Recently I happened to come across a young Muslim couple in Kashmir, with a 7-8 month old baby. The woman, wearing an abaya, was holding her child and the child was doing all the things that children of that age do. Jumping over to his father's lap for a minute then (when the father with rough long beard kissed him) jumped right back to his mom's lap. Then he was held by his mom and was peering at me, his pupils seemed larger than his eyes. He was cute. I couldn't resist myself, I started making faces at him. He started giggling. This went on until the mother turned back and stared at me through her veil. It's unnerving to be stared at by a woman when others don't realize she is staring (because she is behind the veil).
A thought struck me then. How does a child recognize that the woman holding him was his mother. He couldn't see her, she was wearing that veil. I asked a couple of my friends about it. And they told me (in that knowing tone which women employ when the topic is kinda feminine) "Oh he can sense that it's his mother. He can smell her". Now that made me wonder.. Can children smell and recognize their mother? I was not sure I could digest this. That couldn't be possible. (Update on 2015 July 7th: Apparently it is true as per this article.)
Then I thought something must make the child comfortable with the woman whose face was not visible. What was that?
Perhaps such (Muslim) children think of their mothers as having two avatars. 1. The "normal" mother when she is home and her face is visible and 2. The mother when she is outside and her face is covered by a veil and not visible. Perhaps such children think they have two mothers.
Meaning if I wore an abaya and held the child softly, the child couldn't make out that I was not his mom and he would be comfortable with me. I am not comfortable with the smell theory. Anyone has better ideas? Recently my guruji came up with what seems to be the right answer; The child recognizes the voice of the mother. I think that could be it.
My thoughts then wandered on..
What if you were walking along in a crowded place and suddenly you lost your wife (who was wearing an abaya)? Imagine all women in that area were wearing the same thing. You couldn't accost each woman and ask if she wasn't your wife. It would be a nightmare. (In the movie, Bhajrangi Bhaijaan, they copied this idea while searching for Salman and Nawazuddin, with Salman in an abaya) You might lodge a missing person complaint in a police station. But then the police would ask for a description of your wife. What would you tell them? "Well, uhm, hmm, aah, she was dressed in a black abaya". This is not a description that will help the police much.
Then I thought what would happen next. You would wait in your house for the missing wife to be returned by the police. Sooner or later the police would return with a woman in abaya and tell you sternly to be more careful in future. As you heave a sigh of relief and take the woman in your arms, I was trying to picturize the face of the husband at that moment..
Since most women would be wearing an abaya, the possibility of the woman returned by the police being your wife would be pretty low. And we all know that Muslim women are cute.
So the husband would
1. Be having a woman in his arms
2. Who is very likely cute
3. Who is very likely not his wife
4. And having a perfectly legitimate reason for being in that position
Oh wowowowow...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkini
A thought struck me then. How does a child recognize that the woman holding him was his mother. He couldn't see her, she was wearing that veil. I asked a couple of my friends about it. And they told me (in that knowing tone which women employ when the topic is kinda feminine) "Oh he can sense that it's his mother. He can smell her". Now that made me wonder.. Can children smell and recognize their mother? I was not sure I could digest this. That couldn't be possible. (Update on 2015 July 7th: Apparently it is true as per this article.)
Then I thought something must make the child comfortable with the woman whose face was not visible. What was that?
Perhaps such (Muslim) children think of their mothers as having two avatars. 1. The "normal" mother when she is home and her face is visible and 2. The mother when she is outside and her face is covered by a veil and not visible. Perhaps such children think they have two mothers.
Meaning if I wore an abaya and held the child softly, the child couldn't make out that I was not his mom and he would be comfortable with me. I am not comfortable with the smell theory. Anyone has better ideas? Recently my guruji came up with what seems to be the right answer; The child recognizes the voice of the mother. I think that could be it.
My thoughts then wandered on..
What if you were walking along in a crowded place and suddenly you lost your wife (who was wearing an abaya)? Imagine all women in that area were wearing the same thing. You couldn't accost each woman and ask if she wasn't your wife. It would be a nightmare. (In the movie, Bhajrangi Bhaijaan, they copied this idea while searching for Salman and Nawazuddin, with Salman in an abaya) You might lodge a missing person complaint in a police station. But then the police would ask for a description of your wife. What would you tell them? "Well, uhm, hmm, aah, she was dressed in a black abaya". This is not a description that will help the police much.
Then I thought what would happen next. You would wait in your house for the missing wife to be returned by the police. Sooner or later the police would return with a woman in abaya and tell you sternly to be more careful in future. As you heave a sigh of relief and take the woman in your arms, I was trying to picturize the face of the husband at that moment..
Since most women would be wearing an abaya, the possibility of the woman returned by the police being your wife would be pretty low. And we all know that Muslim women are cute.
So the husband would
1. Be having a woman in his arms
2. Who is very likely cute
3. Who is very likely not his wife
4. And having a perfectly legitimate reason for being in that position
Oh wowowowow...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burkini
