Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The most practical use for a hijab

I was in the nearby Wal-Mart Supercenter that's down the road from my office, and I saw two Muslim women, in full-length burqas (I guess that's redundant....it's not like they have summer length burqas that only go to the knees, and flash a little leg), with the hijab head scarf, but without the face-covering niqab veil. The hijab was rather tight, as normal. What stood out though was the fact that she had a Blackberry Curve wedged INSIDE her hijab, so that it was pressed tightly to her ear, enabling her to have a hands-free conversation.

I briefly considered taking a photo of it with my Blackberry (also a Curve, which is why I knew). However, that's kind of ballsy and brazen, even for me. You'll just have to take my word for it that it looked like the clumsiest Bluetooth headset ever. But, in the day of tiny cell phones, it sure does make it easy to hold, since you can't press it between your shoulder and ear like a regular phone.

16 comments:

  1. They have shorter burquas for more enlightened Islamic nations. Like the nation of Lakemba. (Sydney suburb with a very high Lebanese migrant population.) Ever heard of the 'burqini'?

    Sure, it's not exactly Ursula Andress emerging from the surf in Dr No, but it's progress.

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  2. Why would the Lebanese need these? They tend to be the most progressive of all Muslims. When they're not locked tooth and nail in civil war, that is. The fact that they aren't covered in burqas are how I know they are so good-looking.

    And I have seen the burqini, I just didn't know the name of it.

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  3. When I was a Job Coach at Value City, the girl who I supervised was autistic and she cleaned the bathrooms.

    She was just finishing up when a woman came in wearing a burqua and went into a bathroom stall. IMMEDIATELY we began hearing disgusting noises of the highest caliber so I got us the hell out of there.

    A few minutes later we were paged back to the bathroom for a "problem" and when I opened the stall door that she had been in, I thought I was going vomit for 10 days straight. There were feces everywhere but in the toilet. All over the wall, the lid, the floor, uggghhhh. It was as if she had swallowed a bottle rocket, bent over and it exploded out her ass.

    I told the girl she didn't have to clean it up, we could quit because to hell with that. But she decided she could handle it so she did it.

    I think of it every time I see a woman in Burqa now.

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  4. Good thing she wasn't in a bank and asked to remove it!

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  5. Can't imagine those things have much for pockets, either.

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  6. Lakemba is very progressive! Their head preacher recently commented that girls wearing not much (i.e. western dress) are no more than "pieces of meat" and then posed the question that "if they attract by cats, who is to blame, the meat or the cat?" Thankfully he answered this perplexing question by stating "it is the uncovered meat that is the problem." He then questioned the mercy of the judge who sent 4 lebanese youths to jail for pack raping a teenage girl and recording it on their phones. It is basically a no go zone for whites and the police recommend that Anglo's avoid the area. Top spot - mutli culturalism at its finest!

    Thankfully, the religon of peace continues to prosper. Where oh where would we be without it?

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  7. It's times like these you thank GOD you're Australian!

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  8. Heidi, I had a similar situation when working at an Acme grocery store in NJ, except it wasn't a Muslim woman involved. We never did see the culprit. The general manager of the store instructed me (I was basically an all-around stockboy, bagger, cart guy, etc) to clean it up. It was all over the floor, up the walls, everywhere but the bowl. I refused, telling him I was not paid enough to clean up a Hazmat site. He ended up doing it himself.

    Amanda, pockets are way too modern and vain.

    And to my Aussie friends....this sounds just like Dearborn Michigan, a haven for those of the Arab world. Hey, all religions have their extremists. I suppose this is no different than the fringe Baptist church that protests funerals of returning dead servicemen, saying they were punished by God for fighting for a country that promotes homosexuality. Jesus would be SO proud of them!

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  9. Good for you! Not that I think anyone's too good to clean up crap, but c'mon. Your incident sounds about as outrageous as the one I encountered which goes beyond the realm of "normal" nastiness.

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  10. Well, I was a minimum wager at a grocery store, which went WELL beyond.

    And ironically...I do feel I'm too good to clean up crap, as part of my paid responsibilities. However, as part of my parental responsibilities, I have cleaned it up. For free.

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  11. I suppose flying planes into Trade Centres is no different than the Baptist protesting when you compare extremists

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  12. Damn! Someone else came out with the hijab phone first. I was just finishing up field testing and focus groups on mine!

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  13. Lermontov, OK, you got me there. Islamic extremists are willing to go the extra mile for their faith than Baptists. But, I see a correlation in the religious evolution between Islam now and Christianity during the time of the Crusades and the Inquisition. Christians had no problems slaughtering entire villages if there was the slightest accusation of heresy or witchcraft. And during the Reformation, 1/3 of all Germans were killed due to their differences in faith, an act that continues today between the Islamic sects. Now, we can mostly live in peace with one another. So, give it 6 or 7 centuries and you'll have no problem at all living next to a Muslim.

    YD, check the patents, you might yet be able to beat her. Just because she has one doesn't mean she knows how to work her way through the US Patent Office.

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  14. "Lermontov, OK, you got me there. "

    Been waiting a long time for this!

    I agree with much of your point - I do, however, have issues with moral relativism.

    Still love you though!

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  15. Ahh, but that was not even in issue when it was simply an entry about a woman using her religiously-dictated clothing to hold a cell phone. It could have just as easily been a piece about an orthodox Jew putting change in his tefillin to pay highway tolls.

    As for moral relativism, that's a much longer debate for another time.

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