Veiled Women in Madrid

A couple of days ago on the Metro I saw a Muslim woman with a veil over her face. That's the first time I've seen that here. There are lots of Muslim women in Madrid, mostly Moroccans and West Africans, but they usually wear head scarves. Those are so common in Western Europe I don't even notice them anymore.

Seeing a person's face covered with a veil bothers me. The face is such a distinctive part of a person's character that it's a bit off-putting to see it hidden. Not that I agree with France's oppressive and counter-productive policy of banning the veil in public institutions. That only serves to marginalize people, or as a female writer friend of mine said, "It's just another instance of men telling women what to wear."

What's beginning to make me more comfortable with veils is that I've seen some professional women wearing them. The woman on the Metro was a mother with a few kids in tow, but on my most recent trip to the British Library I saw a veiled college student. The other women in her study group only wore head scarves, and she was sitting right next to an Arab guy. They were all laughing and slacking off like regular college students.

Once in England I went into a chemists (that's a pharmacy to you Yanks) and the chemist (pharmacist) was wearing a veil. I have to admit I did a double take, but she didn't act any differently than any other chemist as she dispensed my medication.

I have to hand it to these women. They obviously are educated and out in the world, but they still keep their traditions. They might have pressure from their families to cover their faces, but I have a hard time believing that women who are going to college or have professional jobs don't have the independence to dress as they choose. This is something we don't think of in the West, that many Muslim women freely choose to dress the way they do. They must get a lot of pressure from society at large. I wonder how many comments that chemist has to endure every day? And that student wouldn't have been able to go to college if she was French.

I still don't like veils, but if we're really living in a multicultural, democratic society, then I'm the one who's going to have to adapt.