Just thought about this and how ironically, face coverings have become mandatory on public transports and it makes me think of Muslim women (Niqab wearing women specifically) who've had a hard time because of their face coverings to now find that everyone has to cover their faces (for different reasons yes but still ironic, isn't it?)
Googled to see if anyone else mentions this. Here's a piece I found about it (There's more but just picked this one).
www.google.com/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2020/06/12/face-mask-compulsory-muslim-women-12838585/amp/
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AIBU?
To think it's ironic about Niqab and face coverings
616 replies
IsntItIronicDontYouThink · 18/06/2020 10:00
OP posts:
LittleMissRedHat ·
18/06/2020 11:02
@EmperorCovidula
Relatively few women choose to dress this way freely.
Utter tosh and totally ignorant. I live in the Middle East and have loads of Muslim friends who I chat to very freely. I'm also very nosy and ask all sorts of questions which are usually happily answered. I love to learn how others with a different upbringing feel about things. If you speak to the youngsters, many of them cannot wait to hit the age where they start wearing the shayla / hijab and abaya. Just like their mums and sisters. They feel protected, happy and free, the flowing abaya is cool. And they can do the school run in their jim-jams if they wish. And sometimes do. 
There is all sorts of oppression to all sorts of women, in all sorts of ways and there are SOME women who don't want to dress that way and that is wrong but there are plenty of women who dress the way family or husbands insist they do, an abaya or niqab is just more obvious. Please don't assume because it's not something YOU want to do that it's not what MILLIONS of women choose to do of their own volition.
IsntItIronicDontYouThink ·
18/06/2020 11:05
@WorraLiberty did you miss the clothes scarves I mentioned about twice now? I also mentioned it because it's supposed to be a "proper mask" like it actually protects anything. It's not about contradicting myself 
but about the fact that both cover the nose and mouth, leaving you with only the eyes of the person. I've also mentioned the reasons notwithstanding but the irony is that people will defend one and not the other when they both do the same (or similar thing). Again, not the reasons behind each one but I know that's what people will hold onto, as can be seen here.
OP posts:
WorraLiberty ·
18/06/2020 11:09
[quote IsntItIronicDontYouThink]@WorraLiberty did you miss the clothes scarves I mentioned about twice now? I also mentioned it because it's supposed to be a "proper mask" like it actually protects anything. It's not about contradicting myself but about the fact that both cover the nose and mouth, leaving you with only the eyes of the person. I've also mentioned the reasons notwithstanding but the irony is that people will defend one and not the other when they both do the same (or similar thing). Again, not the reasons behind each one but I know that's what people will hold onto, as can be seen here.[/quote]
I've never seen a 'tiny piece of fabric attached to a string', that leaves me looking only at the eyes of the person.
I can see the rest of their face and their hair too.
There's simply no comparison to Niqab no matter how much your want there to be.
IntermittentParps ·
18/06/2020 11:10
Hmmm, I'm not defending Boris Johnson, but I think "letterboxes" referred to the whole appearance, not just to the face coverings.
Oh that's all right then
Anyway, he actually said 'bank robbers' as well as 'letterboxes', which, unless bank robbers go around in long flowing robes and I've just not seen enough of them to know, sounds to me like it refers to the face covering.
IsntItIronicDontYouThink ·
18/06/2020 11:13
@WorriedAboutMom
OP, you're right. I'm sorry, I think I'm a bit rattled this morning seeing the Twitter replies to Mayor Sadik Khan in response to him saying face masks should be mandatory in shops. Cue the usual memes by men ridiculing niqabi women (the amount of abuse he recieves on a daily basis on Twitter is crazy but that's another topic entirely).
It's alright. No apologies needed. I can only imagine. Seeing some of the replies here can only be heartbreaking.
Apparently, when women are told they dress provocatively and put on tons of makeup, rock up to clubs and bars and twist and whine sexily while dancing because of men, they swear it's for them, it makes them feel confident, muh sexuality!
When muslim women cover up and state this is for them and they're fine with it, nope "you're oppressed and I feel sorry for you! Patriarchy!"
OP posts:
LittleMissRedHat ·
18/06/2020 11:14
@viques
It makes me think - and I am sorry if this offends niquab wearing Muslim women on here- that the real reason for a patriarchal society insisting on covering women is not for modesty or to prevent them rousing lust in men who should know better, but because wearing a face covering makes normal everyday life so energy sapping it reduces the chance of women expected to cover up ever being able to live as equals in the workplace or society .
This is genuinely funny, do you think there are no women working in Middle Eastern countries? Do you honestly think they are so energy sapped from wearing a face covering that they can't possibly be equal to a non face-covered man? 
IsntItIronicDontYouThink ·
18/06/2020 11:27
@babba2014
I don't know why so many non Muslims are speaking in behalf of me but as someone born and bred in a multicultural part of London, at 16 I chose to wear niqab. My father was shocked and wasn't for it. I had no boyfriend or husband to make me wear it. It was my own choice which made me comfortable.
When I was in a queue for one of the shops, an elderly guy kept looking at me. I thought he might be getting annoyed because my child might be getting too close to him (by crossing the line) but he turned around and said to me, we look the same. We used to look at you funny but now look at all of us.
It was funny because maybe in the past he would never have talked to me and this made him talk for ages. Funnily, people think niqab prevents people from understanding what the other person is saying although I've never come across this in real life. On the other hand, his mask was very tight with no breathing holes and it was very very muffled so I struggled to understand and kept asking to repeat but I didn't give up. He was mentioning how lonely he was because we can't meet up with families and how the church has live events online and asked me what my local mosque is doing. I have been through isolation before when I moved away from family and so I have learnt to cope and for me I can talk to God and be okay. It took time to get to that though.
Anyway, before Corona started there was so much theft and house break ins happening and people were devastated. I do not live in an expensive area. Quite the opposite. Cars were being stolen left right and centre and the police refused to come out. Crime became too easy. People were calling for the chopping off of hands!
People see Islam as a religion which kills and oppresses women but it's in fact the opposite, otherwise I wouldn't still be a Muslim. I am all for women's rights. Funnily, people had to teach their children how to wash their hands etc for Corona but Muslim children clean regularly (before and after eating, wudhu, after using the loo and also cleaning with water when one has used the loo etc etc) and so did not need any extra education. We have so much in Islam that is excellent for hygiene, for protecting women, for making sure everyone is equal (the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him's speech on the Haan a out no man being superior over another, based on nationality, skin tone etc.) yet people would rather turn a blind eye to that and focus on something which rarely happens. Most of the people who come to Islam from other religions or atheism are women, double the amount of men. If Islam was oppressive to women, this wouldn't be the case.
We should learn not to judge one another. I don actually agree with the masks for Corona, the packaging itself says it does not protect against anything but if people feel like it helps them so be it but it must be a choice. This is the same for niqab. We do have a choice. It doesn't mean that someone who wears the niqab is better than one who doesn't. It is based on our inner condition. The more we do, the more we give up in rbis world, the more we get in the hereafter. A Muslims life is based on the hereafter and not this temporary world. This is maybe why others find it difficult to understand especially if they have no belief in Paradise.
When I was in a queue for one of the shops, an elderly guy kept looking at me. I thought he might be getting annoyed because my child might be getting too close to him (by crossing the line) but he turned around and said to me, we look the same. We used to look at you funny but now look at all of us.
It was funny because maybe in the past he would never have talked to me and this made him talk for ages. Funnily, people think niqab prevents people from understanding what the other person is saying although I've never come across this in real life. On the other hand, his mask was very tight with no breathing holes and it was very very muffled so I struggled to understand and kept asking to repeat but I didn't give up. He was mentioning how lonely he was because we can't meet up with families and how the church has live events online and asked me what my local mosque is doing. I have been through isolation before when I moved away from family and so I have learnt to cope and for me I can talk to God and be okay. It took time to get to that though.
Anyway, before Corona started there was so much theft and house break ins happening and people were devastated. I do not live in an expensive area. Quite the opposite. Cars were being stolen left right and centre and the police refused to come out. Crime became too easy. People were calling for the chopping off of hands!
People see Islam as a religion which kills and oppresses women but it's in fact the opposite, otherwise I wouldn't still be a Muslim. I am all for women's rights. Funnily, people had to teach their children how to wash their hands etc for Corona but Muslim children clean regularly (before and after eating, wudhu, after using the loo and also cleaning with water when one has used the loo etc etc) and so did not need any extra education. We have so much in Islam that is excellent for hygiene, for protecting women, for making sure everyone is equal (the prophet Muhammad peace be upon him's speech on the Haan a out no man being superior over another, based on nationality, skin tone etc.) yet people would rather turn a blind eye to that and focus on something which rarely happens. Most of the people who come to Islam from other religions or atheism are women, double the amount of men. If Islam was oppressive to women, this wouldn't be the case.
We should learn not to judge one another. I don actually agree with the masks for Corona, the packaging itself says it does not protect against anything but if people feel like it helps them so be it but it must be a choice. This is the same for niqab. We do have a choice. It doesn't mean that someone who wears the niqab is better than one who doesn't. It is based on our inner condition. The more we do, the more we give up in rbis world, the more we get in the hereafter. A Muslims life is based on the hereafter and not this temporary world. This is maybe why others find it difficult to understand especially if they have no belief in Paradise.
Funnily, people had to teach their children how to wash their hands etc for Corona but Muslim children clean regularly (before and after eating, wudhu, after using the loo and also cleaning with water when one has used the loo etc etc) and so did not need any extra education
This is another thing I've mentioned before at the start of lockdown. Funny how some froth about washing hands now like because they've been told to do so, like they're handwashing experts when some people have been doing it regularly on their own, no pandemic, for ages (and I don't just mean Muslims). I've seen many parents who don't wipe their hands properly after eating (and their children too). Sticky fingers everywhere on the table, seat, bags etc when it only takes some wet wipes or water or hand sanitizer to do.
OP posts:
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