islamic World. This could not be further from the truth as the Muslim-Majority countries where the Hijaab dominates are the ones with the largest number of Women's Rights. Locations with more restrictive head coverings (such as the niqab, abaya, and burqa) are a different story.

In Islam, as in Orthodox Judaism, a woman's hair is considered a sexual object and in the same way as a women should cover her breasts (another sexual object) and lower region (another sexual object), they should cover their hair as a show of modesty and preserving their beauty. (Orthodox Jews often-times wear wigs instead of a headscarf.) Western culture acknowledges the sexual allure of hair (even if it does not believe in covering it) many-a-time in movies where hair is flaunted or swung to make a character more sexually appealing in a less erotic way than if she were to expose her chest.

Thus, when a Muslim woman is in an intimate situation, where her sexuality is either warranted or a non-issue (such as with her husband or immediate family respectively), she will remove her Hijab and allow those near her to see her hair.

Social Reasons for wearing the Cover-ups

Many Middle Eastern Muslim women come from strict households where it is not considered a choice as to whether it should be worn or not and their husbands and fathers demand that they wear it. In some neighborhoods, more religious men intimidate and threaten non-covered women, which leads to some women covering themselves. The bottom of line is that some women in the Middle East wear Cover-ups because they want to and others because they are afraid of repercussions if they do not.

The Various Cover-ups

Hijaab and Khimar: The least conservative form of woman's veil is the Hijaab also known as Khimar, Dilbant, or Jilbant. Hijaab comes from the Arabic word for curtain or cover and according to Islamic scholarship, the Hijaab is given the wider meaning of modesty and privacy. It is a piece of cloth that covers all or most of the woman's hair and circles down to the chin. If a woman wears only a Hijaab, her face would still be clearly visible, although her hair (and usually her ears) would be hidden from view.

Abaya or Chador: The next piece of cloth that is of a similarly-conservative nature to the Hijaab is the Abaya also known as the Chador. The difference between a Hijaab and an Abaya is that an Abaya extends to the rest of the body. (In a sense an Abaya is a Hijaab-dress combination). This garment is commonly worn by Iranian women. Saudi women also wear an Abaya but compliment it with a Niqab.

Niqab: This is a piece of cloth that covers the face, at least everything beneath the eyes. In many instances the Niqab continues all of the way up to the hair line. In those cases, a slit is cut for the woman's eyes, but her face remains concealed. Niqabs are worn almost exclusively with Hijaabs and Abayas. If a woman (in theory) were to only wear a niqab, her hair would and chin would exposed as the Niqab only covers the front of the face.

Yashmak: This is a piece of cloth which combines the lower half of a Niqab (i.e. the part below the eyes) with a partial Hijaab so that most of the hair is covered. This headcovering used to be popular in Egypt, but is now being phased out for Hijaab and Hijaab-Niqab wearing.

Burqa: This is a garment modeled on the Abaya, but instead of leaving the face exposed, the Burqa covers the entire face. The upper part of the face is replaced with a mesh so that the woman can see out, but otherwise the woman cannot be seen or see out from beneath the fabric.