Is there anything in the Quran about the Burqa?

Is it in any sort of way a official demand or is entirely a subjective this will make god happy sort of thing? I've never heard Burqas being used in nonmuslimn circles and yet It doesn't seem like something that would be officially required.

The only thing the Quran admonishes for women is to dress modestly. Tribal clerics are the ones who came up with the burqa, the abaya, and all the other variations.

But people get crazy making things up.

I read the entire Quran. If the Haditha has anything, I have no idea. I suspect the burqa is more of a local tradition than anything specified by religious writings.

Maybe somebody who actually knows what he is talking about would have a better answer than I do.

But people get crazy making things up.

nt

I am not speaking as a Muslim woman but as an Orthodox Jewish woman. I also cover my hair and dress modestly. No, I do not wear a burqa, but I always wear longer skirts and usually go with a tichel for my hair, mostly because I dislike wigs. I do not feel held back....should I?

They wear wedding rings and many even wear a wedding gown on the day they take their vows.

There is about modest dress, but that does not mean the burqa. The burqa is worn because Sand Storms can be pretty shitty. So it has become a traditional form of dress.

Those who wear it in the US and UK are wearing it as part of a cultural tradition. Nothing else.

Just so you can appreciate the thoughts of Queen Rania Al Abdullah, Queen of Jordan on this.

http://thebigotbasher.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/arab-muslim-terror-war/

Apparently, Muhammad had had enough of a wedding guest who wanted to talk business, and pulled a symbolic barrier between his personal and public life.

That's just what I've heard.

Lots of Muslim women don't wear all that. Sometimes, the way they dress is dependent on the situation.

have odd rules and codes based on our dated practices. Religion is wacky.

Quran that mention veiling...24:31 and 33:59.

Covering women's hair and bodies goes back before Islam.

The most important requirement is that men and women both shall dress modestly. Of course, culturally there are huge differences in what is considered modest. Similarly, some people think they have the inner word on what is modest and are not afraid to impose their views on others who are willing to accept those views.

Dress codes and cultural fashion norms are not unique to Islam.

the fashion police are limited to Iran. I remember quite distinctly being told that it was not appropriate to wear slacks to class here in the U.S.

because the men don't want to be responsible for their own morals...they blame women for "enticing" the male into bad, bad thoughts...

More often put round by people with very little understanding of Islam.

but there is something about modesty and a woman covering her hair.

Not sure about Islam, but I know in Judaism (at least for those of us who are Orthodox), only married women cover their hair. Unmarried women do not. I think maybe all Muslim women must cover.

Islam is NOT the only religion who believes in modest dress. Many other religions and cultures teach modest dress for men and women.

No allowances for climate.

It seems to me that wearing a long covering that is black in that kind of heat in the Middle East and Africa would be brutal, and possibly fatal, due to heatstroke. It's hot and dry there.

And in places like Texas, that are hot and humid, the only thing to do is to wear as little clothing as possible, and spend all your time inside in Air Conditioning. I spend about five or six months out of the year in Texas in shorts and a T-shirt.

Because of the humidity and the lack of evaporative cooling, wearing loose clothing does not help at all with the heat in the South or in Texas.

but that's bullshit imho.

First there's the color: black for women! Couldn't be any worse and definitely misogynistic.

Secondly, there are so many other desert and hot weather climate "tribes" and cultures and virtually all of them have evolved into wearing minimal or no clothing - from Africa, Australia, New Zealand, any number of equatorial islands and countries etc.

I think it's interesting that cultures that wear minimal clothing have very strong matriarchal societies. Women's bodies are so powerfully fertile-looking that they are naturally endowed with supernatural/leadership abilities - they produce life. Pretty hard to come up with a topper to that.... Yet in the very patriarchal (and imho backward) Arab desert cultures, women are forced to wear the very worst cover and are thus relegated to a very demeaning status.

There's a connection I'm sure of it.

I remember reading or hearing that the burqa was imposed by the Ottomans, that it was a national thing that was eventually adopted by Muslims. Can't give you a citation for that, just something I remembered when I saw the question.