Hindustan Times
The under-cover gaze
The Issue: Beauty and the burqa
The Soundtrack: Bette Davis Eyes
There are only two things in the world that make not-so-pretty women appear pretty: beer and burqas.
While it’s true that I don’t drink solely for the aesthetic purpose mentioned above, my relationship with the burqa - usually associated with backwardness in Muslim society and the strange guilt that accompanies the fear that makes women stay literally under-cover in public - is of a one-tracked kind. Let me explain. Each time I pass a lady in a burqa, the only thing I can imagine under the Darth Vaderess cloak is an incredibly stunning woman shielding her beauty from the world’s eyes lest the onlooker goes mad with desire and love.
Without her burqa on, how are we to look at that without bursting into flames?
Statistically, I’m told, the number of pretty women under burqas are liable to be the same as those liable to be plain. (Interestingly, these statistician friends of mine insist that the number of pretty women - with or without a burqa — in the world roughly number the same as the non-pretty ones. This is total bakwaas considering I know from my anthropoligist friends that by definition, ‘beauty’ and ‘ugliness’ — unlike plainness — has to be a ‘minority characteristic’. If every second woman in a place looked like Angelina Jolie, the Angelina Jolie look would hardly be special and, therefore, deemed ‘hot’.)
Well, coming back to the burqa, the point I’m trying to make is that for me it gives any woman a mysterious erotic air, in which she’s hiding something sensuous in a teasing fashion rather than protecting her ‘modesty’ (a strange term that). So when French President Nicholas Sarkozy, wants no women in France to wear burqas (a sign of “debasement of women”), I say he’s worried about what goes through his head when he sees a burqa-clad woman.
Considering that I’ve viewed Mrs Sarkozy’s pictures with her kit off (that never included a burqa) I can understand even more why in true Gallic-style homegrown supremacy of erotic tastes must be held high above all other forms.
The first thing I notice about burqa-clad ladies - and probably the last thing too - is the eyes that peer out of the gauzed front. That being the only window to what lies within, the pair of eyes automatically are invested with incredible, seductive powers - no matter if the contours of the burqa suggest a Shehnaz Huseein underneath it. Which is why Kim Carnes’ 1981 blinder of a song, Betty Davis Eyes, came rushing back to me as I heard about the Sarkozy plan to get all women in France out of their burqas - no matter what they might be wearing underneath.
Although I’ve never heard the original version of Bette Davis Eyes that was written in 1974 and then rejected by Carnes because she didn’t like the arrangement, I can understand why the dame herself, Bette Davis, so liked the song, when Carnes did agree to record it with a new arrangement. It tilts towards what lies under, beneath, sideways, over, above - rather than talking about feminine beauty out there for the picking/checking out:
“Her hair is Harlow gold,
Her lips sweet surprise
Her hands are never cold
She’s got Bette Davis eyes
She’ll turn her music on
You won’t have to think twice
She’s pure as New York snow
She got Bette Davis eyes”
Sure, Carnes in her sandpaper-against-your-chin voice purrs on about her hair, her lips, her hands, her ‘character’ even. But my ‘gaze’ in the song is firmly fixed on those ‘Bette Davis eyes that she has. Hell, she sounds like one of the Arab ladies under those tents. Not to lead gents like me on, of course but, as Carnes tells us seductively in her grrr-ful voice, to:
“…tease you
She’ll unease you
All the better just to please you
She’s precocious
And she knows just what it
Takes to make a pro blush
She got Greta Garbo stand-off sighs,
She’s got Bette Davis eyes”
For crying out loud, why on earth the French would want to destroy such a setting by banning burqas, je ne comprend pas!
(10 votes, average: 4.8 out of 5)
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That reminds me of the Afghani girl snapped by Steve McCurry for the cover of National Geographic in 1985. That’s the kind of eyes you are talking about, I think. Well if then, I think you are right. I liked that erotic imaginary of yours. Though I am a female and harbor no bisexual(or homosexual) feelings, I also think that ladies clad in burqa are something. That they try to hide their beauty by taking up ineffectual(and hence that beautiful imaginary of yours) means like burqa that enhances it instead. Sarkozy is apparently indifferent to such metaphysical practices and hence landed with the controversial rule.But seriously, it would be nice for a change to see them without their burqas, if that ever happens which I seriously doubt.
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indi Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Guys, guys, guys! Do I really think that women should be wearing burqas?!! Do re-read the TONE of the blog and tell me what you think…. And Amrita, when you say that you think ladies clad in burqas are ’something’, I must add that I think men wearing pathan suits are ’something — which, i certainly hope, won’t make me a bisexual or homosexual or Rishi Kapoor in ‘Sargam’ (”Daflee waa-ley….)!
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VM Reply:
June 25th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Hi Indy,
You’ve got to realise that we Indians take everything literally. Decoding metaphores, style, tone and other nuances of the language is not for us- after all, even in schools English as a subject is way down the ladder compared to Mathematics or Science. We take our ‘prowess’ in English for granted. We may not be a hundred percent literate nation, but we are definitely one hundred percent literal!!
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What a work of red wine and an alchemy of desire (Tarun Tejpal)! Women in burqa are beautiful; it questions the abject nudity of our age and time that no longer shock or reveal, the genteal innocent translucent color of hidden skin without sunblock ,the shape and form that that crases and teases,prevents physical and mental pollution and the gaze of all kind of men.Modesty is a justification of her exclusiveness for her man.Go ask a Japanese man what he sees in the nape of a neck of a woman or female feet in Malaysia or China.Beauty lies in the eyes and mind of the beholder so like they say play it on!……..On a serious note, all modern conflict are ethno-cultural in origin, Sarkozy could have done better.Human diversity ’s management and the resurgence of politics of recognition and identity simply cannot be ignored post globalization.
P.S For our eyes only ,when are u putting some of ur pic !!
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Seems Sarcozy hates the mystery behind the burqa and wants the secrets out
A great piece by u as usual
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indi Reply:
June 24th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Maybe it’s time for me to wear the burqa. I’m not getting prettier, you know!
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Its all very romantic when you look at burqa from a man’s point of view. And humorous when written by Indrajit. But think of it from the woman’s point of view, who is forced to wear it. Is she not consistently reminded that she is a temptation which needs to be hidden so that men may remain pious. To some it can be a powerful tool but I dont think burqa clad women think of themselves as powerful. Most probably they are told that they incite evil desires among men and therefore they must keep themselves covered. I wonder what effect that has on their psychological development. To spend an entire life with a feeling of guilt can be real torture.
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i was watchin a documentary on afghans one fine day wen i saw this woman talkin about the kind of botheration she had with the burkha. Apparently the afghan women are forced to even drive wearing a burkha which is about 5 kilos heavy with things barely visible after wearing the heavy attire!! they cant move out without wearing one unless they work woth d police forces!!! this thought from a woman’s is certainly not pleasurable.
the beauty of the woman under d burkha is unquestionable coz most of d women surely are pretty and describe eyes as their best feature but all this goes to drain when something has d term compulsion attached to it !!!
d religion asks a women to wear burkhas whatever be the situation,
D attire surely is traditional and should not be banned as such but shudnt be compulsory either !!
it should be left to the choice of women if she wants to wear it or not!!!
sir live d fun element attached !!! but a women certainly thinks differently!!!
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Hi Indy,
I think way back in 30’s Majaz wrote ‘Tere maathe pe yeh anchal bohot khoob hai/ Lekin tu isse ek parcham bana leti to achchha thaa’ . Sarkozy should have used these line to open his speech
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After reading your blog, it seems you think its high time that women banish the burqa and reveal their beauty in its true form. However, most of these women are reluctant to do so due to their conservative mindset and religious views. I am quite sure that atleast some of them would want to step out in a pair of cool jeans or salwaar kameez rather than stick to that black (hot) colored garb all the time. At the same time, its not Sarkozy’s or anybody else’s business to tell them what or what not to wear.
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Deb Reply:
June 26th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
That is not to say that they are not ALREADY wearing “a pair of cool jeans or salwaar kameez”, only beneath the burqa. Ref. the episode about an Arabian princess in the (quite authentic) hotel in ‘Almost Married’.
True, it’s not anybody else’s business to tell them what or what not to wear. In the recent series of articles in HT on overt & covert racism prevailing in India, specifically Delhi, one Muslim woman from Kashmir stated that she felt safer wearing the burqa (or was it just a hizab). So, to each his own. But the question may be one of choice - as long as it’s the woman who chooses to wear the burqa, all for it. If it’s forced (as one suspects it usually is, whether by individual or community or tradition, then it’s a different issue. And one hopes the issue of this choice is what Sarkozy is gunning at.
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to each her own, i guess. but it must be mighty stifling in the summer. if nothing else, on humanitarian grounds, it really would be nice if it was ‘optional’ and not with the asterisk , ‘required’.
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Ok tell me if revealing oneself means freedom then soulden’t the opposite covering up also be freedom ,doent equality means this.So much for freedom of speech, expression and liberty.Historically French Colonial rule did not allow the limited autonomy practised by the British. They instead insisted their subjects become french in every sense and never recognised them as one of them, what a delimma for the immigrants!
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Deb Reply:
June 29th, 2009 at 3:57 pm
Well, now that French colonial rule has been brought in here, this seems ground enough to comment on the economic colonialism that seems to be practiced by the French even now. Many may’ve heard how the French Air Force bombed the forces of a West African country a few years back, from a base INSIDE that very country. Well, this is not all. Go to any so called Francophone country in West Africa, and what do you see? Businesses of all kinds run by the French, shops full of French goodies, all sold at astronical prices upto ten times what they’d cost if allowed to be imported and traded from diverse sources by the small local business community (including some of India origin, like Choithram).
The only hotel in Niamey, the capital of Niger, is run by (what else) the French. In many of those countries, the corrupt rulers and politicians are so much on the payroll of the French that not one business which is run by someone other than a French can even be set up, let alone be run. As my former colleague (an Africa-born US citizen now working in Geneva) used to remark, the Africans seem to have bartered away their economic freedom in return for more power (and pelf) for the ruling clans. ‘Blood Diamond’ was no exaggeration, and I’ve been to that beautiful country Sierra Leone.
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amy Reply:
July 6th, 2009 at 3:19 pm
I agree and know what u mean I stayed at the hotel in Niamey, did u go to Agadez in sahara desert , there is nothing but pure sand dunes,one place u can hear the sound of silence , no directions to follow ,no tree to sit under its mars on earth and its peaceful. A place to go if u hear urself saying too often u wanna get away from it all. Indi (H) wants to go home?(ET-the movie)!!! The post on (overhearing next one) was too short .What’s Niger rich resource ,Uranium to fuel nuclear deficit countries controled by the French.
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it seems to me that burqa should go down (or go up) from religious praxis and cumbersome jargons to a new fashion style worn purely out of will.god! i think it would be funny if burqa fashion catches on and americans take liking to it,the devil wears a burqa!
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