Letters to the Editor
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Modest Couture
I'd always thought that, at least with the more affluent people, there were courtyards that were sufficiently concealed from street view where the women could sit in the sun.
One solution would be to develop a fabric that was modest, yet allowed UV to penetrate.
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Lets flip a coin....
vitamin D deficiency because of wearing a burka too much
or
skin cancer because of wearing a string bikini too much
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This is a confirmation
of a study done 10-15 years ago which found that Afghan women under the Taliban were suffering from vitamin D deficiencies. La plus ca change ...
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an issue that's been around for a while
This isn't the first time this issue has been raised; see this BBC news story from February 2001: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/1154211.stm
This earlier story isn't based on a scientific study, and it generated complaints of anti-Muslim bias.
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Mikes Pace, speaking up for the Taliban?
Sunscreen, dude. Don't they have the stuff out where you live?
Besides, skin cancer isn't an inevitable consequence of sun exposure. It just raises your risk, that's all.
The human body is a photosensitive biological system. Not as photosensitive as most plants, but still we need light in order to survive, and not just through our eyeballs.
Maybe that's the reason we lost our primate hair. Not because we started wearing clothes, but because we needed the extra vitamin D for our development.
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Not just in the Middle East
Chatting with my wife's colleagues (all pediatricians), vitamin D deficiency appears to be more and more common in the U.S., too, particularly among children and infants.
This is occuring primarily within muslim communities in inner cities such as New York and Detroit. Conservative muslim immigrant women, living cloistered in apartments, with long cold winters, have virtually no exposure to sunlight. And, as they're the primary caregivers for children, infants and children in these families rarely see the sun, and subsequently have staggering rates of vitamin D deficiency, even rickets.
This is compounded by the fact that health care in the U.S. among the immigrant population is, well, horribly lacking (as it is, you know, among U.S. citizens, too). Vitamin D defiency often goes for long periods undiagnosed and without treatment (a cheap supplement from any drug store would alleviate it).
Yes, rickets - a disease which was pretty much conquered a century ago, is now popping up among children in the U.S.
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Herself
One solution would be to develop a fabric that was modest, yet allowed UV to penetrate.
But you're missing the point. These are cultures that don't really want women to be healthy.
The biggest positive aspect of the burqa for these cultures is not the way it hides sexual attractiveness, but the way it hides bruises from physical abuse.
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let's not forget about ourselves
It's important to note, though, that the average american lifestyle also does not provide enough natural vitamin D. As a country, we are either indoors or in our cars 90% of the time, neither of which is terribly conducive to vitamin D production. Our skin-cancer frenzy, while justified, means that we slather ourselves in chemical-filled sunscreen, which also blocks the very UV rays that produce vitamin D.
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But... It's God's will
Obviously, God (or Allah in this case) wants these women to be vitamin deficient. That is why he instructs their religious leaders to make them cover up their entire bodies.
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Questions
So what exactly happens if you're Vitamin D deficient? It's clearly not lethal, since societies where the burqa is worn have managed to survive. Is there permanent damage? Does your body just function suboptimally? How serious is this?
Does any sunlight pass through clothing at all? If so, how does Vitamin D absorbtion compare between someone being outside all day in a burqa and someone being outside for 10 minutes a day in a skirt and t-shirt?
Also, how much of a supplement did they give them? The Cancer Society very recently recommended a 1000 IU supplement to prevent cancer, but prior to that the RDI was something significantly smaller - 200 IU I believe. If they weren't giving them 1000, what would happen if they did jack it up to 1000?
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Anti-sex taboos can sometimes actually be covertly sexual.
You know, it occurs to me upon reading this article that conservative Muslim countries are just as focussed on sex as we are. They just do it in a different, almost inverted way. How else to explain the expectation that at any minute, a woman's body might spark illicit sexual activity? That's a pretty extreme degree of attunement to sexual possibilities, if you ask me. The culture in fundamentalist-controlled countries seem very aware of sexuality at ever turn even as it makes a public show of avoiding its expression. Though perhaps that is a misperception of my own highly sexualized American mind looking in from the outside.
I recall hearing that the American Puritans were similar: lots of prohbitions and rules about sex, and lots and lots and lots of unofficial, unsanctioned sex going on as well. The very prohibitions were, in a way, titillation.
This is probably not a revelation for most of you, but it just struck me like an "aha" today.
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RE: Questions
Vitamin D deficiency leads to a variety of conditions which are pretty much all tied to skeletal maintenance. Bones thin and weaken, becoming fragile. Muscles weaken and tear in extreme cases.
In children, it stunts growth and causes deformities when untreated. So, yeah, it can be serious, depending on just how long to what degree the deficiency lasts.
Not having ever worn a burqa, I couldn't really say how much UV gets through, but a simple thin cotton T-shirt blocks a significant amount of UV. Having arms and shoulders exposed for just a little bit each day, particularly in more equatorial areas, can allow synthesis of enough vitamin D to keep your bones healthy.
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The honored role of women in Islam
To sum it up: isolated, subservient, Koranically beaten, genitally mutilated and skeletally deformed, and too pious to protect the health of their own children. Do burkas, abayahs, hijab and all the other uncomfortable, unhygienic Arab supremacist costumes make women stupid as well as slaves?
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Anonymous: Prejudice is Ugly
Anonymous said:
But you're missing the point. These are cultures that don't really want women to be healthy.
The biggest positive aspect of the burqa for these cultures is not the way it hides sexual attractiveness, but the way it hides bruises from physical abuse.
My understanding from reading, interviews and conversations with, you know, real, life people is that folks who wear burquas wear them to cover themselves from the eyes of strange men.
I don't know where the assumption that they "don't ... want women to be healthy" or "hides bruises..." comes from except, oh, prejudice on your part.
How about thinking of a solution that respects their religion and privacy, yet is, you know, an actual solution?