The burqa is not compulsory in Islam (“Sociality and the burqa question,” Aug. 6). It is a Saudi import, a product of globalised Islam. Muslim girls need to go to school. They need to work and support themselves and their families. They have to compete with others. A Muslim woman, like any other woman in the world, is a social being, not a clothed substance. Women can cover their faces when they travel or go out for private functions. But when they sit in an office serving the public, their identity is a social identity. When the law asks them for their identity, they cannot hide their faces in the name of religion.
Abdul Azeez,
Kochi
That a visible face constitutes an ineluctable part of European sociality will not come as a surprise for those who understand Europe’s anthropological character. While it is well acknowledged that world dominance constitutes an unalienable trait of Europe’s international relations as well as cultural campaigns, it is not so well acknowledged that such a policy implementation begins at the level of individuals. Cultural imperialism is precisely such a strategy wherein Europe works to exert collective and protracted pressure on foreigners (especially from the developing countries) to force the internalisation of its value systems and subservience to its national goals. And a visible ‘face’ will be a valuable asset in carrying out this kind of action.
C. Pratap,
Hyderabad
