Burqa ban

Burqa, the face veil of the devout Muslim woman, has come under debate across the world, especially in Europe after Belgium and France banned it while other nations are expected to follow. Fifteen years ago no one questioned it, the use of burqa in public places by Muslim women; at any rate no Muslim nation ever raised a voice against it. On the contrary, its use was mandatory and enforced with efficieny. When I was in Iran in 1994, I was walking the streets of Azerbaijan with my wife. An elderly woman stopped my wife and asked her to adjust her headscarf so that it covered her hair completely. It was a helpful gesture on the part of the lady who did not want to see a foreigner getting into trouble with the clerics and probably the police?
Today I read that even Muslim nations like Syria and Egypt have banned the burqa, the former completely and the latter in select places. It surprised me, considering the inflexible nature of the Muslim idea of the propriety of a woman's dress, and the equally inflexible clerical mind in upholding it.
This issue will not stop here, for the many nations that have a sizeable Muslim population will have to confront it sooner or later. India is one such country, where it is already grappling with the idea of a Uniform Civil Code. Whatever maybe the case with a particular nation, but the idea of questioning the deep-rooted fundamental notions of a society, chalked out and maintained by men since centuries, is clearly the winner. What else is being modern?

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