How Do You Acknowledge a Woman You Can’t See?

The burqa is a sensory deprivation isolation chamber, a movable prison, one that presents a security risk-but one that also presents an even greater health and psychological risk to the wearer. One cannot breathe. One cannot eat easily in public unless one dines in a women-only section of a restaurant. One has no peripheral vision, one stumbles and trips; one sweats, and some wearers have claustrophobic attacks .In my view, niqab and burqas not only symbolize the subordination of women-they actually carry out that subordination in full view. The fact that I can do nothing about it terrifies and intimidates me. It is meant to do so.

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