By Shaghayegh Hanson<\/b><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/peykmagazine.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/07\/Mask-wearing.jpg\")
\u201cWe are all niqabis now: Coronavirus masks reveal hypocrisy of face covering bans,\u201d is the title of an article written by Katherine Bullock, a lecturer in Islamic Politics at the University of Toronto. Noting the face-covering bans in Quebec and France, she asks whether, having become used to covering their own faces, people in the West will become less prejudiced against Muslim women who observe the niqab.<\/p>\n
Bullock states that, prior to the rise of western liberalism, sometimes European women covered their faces or hair, \u201cbut when they did so, it was not associated with something negative.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>When Muslim women do the same, whether under colonial rule in the past or in the West today, the practice is seen as \u201ctribal,\u201d \u201canti-women,\u201d a tool to hide one\u2019s identity, or a barrier to communication. When juxtaposed with the lack of such labels for medical or pandemic-related face covering, the prejudicial nature of western attitudes to the niqab becomes clear\u2014\u201cface politics,\u201d as Bullock refers to it.<\/p>\n Ironically, as Bullock states, \u201c[a]t the same time, we grow up learning our face is something to be manipulated,\u201d such as \u201c\u2019putting on one\u2019s face\u2019 with make-up,\u201d \u201c\u2019facing the world\u2019 through our education and personal grit,\u201d and \u201ccultivating \u2018poker face\u2019 to deceive people in cards or lying to parents and teachers.\u201d In learning to \u201ccompose\u201d our faces in certain circumstances, \u201c[t]he face is often a mask of our real selves.\u201d<\/p>\n Another article picks up on this thread: \u201cWhy some people like wearing masks,\u201d by Alice Robb, writing for the BBC online, discusses the reduction in \u201cemotional labor\u201d that some people have derived from mask wearing. From the introvert who no longer worries about bumping into friends and family while shopping (thereby avoiding awkward interactions) to restaurant servers and retail workers no longer feeling the pressure to \u201cfake-smile\u201d at customers, mask wearing is \u201cfreeing up valuable cognitive resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Quoting Ramani Durvasula, a clinical psychologist and psychology professor at California State University, Los Angeles, the article states, \u201cAnonymity carries power. . . . It can feel like trying on a different \u2018role\u2019 and the associated expectations of that role, perhaps freeing us of what can feel exhausting and insincere about smiling (especially when we aren\u2019t having a good day).\u201d<\/p>\n However, for people who enjoy mask wearing as a reprieve from stressful social situations, a better long-term solution lies in overcoming the anxiety, not avoiding it.<\/p>\n These articles are definitely worth reading. You will find the links below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INTERESTING TAKES ON MASK WEARING By Shaghayegh Hanson \u201cWe are all niqabis now: Coronavirus masks reveal hypocrisy of face covering bans,\u201d is the title of an article written by Katherine Bullock, a lecturer in Islamic Politics at the University of Toronto. Noting the face-covering bans in Quebec and France, she asks whether, having become used<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2450,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[56,73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","category-culture"],"yoast_head":"\n