Niqab's modest opportunity.

• Author: Sydenham, Claire
• Position: WORLD WATCHER

LAST SEMESTER I went through a new experience in my teaching career: I taught a student whose face I could not see. She was from Saudi Arabia and wore a niqab--the part of her all-black outfit that covered her face from the bridge of her nose down. It was an English-as-a-second-language class, and Sara (let's call her) was there under the auspices of Saudi Arabia's scholarship program for international study. The program arose out of a 2005 meeting between Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah (now King) and Pres. George W. Bush to find ways to build understanding between the two cultures post-9/11.

The number of Saudi students in the U.S. has grown every year since the scholarship program began, and today some 70,000 Saudis are studying here. While initially only men took advantage of the program, now 20% of the students are women. The several Saudi women who came before Sara and ended up in my classroom had adopted an ordinary head scarf while on U.S. soil; Sara in her niqab is a trailblazer.

In 2010, France banned such face coverings amid much contention and, a year later, Belgium did as well. In 2013, the United Kingdom's Birmingham Metropolitan College banned face coverings for its students, but quickly backtracked. The Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in the U.S. did the same thing--banned, then backtracked.

With the number of women wearing a niqab likely to increase in the coming years and, with the experience of France in mind, it is time for the U.S. to get its thoughts in order regarding the niqab and burqa. With our long history of hammering out wide boundaries of personal liberty, the U.S. uniquely is qualified to set a standard for how these traditional, ultraconservative Muslim forms of dress can be integrated into a free, non-Muslim society. We have a modest opportunity to show the world how it is done.

To clarify, at issue is not any garment that covers the head, of which there are many styles, but one that covers the face, of which there are really only two: the niqab and burqa. In France, the ban was instituted on the basis that such clothing was oppressive to women. Opponents argued that denying women a right to wear an article of clothing was itself oppressive. We can reject France's rationale for the law almost out of hand, simply because it must be acknowledged that at least some women wear these garments out of personal choice, not family pressure--and our country is about nothing if not personal...