The Burkha Babes Comeback - via Milan

Remember that Burkha Babe story (here and also here)?

Well, hold on to your whatevers. Milan fashion has, perhaps, adopted the line:

Source


Source

Can they now, with full justification call it the shmatta trade?

Reconsidering the Burkha Babes Affair

Remember the Burkha Babes Affair?

Well, here's a LIFE Magazine picture from July 1900:



Source

Maybe one more reconsideration?

Worse than the Burkha Babes

Well, after reading this, I don't feel so bad about our Bet Shemesh ladies:-

Saudi wants divorce after husband lifts her veil

A 50-year-old Saudi woman asked for divorce after her husband lifted her face veil while she was sleeping, local press reported. For 30 years, the wife said she never showed her face to her husband in conformity with the tradition of her native village near the south western Saudi city of Khamis Mushayt.

"After all these years, he tries to commit such a big mistake," the wife told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, after she left the house in total disbelief. She said the husband apologized and promised never to do it again.

This is not the first case of husbands who have not seen their wives' faces in decades. In the past Al Arabiya has reported the case of Ali al-Qahtani, whose wife had been wearing the face veil for the entire ten years of their marrage. When he tried to take it off, she threatened to leave and only decided to stay after he swore never to try again.

Hassan Al-Atibi threatened to marry another woman if his wife didn't show him her face. The woman nominated one of her friends who doesn't observe this tradition as a possible new wife for him, saying this would be better than her showing her face.

And neither the husband or children of Om Rabea al-Gahdaray, 70, have ever seen her face. Al-Gahdaray says it is a family tradition, also followed by mother and sisters, which her husband accepted and never tried to change.

When asked how she could have kids without her husband ever seeing her face, she replied: "Marriage is about love, not faces."

The practice of always remaining veiled, even in front of your husband, is not an Islamic practice but a very old tradition practiced by a minority of people in Gulf countries.

Well, a) that seems to be a face that launched a thousand slips. b) notice that pro-Islamic explanation at the end?

The Mormon Moms

The fundametalist version:-



We have the Burkha Babes and they have the Mormon Moms.

Tired Of Bet Shemesh Burkha Babes?

Tired of the Burkha Babes theme?

Upset at sexual abuse, incest, ladies tripping over themselves?

Try Paris Hilton for a change, close but less stressful:-

Burkha Babe Blunder

I saw this lady last night on the news. She's a Burkha Babe and could hardly walk due to the weight of all the robes she had on, not to speak of her lack of sight through all that stuff:

A Jerusalem court on Tuesday extended by six days the remand of a Beit Shemesh woman suspected of abusing her twelve children. Police believe that the children had sexual intercourse with each other, some for a long period of time.

...said police head of investigations in Beit Shemesh, Roni Markovitch. "We opened with a wide-scale undercover investigation, and then we received complaints of violence within the family and incest between the siblings."

Markovitch maintained that not all of the 12 children were involved in incest.

During the police investigation, it became evident that the mother was violent towards some of her children, and would routinely beat them, sometimes with a sharp object. In other instances, when the children would come home late, they would be sent to sleep in a locked shed outside of the house.

Tamar Rotem claims the woman is the leader of the BBs group.

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UPDATE

Here's a video clip (in Hebrew)

Burkha Babes Purim Blast

via Muqata

Reconsidering the Burkha Babes

All of a sudden it came to me.

Remember that story about women in Bet Shemesh going for the burkha fashion style? Completely covering the head with layers of scarves?

Well, I was trying to come up with a traditional source to refute their claim of extreme modesty. It has been surmised that Leah wore a veil but that was on her wedding night (Genesis 29:25) which would only be natural although it isn't specifically stated. Rivkah uses a veil but only when she is informed that the man she sees from afar is her intended ("And she took her veil, and covered herself" - Genesis 24:65), an act which is related to marriage. In Shir HaShirim 5:7, a veil is used but again, it is connected to being in a love relationship ("The watchmen that went about the city found me, they smote me, they wounded me; the keepers of the walls took away my veil from me.").

On the less savory side, Tamar uses a veil but Yehudah presumes that because of that, she's a prostitute! ("When Tamar was told, Your father-in-law is on his way to Timnah...she took off her widow's clothes, covered herself with a veil to disguise herself...When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute, for she had covered her face." - Genesis 38:13-15).

And then it came to me. Channah goes into the Tabernacle courtyard at Shiloh (my home town) to pray for a son and Eli, the High Priest observes her: ("And it came to pass, as she prayed long before the LORD, that Eli watched her mouth. Now Hannah spoke in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice could not be heard; therefore, Eli thought she was drunk." - I Samuel 1:12-13). Do you see it?

If her face would have been covered with a veil, Eli couldn't have seen her lips. Ergo, she wasn't wearing a veil, even while in one of the most holy of places, doing a most sacred act: praying.

So, can we assume that veils - and not burkhas - are appropriate to identify a woman's marital status but when engaged in other mundane or even sacred acts, the veil is not considered obligatory?