DUBAI (AlArabiya.net)

A 50-year-old Saudi woman asked for divorce after her husband lifted her face veil while she was sleeping, local press reported.

For 30 years, the wife said she never showed her face to her husband in conformity with the tradition of her native village near the south western Saudi city of Khamis Mushayt.

'After all these years, he tries to commit such a big mistake,' the wife told Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, after she left the house in total disbelief.

She said the husband apologized and promised never to do it again.

This is not the first case of husbands who have not seen their wives' faces in decades.

In the past Al Arabiya has reported the case of Ali al-Qahtani, whose wife had been wearing the face veil for the entire ten years of their marrage. When he tried to take it off, she threatened to leave and only decided to stay after he swore never to try again.

Hassan Al-Atibi threatened to marry another woman if his wife didn't show him her face. The woman nominated one of her friends who doesn't observe this tradition as a possible new wife for him, saying this would be better than her showing her face.

And neither the husband or children of Om Rabea al-Gahdaray, 70, have ever seen her face. Al-Gahdaray says it is a family tradition, also followed by mother and sisters, which her husband accepted and never tried to change.

When asked how she could have kids without her husband ever seeing her face, she replied: 'Marriage is about love, not faces.'

For privacy and a little sense of freedom, Saudi youths often go out to the desert. So when I wanted to talk to some young men, a friend suggested we drive outside of Riyadh. At the edge of the city, I sat with the friend and a female Egyptian journalist I was traveling with to talk to six Saudi men, ages 19 to 26. They all worked for the Saudi military.

The sun was setting as a shadow began to blanket the rolling sand dunes. Dry wood crackled on a bright orange fire, a blackened coffee pot sat by the glowing coals and sweet dates, sticky to the touch, were passed around. It was a beautiful, peaceful scene, soon to be interrupted.

“You’re reckless,'’ one of the young men said to me.

He said that it was dangerous to drive into the desert with a group of Saudi men we did not know well. He said we were lucky to have been invited by someone who was honest and trustworthy. Otherwise he said, we might have been attacked.

“The way a Saudi would think is ‘What is this girl doing here alone?’ If you are with a man, you better be his sister or his wife.”

That was Fahd’s explanation. He was 26 years old. He was seated on one side of the fire, the glow of the flames dancing across his face.

“Quiet, you are scaring them,'’ said the friend who took us to the desert.

Perhaps this was a bit of male bonding, of young guys showing off to the foreigners. But the tone was casual, the looks casual, the whole conversation amazingly casual. The Egyptian woman asked how he would treat us if we had not been introduced by our friend.

“What would you do if we were with someone else?'’ she asked.

“I would get rid of him and try something with you,'’ he replied. “Not rape, I would try to do something, to get you to do something.”

“And if I said no?” she asked.

“Then I would rape you.”

That was it. None of the other young men seemed surprised, or sounded an objection. Would he really do it? Probably not. And neither would the other young men there, the ones who quietly nodded. But no one said “just kidding.” What they said was that this was a serious possibility we needed to be aware of. They acknowledged that rape was against their religion, but as a sin, they put it in the same category as a woman working with a man in the desert trying to understand young Saudi men.

‘Ninety percent of Saudis would think it is not right,'’ Fahd said. “An Egyptian girl with an American man, or a girl alone, what is she doing here?”

News flash!! (So don´t ask for my opinion...   )

In the Netherlands it will be prohibited to wear a burka or niqaab at primary or secondary schools. That statement the Minister of Education, Ronald Plasterk, made yesterday. It means no pupil, student, teacher, cleaning woman, other staff member or mother is allowed to wear it while studying/working at school grounds or while bringing/picking up her kid. Reason? Communication is not possible with someone you can´t see the expressions of her face and communication is one of the most important things in education, according to the Minister. The rule will not be applied at highschools because students there are adults and they can choose what they want to wear nor they are influencing youngsters as they might do on primary or secondary schools.

Don´t ask for a news flash as the following is my personal comment

That sounds fair enough. As I understand hijab is allowed, only the two that cover the face, not hair only are banned? Pretty sensible - I´m sure schools wouldn´t allow anyone wearing balaclava so why should alike things be exempt.

The balaclava thing just reminded me that ´hoodies´ are banned in Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex (and probably in others as well) because they hide faces from security cameras - presumably making it easier to get away with shoplifting!

this should be marked in the calender as a national holiday when the government has done something reasonable!

Indeed, hijab and ghimaar are still allowed, only the ones that cover the face are prohibited from now on.

 Although no laws have been passed and never will in the UK (as we are so politically correct!), a classroom assistant was banned from wearing the Burka at school as it frightened the children.  If I remember correctly she was sacked for refusing, and then took it to the unions who fought her case.  I tried to find the story but couldn´t.

Another story with the Burka being used as a disgiuse for a potential suicide bomber escaping UK after the bomb blasts in London.

Freedom of choice, here is an article about the Burqa from the view point of a devout Muslim lady:

Burka Vs Bikini - The Debauchery Of American Womanhood On my wall, I have a picture of a Muslim woman shrouded in a burka. Beside it is a picture of an American beauty contestant, wearing nothing but a bikini. One woman is totally hidden from the public; the other is totally exposed. These two extremes say a great deal about the clash of so-called "civilizations." The role of woman is at the heart of any culture. Apart from stealing Arab oil, the impending war in the Middle East is about stripping Arabs of their religion and culture, exchanging the burka for a bikini. I am not an expert on the condition of Muslim women and I love feminine beauty too much to advocate the burka here. But I am defending some of the values that the burka represents for me. For me, the burka represents a woman´s consecration to her husband and family. Only they see her. It affirms the privacy, exclusivity and importance of the domestic sphere. The Muslim woman´s focus is her home, the "nest" where her children are born and reared. She is the "home" maker, the taproot that sustains the spiritual life of the family, nurturing and training her children, providing refuge and support to her husband. In contrast, the bikinied American beauty queen struts practically naked in front of millions on TV. A feminist, she belongs to herself. In practice, paradoxically, she is public property. She belongs to no one and everyone. She shops her body to the highest bidder. She is auctioning herself all of the time. In America, the cultural measure of a woman´s value is her sex appeal. (As this asset depreciates quickly, she is neurotically obsessed with appearance and plagued by weight problems.) As an adolescent, her role model is Britney Spears, a singer whose act approximates a strip tease. From Britney, she learns that she will be loved only if she gives sex. Thus, she learns to "hook up" rather than to demand patient courtship and true love. As a result, dozens of males know her before her husband does. She loses her innocence, which is a part of her charm. She becomes hardened and calculating. Unable to love, she is unfit to receive her husband´s seed. The feminine personality is founded on the emotional relationship between mother and baby. It is based on nurturing and self-sacrifice. Masculine nature is founded on the relationship between hunter and prey. It is based on aggression and reason. Feminism teaches woman that feminine nature has resulted in "oppression" and that she should convert to male behavior instead. The result: a confused and aggressive woman with a large chip on her shoulder, unfit to become a wife or mother. http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?t=8995

It should read: Burka vs Bikini -  which form of patriarchy do you prefer?

In an ideal world both should be an uninfluenced choice, but in the world that we live in today, they fit in the patriarchal structure and serve their clearly defined purpose there. It is naive and ignorant to oppose them to each other, as if one represented freedom and the other didn´t.