[sak01]

Danielle Crittenden is the author of What our Mothers Didn't Tell Us and the recent Washington novel, Amanda Bright @ Home. She is married to former presidential (Bush ~ possible neo-con) speechwriter David Frum, and lives in D.C. with their three children. You can email her at Danielle@daniellecrittenden.com.

She's wearing it for a week and I think she's in to the third dayAnyone heard of her. She seems to have started her adventure on the wrong premise; that the burka is used by muslims to oppress and limit women. Therefore, her objective seems to be to discover all the hidden ways that the ninja suit curtails a woman's freedom.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part Three: Why Don't You Just Take It Off?

My daily routine is probaby not so different from other at-home mothers. But
this routine rests on freedoms I never even considered before I tried going about my life wearing a burka. Actually, "freedoms" is too grandiose a word for the very ordinary assumptions and abilities a free woman takes for granted when planning her day. Try imagine doing everything you do, except covered by a pup tent without the poles.

Or just try to take a sip of coffee.

The first morning I descended to the kitchen looking like a black ninja--as my 5-year-old described it--I was feeling pretty pleased with myself. I'd finally mastered how to pin my facemask and cloak to each other so they wouldn't slip all over the place. The length of time it had taken me to don the outfit was offset by the fact that I didn't have to dry (or even wash) my hair or puzzle over what to wear. Nor did I have to worry about make-up, except for a little concealer and mascara for my eyes--the only part of me visible. Score one for the ninja.

But then, as I poured a bowl of cereal, I reached for that first delicious sip of milky coffee and...there was this huge black napkin in the way of my mouth! So I lifted up the bottom of the napkin and guess what? I could no longer see my coffee cup. How on earth do Islamic women eat and drink? I assume by fumbling blindly, which is what I did.

I slowly maneuvered the cup towards the mask's concealed mouth hole and felt for its rim with my lips. Ah, the warm sensation of milky coffee...seeping into the fabric over my chin.

"Oh man." I dabbed at the mask with a paper napkin, which only produced more visual comedy for my teenage son, whose attention was briefly diverted from the sports pages.

"Why don't you just take it off?" he asked.

True, according to Islamic customs, I did not strictly have to wear this outfit in the confines of my home--so long as the only men present were related to me. However, my kitchen is in the process of being renovated: It's not a kitchen any more per se, but the set of a blown-up house in Baghdad (a perfect backdrop for what was quickly becoming my own Islamic reality show). Because of the renovation, "strange men" were coming through my house at all hours and without warning. The only place I could be truly "safe" from prying male eyes would be locked upstairs in my bedroom all day. That wasn't going to fly.

A short time later my builder John walked in and made for the coffee pot. I'd warned him the day before about the burka.

"Hi, John."

"Hey Danielle." He sat down at the breakfast table and took a long, unhindered sip of coffee.
I twirled around. "What do you think?"

John appraised me as he would a piece of drywall. "What I'm wondering is: Does this mean David gets more than one wife?"

"Ha ha," I replied. "I'm not sure he wants another wife. One is bad enough."

"Yeah." John nodded. "I guess it's one of those deals that sounds good when you're 18--not so good when you're going on 50."

I glanced miserably at my still half-full cup of coffee. Subsequent sips had not been more successful; I now smelled like a Starbucks.

With family out the door, it was time to head to a morning spin class.


* * *


A North American "healthy lifestyle" and Islam do not go together very well, at least if you're a woman. Or maybe its followers do not believe any North American lifestyle can be described as healthy. Either way, I was darned if I was going to miss my spin class.

I'd put on a pair of bike shorts under the black yoga pants I was wearing as part of my burka look. Only my fat white gym shoes looked conspicuous....

[IbnMardhiyah]

She's married to Bush's [former] speechwriter.

That alone says everything I need to know about the series.

[Macaca]

lol-i like the pseudo-arabic music playing in the background.
It's great to see someone so closed-minded try on something new, and retain their narrow view of the world

[Nazfreak]

However, my kitchen is in the process of being renovated: It's not a kitchen any more per se, but the set of a blown-up house in Baghdad (a perfect backdrop for what was quickly becoming my own Islamic reality show).

There are no words for that comment.

That, along with the multiple implications that wearing a burka is something true Islamic women do...she's lost so many points.

[riad19]

if there are women who are forced to wear niqaab, then there are just as many women who want to wear the niqaab and their husbands dont let them. i met a lot of people who fall in the second category, more than the first.

[ChotooMotoo]

I read her final installment about going to the airport. She was very upset that every person she met didn't yell "terrorist go home" and spit on her wherever she went. She thought they should, since women in full saudi style niqab are definately terrorists who need to be publicly abused. Read the 4th part and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[Variable]

So is she wearing a burka or niqab?

[ChotooMotoo]

Originally Posted by Variable

So is she wearing a burka or niqab?

she was wearing saudi style full abaya with niqab, eyes visible. She was not wearing the afghan shuttlecock burqa.

[Jamroll]

I think she's trying to be humourous, isn't she?

[farah]

Originally Posted by Jamroll

I think she's trying to be humourous, isn't she?

unfortunately people are just dumb, almost to the point of amusement for others.

[DrDynamite]

I remember learning from a tertiary source that a British topless model donned the niqab for a day...and came back with very negative reviews.

[farah]

Whether or not veiling is a political or cultural statement, we in the West have to ask: Is this a statement that is tolerable in a free and equal society?

...

[Variable]

Originally Posted by Macaca

lol-i like the pseudo-arabic music playing in the background.
It's great to see someone so closed-minded try on something new, and retain their narrow view of the world

She didn't do it to 'try something new' and expand her world view. She did it so she could have more ammo (in her mind) to bash a group against whom she seems to have a personal vendetta.

[jinnzaman]

Freedom is subjective.

[sak01]

Part 4

...If I had chosen to walk about Washington in a white hood and sheets rather than black ones, I doubt I would have encountered such universal politeness. And yet, what the Klan outfit represents to someone of African-American descent is exactly what the burka should represent to every free woman. Those who impose it upon women believe that a whole category of human beings can be treated as property; that this category may be beaten, sold into marriage, divorced at whim, denied education and work, raped with impunity, and stoned to death for offenses that would be pardoned in a man. For the wearer of the white hood, the subjugated category is defined by race. For the wearer of the black hood, it's defined by sex. Otherwise the two garments carry the same meaning--with the slight variation that one is worn by the would-be oppressor, the other by the oppressed....

Originally Posted by riad19

if there are women who are forced to wear niqaab, then there are just as many women who want to wear the niqaab and their husbands dont let them. i met a lot of people who fall in the second category, more than the first.

Her reply to this and other objections

...And it is only worn voluntarily by women who subscribe to an extreme, and highly controversial, interpretation of Islam--one at war with a democratic understanding of human rights...

She still can't get her head round it. Some people are so enlightened they end up blinding themselves.