Re: My official stance on burqas
PCG, women wear burqa marjorily because of security, pressure, and false sense of piety embedded in the long-run tradition exploited by religious clerics. Now if a woman wears a burqa ONLY because she thinks 'I can't handle the stares' then burqa is not really the issure or solution here (in this case, yes, it's not oppression) but there is something more psychological involved at personal level which is not as drastic as to call for taking off the burqa. Question is, how many women wear burqa because of such personal reasons? Probably many but still not the majority. That's what my guess is.
Now why it symbolizes oppression is because someone handed this over to women long ago telling them they are insecure instead of curing the very reasons for which they were insecure. So when I say no one is asking to take it off or should not ask to put it on that's what I mean.