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Burka Symbolizes Faith, Modesty and Protection
Thursday, October 24, 2002
By Debra McKinney
Scripps Howard News

The burka has meant different things at different times. In an earlier form, before it became associated with religion, women wore it for status, according to Jan Carolyn Hardy, who lived in Afghanistan for several years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early '70s.



"It was a symbol of a woman not having to work. She didn't have to have too much eyesight if she went outside because she really didn't need to. She had people who were tending to her. It was really considered quite an honor."



The burka blindsided me. At a recent fund-raiser to build schools for girls in Afghanistan, I found it on a table among other silent-auction donations and was stunned.

It was beautiful.

Auction organizer Nathaniel York caused a stir when he'd purchased it in a shop in Sheberghan in northern Afghanistan months ago. He heard women giggling from beneath their burkas, amused at his presence in a shop for women. Now the burka is on the other side of the world, being auctioned to the highest bidder. This winter, the money it raises will return to Sheberghan to help educate the village's girls.

Hydrangea-blue and covered in subtle, embroidered designs, the fabric's softness surprised me. But then there was that hollow, haunting place for the eyes. I wanted to try it on, to sense feeling sequestered in that shapeless fabric. But I didn't feel brave enough.
(More: The Corpus Christi Caller-Times News Source)
2002 © Scripps Howard News Service.

Dan