Time Immortal

Engadget)

A great man (or was it Tim Gunn) once said that fashion had to be culturally relevant. To that end we bring you the CharmingBurka. The kit sends a “self-defined” picture of the woman beneath to every Bluetooth mobile phone in the vicinity. According to the project’s mastermind — Markus Kison — no laws of the Koran are broken.

Just to be clear, it is a device within the burka itself that sends out the image.

Look…the Reader who has been here before will probably understand that I am absolutely not a fan of the hijab, and even less a fan of the burka. I think these garments represent everything that is bigoted and misogynistic about Islam, and I think that they relegate women to the status of, at best, second-class citizens in cultures and countries where the wearing of the garment is, at least, strongly encouraged (if not mandatory). Even in nations where women ostensibly have the freedom to choose to wear such garments, I feel very uncomfortable with the concepts, because it would be all too easy for the men in the lives of these women to impose it upon them, regardless of the fact that they all live in…say…Canada.

So it should come as no surprise to the Reader that I’m actually rather intrigued, and more than a little happy, for a subversive little tool like this. I think that if a woman wants to be seen for the person that she is, rather than as a walking curtain, she has every right to do so. And this…is certainly an interesting step in that direction. While I doubt it will ever become widespread in its use — it just has “novelty item” written all over it — I think at least a few kudos are due for its designer.