Burqa, Niqab. Hijab

Who cannot recall that perennial
admonition directed toward ill
behaving children that they would do
best to be seen and not heard. That 
paternalistic observation in the interest
of teaching children how best they are
expected to behave in adult company
we now know to be a practise where
honour is involved in tribal cultures
which savour the expectation that
women may be softly, ever so softly
heard, but best not seen. And to that
end girls and women, chaste and
obedient must be garbed so completely
they resemble ambulatory tents, eyes
peering above and through slits to
enable them to see but not be seen.
Among some, it has become a matter
of pride and piety to adopt the half
measure of hijabs, projecting femininity
and aesthetic appeal to tempt the
imagination while covering the hair
as a symbol of defiance of freedom
to be as equals to men, construed as
strength of purpose this choice to
present as submissive to a supreme 
being, the women revelling in their
status as chattel, preening and posing
as uniquely endowed with strength of
character, abandoning social constructs
demanding no sacrifice of women. They
abandon in so doing the plight of those
women and girls who have no choice.