The Burqa & the Blogosphere
A certain prophet who existed 1500 years ago is said to have decreed that women should completely cover their bodies and faces in a largely shapeless, dull-coloured garment and veil. Why? To render them unattractive to males… To prevent males from getting the slightest glimpse of their femininity… To sanitize their interaction with males and to render their communication sexless, genderless. I wonder what the good prophet (peace be upon him) would have to say if he could see that 1500 years later, some men and women wouldn't even see one another, and communicate facelessly, voicelessly and even namelessly with only alphabets on a glass or plastic screen. "Wonderful! The faces and voices of both men and women are completely veiled! Praise the Lord!" he might have said in an ecstacy. And then some worldly soul would have gently and painstakingly introduced the immortal prophet to the ways of the blogosphere, chatspace, email, Facebook... "Well, I sense t...