Re: My official stance on burqas
Another thread somewhere else is related to this issue...One of the things that I have found really strange and disturbing is idea of Mehram and non-mehram in Pakistan..kids' brains are being fed on who is mehram and non-mehram to them (along with haram halal etc)...if you are a woman then at the end of this mehram list you have your father, brother and son and if you are married your husband....almost everyone else is na-mehram and waiting on the street corner to nail you down...it is this kind of paranoia that is basis of the "need to protect" oneself all the time.
I remember from 20 years ago, you could nto walk in a bazaar in Indian Punjab with you sister or mother without seeing men looking at them like crazy wolves...my mamoo jaan had fight right in the bazar one time when he ended up punching this guy on his facefor doing it when he was in bazaar with his family. Things have changed a lot in this respect in the last 20 years. my last visit I noticed that there are lot more women in the streets on scooters, bicycles..with more fashionable clothing and fewer men looking at them with eyes wide open like they have never seen a woman before.
solution is mroe women in the everyday life...teachers, traffic cops, clerks on stores etc...solution is to come out and not hide in.