the veil

    Last year my family hosted a foreign exchange student from Russia.  She had an exchange student friend named Fay who was from Bahrain which is in the middle east.  Every time I saw Fay she would be wearing her veil.  It did not cover her face but did cover all of her hair and neck.  When my family first met her, my mom invited her over to go swimming which was when we found out that she couldn't take off her veil around boys.  It was more of a comfort issue for her. In her country, it is unacceptable to remove her veil for the same reasons that we talked about in class.  Women are seen as sexual objects and if men cannot see their hair or some parts of their bodies, then they have no reason to be harmed. She had probably been warned in her country that American men would look down on her just the same.  Since she was in the United States, it would have been acceptable for her to remove her veil.  No one from her family would've known and she wouldn't have been judged for it.  But, she stuck to what she believed in and even with all the stares and whispers, kept her veil on. Even though I'm a girl, I actually never saw Fay once without the veil.  What really stood out to me was that she was only sixteen (ironically, she is turning 17 today).  She was so young and still so supportive of the religion she grew up with- no matter if she understood it or not.  Because Fay could only remove her veil around women, it makes me think that young women are scared into wearing their veils.  They are probably told that men will rape or kill them if they are seen without the veils.  It's a scary thought and makes me relieved that as Americans we do not practice this type of religion.