VIEW: Raising the curtain on the burqa —Reem Wasay

To impose restrictions and demarcations on the liberal arts is to indirectly avert any attempts at conveying dissent and opposition to the prevailing status quo by the masses, marring the very foundations upon which this nation, any nation for that matter, was created

There is a reason there are no go-karts in Afghanistan. Last month’s outlandish Darwin Award goes to a young woman who met quite a bizarre end when her burqa got caught in the wheels of the go-kart she was racing at a recreational park in Sydney, Australia. Death came instantly — as is forgiven all ‘shaheeds’ — when her neck, quite literally, snapped. Therefore, it would not be too far off to shudder when contemplating the effects a hefty supply of go-karts would have on the entertainment-starved women of Afghanistan. May political correctness be damned then when I say: women who don shrouds before their time ought to remain merrily distanced from the lures of modernity, go-karts and all.

The international arena has remained a hotbed of debate regarding this most politicised of traditional garbs recently, as has been demonstrated by the garmentally challenged who have moved to ban the burqa in most European countries. France, Belgium — basically anywhere with an abundance of go-karts — have all decided to take retributive action against a dress that, as they see it, disengages them from seeing anything at all. Even Egypt has hitched up its galabeyya and has hopped onto the bandwagon by declaring the full-face veil an affront to educational norms and has banned it on campuses affiliated with the Al-Azhar University. However, trust the political leanings of religious deviations in collective Muslim group think to thwart the ban as many students were seen wearing surgical masks in a bid to outsmart the verdict. Honestly, if Muslims united the world over and actually applied their unique brand of cunning to overcoming some of the more defining problems of the ummah — the overriding of us accidentals at the hands of the occidentals — we might actually move up a notch in the food chain.

Locally, the burqa brokers as a cash cow for the piously inept yet politically motivated as the symbols of dogma resonate with stretched imperfection the fault-lines of our superstitious obsession with religion.

Our back-alley interpretations of what can be deemed morally gratuitous and acceptable in the light of religion and societal benefit are now becoming even more woefully ignorant and ludicrous. With the advent of more extremism than has been seen in this country in the past umpteen years, my guess is that we are in for a lot more ham-fisted elucidations than ever before. With more symbolism creeping out of the religious/politico woodwork, items of individual reverence and personal meaning have become denotations of mainstream religion and social conditioning.

The banning, by the Senate now, of the play ‘Burqavaganza’ is just one such embargo on the freedom to express how different codes of intimate conduct are perceived. Lambasting a stage production aimed at the satirical confrontation between imposed ideologies and the backlash such actions can engender, will go nowhere in promoting the plethora of wishful moderation our leaders were bending over backwards to have the international world acknowledge. Now we are just seen as a redundant bunch of dimwits allowing the blind to lead the bound.

For centuries the liberal arts have been stepping stones for the masses to convey messages of oppression not to be tolerated and civil uprising against tyranny on a platform that appeals to a vast audience and a diverse array of patrons wishing to somehow deliberate on social conditions prevalent at the time. To impose restrictions and demarcations on what can and cannot be acted out is to indirectly avert any attempts at conveying dissent and opposition to the current prevailing status quo by the masses, marring the very foundations upon which this nation, any nation for that matter, was created. The prohibition of ‘Burqavaganza’ has, in its own way, stunted our need and fundamental right to critically analyse the symbolism that the burqa has now unfortunately acquired. Previously being cited by a member of parliament as blasphemous beyond any reason or doubt, it would suffice to ask whose reasons we are abiding by in the first place. A play is a play is a play, and if it raises questions about the representation of any kind of parable within society without promoting vulgarity and public indecency, we as the masses ought to sit up and take note, not run in the opposite direction away from free thought and independent solutions. Civil societies throughout the world have had the liberal arts play a major part in enlightenment and the reshaping of cultural values according to the needs and requirements of that particular stratum of the social timeline and crust. Coercing the stage to portray only that which the religious or dictatorial faction deem politically and morally correct will lead us nowhere in the quest for new resolutions to age-old complications. When will this curtailment stop? More importantly, where exactly will these futile attempts at imposition lead?

With the burqa brigade and its associated camps well settled into the overactive imagination of the physically inactive Pakistani, we must ask ourselves just how much infringement on our liberal rights will it take now and in the future for these people to be placated. Today it is a play, tomorrow it may be what you watch on television (which is already under duress), and after that the good Lord only knows which facet of our personal prerogatives comes under the watchful eye of those bent on forcing everyone to conform to their restricted worldview.

There can be no doubt that the burqa has become too controversial an allegory to dismiss as merely an expression of sacrosanct proportions; it is becoming the be all and end all now in the realm of symbolic reference.

As for myself, I believe the burqa is a reminder that in this day of desensitisation to almost every visual veneer, men ought to respect themselves more. Stated by advocates as a way to dampen male sexual arousal, the burqa has deconstructed male integrity. If taking it off means that men will somehow be riddled with extreme lust and unbridled libidinal stimulation, putting it on vindicates a man’s place as a predator of rather unfortunate proportions. If not for the women you wish to subjugate, then at least for your own approbation, get over the burqa already.

The writer is an Assistant Editor at Daily Times and participant of the Salzburg Trilogue and an essayist and lecturer on interfaith discourse and social analysis. She can be reached at reemk80@gmail.com