Afghanistan?
Friday, January 29th, 2010
Now that burkas are so widely discussed in old Europe, you can’t see any veiled figure without the association machinery in the head running wild. It’s a significant discussion, and especially shameful for the self-acclaimed home of liberté, égalité and fraternité. Thinking aloud about a ban of a certain clothing for nothing but populistic reasons is so outright stupid and serves nothing but the lowest-level xenophobic instincts that it is really hard to believe that politicians, even a prime minister, can sink so low.
Other than that, a veil can look magic, sometimes beautiful. I wish there would be a time where I could think more about artistic value than about political/intellectual implications. Oh yes, the image to the right shows the original situation, found in a shop window decorated for winter sale.
