A Burka at Carrefour

Let us recap what a burka is: it’s a garment that covers a woman from head to foot, leaving only her eyes uncovered so she can see where she’s going.

It is customarily worn by some Arab women when they go out in public so that no other man but her husband may look upon her.

Only her husband may look upon her. She is his property.

This is the ideal represented by a burka. That women are property.

So it offends me to see a woman wearing it in public. Even more so in a mundane a place such as the supermarket. Because that requires that I accept this ideal—that women are property—as an everyday thing. That something like that is equally unremarkable as potato chips or canned tuna.

“Just another Saturday afternoon shopping for this week’s groceries and oh look there’s a-woman-whose-life-is-completely-owned-by-her-husband can I have a half kilo of chicken please thanks.”

I can’t wrap my mind around it. It just feels wrong.