the.com/burqa
A garment some Muslim women choose to wear, though others are pressured either to wear it or to remove it.
means A loose outer garment, often covering the face and body, worn by some Muslim women as an expression of modesty or faith.
from The word comes from Arabic burqu' or burqa', originally referring to a veil or face covering, and traveled into Persian and Urdu before entering English through colonial-era encounters with South Asian and Afghan dress. The exact pre-Arabic root is uncertain — some trace it to older Semitic words for 'veil' or 'cover' — so treat deeper claims cautiously. What's certain is that the garment and its many regional variants (niqab, chador, abaya) predate the word's entry into English by centuries, and the term has since been flattened in Western usage to cover garments that are, in practice, quite distinct from one another.
- full coverage
- Includes mesh screen over the eyes, unlike niqab
- origin region
- Associated with Afghanistan, predates Taliban by centuries
- often confused
- Not the same as hijab, niqab, or chador
- banned places
- France, Belgium outlawed face coverings in public, 2010s