Burqas and the Unemployed

While walking over the Hungerford foot bridge that crosses the Thames there were a group of women dressed in full black burqa gowns and veils who stopped to take a group photo. It was odd to see them pose with each other one indistinguishable from the next and I could not help to wonder for whom the pictures were intended. It was to me sadly preserving a memory of some nameless, faceless moment without character or context. It is a common site to see women in full Burqa veil in London with only their eyes showing and very common to see Islamic woman in the headdress scarves covering their heads and necks but not their faces. The latter in many cases are made of beautifully colored patterns in sharp contrast to the black head to toe anonymous burqa.


This July the House of Parliament in France in July overwhelming passed legislation to ban the burqa veil in public and there is similar legislation making its way through Britain, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands. Nearby Rebecca’s apartment is Edgeware Road a wide diagonal avenue that begins at Marble Arch near Hyde Park Corner and is known as Little Beirut for its Lebanese cafes, hookah bars called shishas and Middle Eastern shops and markets. The new David Cameron Conservative government campaigned heavily to limit immigration and there is on one side of the issue businesses unhappy with new stringent regulations for hiring non- UK/Euro staff on work visas. On the other side of the argument is Labor saying jobs are lost to expats that could be filled by local Brits. A recent article I read in the Guardian sited a dramatic rise in the past year of unemployed 50 plus year olds who have little hope of finding work.

After a long walk through Hyde Park, Rebecca, JJ and I sat down on a bench to eat some ice cream and watch the parade of people through the park. We played a game trying to guess the multitude of languages and nationalities of people who walked by. A wedding party was making its way down our path to the take photos in front of the fountains at the Italian Gardens. The bride was in a long white off the shoulder gown followed by bridesmaids in tight elegantly fitted dresses. The men wore tuxedoes. A group of young girls in full burqa swarmed the party with cameras quickly snapping shots and then running in front to stay ahead of the wedding party. It was hard to tell if the girls had anything to do with the wedding party but it was clear they were infatuated with the full reverence and exposure of the bride’s femininity. The sun broke through after a little rain and lots of cloud cover. An elderly man sat with his shirt off reading the newspaper, perhaps one of the over 50 unemployed. A nest of ducklings in the Italian Garden fountain was a big crowd pleaser with lots of people sitting on the edge of the pool just watching.

I couldn’t help to think how fortunate we were to have a new beginning. Yes, we were now living 5,000 miles apart. It is going to be hard at times. Rebecca, over 50, working as an expat in the UK is free to do what she wants. There will be no veil for her.