The Invisible Burqas American Women Wear
And how I discovered I was wearing one
Freedom and equality are words we often hear in the United States. This country is seen as a bastion of freedom, but just how free and equal are we, especially as women?
This was a question that begged for an answer one Tuesday evening as I watched another news report about the escalating tensions in the Middle East. A reporter in Afghanistan was decrying the deplorable conditions under Taliban rule. As the reporter droned on, I couldn’t take my eyes off a woman in the background wearing the iconic light blue burqa.
As I watched this woman shrouded from head-to-toe in fabric suffocating under the oppressive patriarchal rule of the Taliban, I thought how fortunate I am to live in a country where women have equal power as men. Where women earn as much money as men, where women have control over what happens to their bodies, where women are free to express their innate sexuality without being objectified, shamed, or worse, physically harmed, a country where patriarchy is a thing of the past — wait, what? Who am I kidding?
As these thoughts filled my mind, I could feel the weight of the invisible burqa that lay over my own body, placed over my head in childhood. A burqa that was stitched together from the myriad of societal messages I heard in childhood, that women were less powerful than men, ‘in the eyes of God the husband is the head of the wife’; that my body and sexuality were shameful, ‘good girls keep their legs crossed’; that I was responsible for a man’s bad behavior, ‘boys will try girls must deny’; and that I should keep my aspirations in check, ‘it is a man’s world’.
Even though great strides have been made in valuing a woman’s worth, today as I look through my adult eyes, I still see these hidden, insidious burqas draped over so many women, dimming their light. Now more than ever with all the challenges our society faces we need to draw on the talent and wisdom of women who make up the majority of the American population.
It is time to root out all the old patriarchal norms of inequality and oppression that are woven into the fabric of our society. Inequality that even today still exists. Consider these sobering statistics highlighting the injustices and lack of freedom that many women in the United States live with every day:
In 2023, women earned 77 cents for every dollar earned by white men, the racial group with the highest pay across occupations. — 19thNews.org
A 2023 report shows that women account for 41.9% of the workforce in 2023. Yet, the proportion of women in senior leadership roles (Vice-President, Director, or C-suite) has dropped by 10% to 32.2% compared to 2022. — Forbes
In America, a woman is raped every 2 minutes. — WCSAP
43 out of the 50 states have restrictions on a woman’s right to an abortion, with 12 states having no exceptions for rape or incest. — Guttmacher Institute
Sexual assault victim-blaming is prevalent. Too often rape survivors are asked, ‘What were you wearing’. In the past decade alone there have been over eight cases where the rapist was acquitted or serviced with no jail time based on the argument that ‘she was asking for it’ because of what the victim was wearing. — MIC.com
Many of the largest religious denominations in the United States, such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), the Southern Baptist Convention, Orthodox Judaism, and Muslims do not allow women to be ordained or hold top church leadership positions. — Oxford University Press
59 countries have had women Presidents or Heads of State. The United States has had zero. — wikipedia.org
To change we must first acknowledge the weight on our shoulders of these invisible burqas and how they are shrouding our lives. Then through our voices and our actions, we can begin to feel for the hem and start to pull on the threads, dismantling strand by strand the oppressive threads of economic inequality, religious suppression, body subservience, and sexual repression.
With the loosening of each strand, we will be freer to stand in our power. Then, finally, with the burqa in shreds at our feet, we can begin to reweave the threads into a crowning headdress, that is worn with power and grace.
Collectively women’s leadership will bend society towards true equality and freedom. A society where men and women stand side by side with mutual respect and reverence. With our crowns woven tight, then and only then, will we be free of the burqas that bind us.
